A platform for action for the sustainable management of mangroves in the Gulf of Fonseca

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Action 4: Strengthen Institutions and Define Appropriate Rules and Regulations

The existing regulatory and institutional framework is weak, fragmented, and obsolete, and inhibits the design and implementation of sustainable mangrove management practices that respond to the development needs of coastal populations. The opportunity exists to modify government institutions by strengthening local participation in processes to define appropriate management policies, refine the existing legislation, and regulate and enforce effective mangrove management.

The mangroves are protected under forestry legislation and international treaties signed by all Central American nations. The General Directorate of Renewable Resources (DGRNR) of El Salvador, the Honduran Ministry of Forestry Development (COHDEFOR), and the Honduran Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment (SERNA) have the ability to authorize, control, and regulate access to and the use of forest products and services. It is clear that poorly defined property rights and the lack of an institutional framework that harmonizes the competing interests of diverse stakeholders exacerbates pressures on the remaining mangrove stands, and contributes to the degradation of the ecosystem in El Salvador and Honduras. Opportunities exist in El Salvador and Honduras to redefine property rights and to harmonize competing interests to secure the sustainable management of the ecosystem and preserve livelihoods and habitats. It is vital that efforts are undertaken to strengthen those administrative bodies that oversee the management of the mangroves in both of these countries, and to provide financial support for extension and technology transfer.

The current environmental laws and regulatory bodies in both countries potentially provide a normative framework for multiple stakeholders to participate actively and democratically in the design and implementation of strategies to reduce environmental degradation. However, further support should be given to the Ministries of Environment and Agriculture in Honduras and El Salvador to ensure that these laws and regulations can be successfully implemented and the appropriate local and national institutions strengthened to support sustainable and decentralized mangrove management. [15]

The implementation of structural adjustment measures have placed considerable pressure on public sector budgets and restricted the ability of governments to deliver services, monitor infractions, and enforce legislation. Increasingly, there is a dissonance between the laws and policies that are on the books and the institutional capacity to enforce these laws or uphold these policies. It is clear in examining those rules and regulations governing the use and transformation of environmental goods and services that there is a real need for participation and partnership between different government agencies, the private sector, and civil society actors to redefine practices and establish effective, democratic, and transparent institutions that can administer and regulate sustainable management practices (Benítez and Machado 2000).

Opportunity exists in Honduras to draw on existing legislation and modify institutional arrangements to implement sustainable management. According to the Honduran Environment Law, municipalities, community groups, and non-governmental organizations should be drawn actively into forestry management in collaboration with COHDEFOR. This law emphasizes that forestry resources should be managed to ensure effective biodiversity protection and enforce sustainable extraction, taking into account the multiple use of natural resources in terms of their economic, ecological, and social values to a variety of stakeholders. The law states that the exploitation of marine and coastal resources should be guided by technical parameters that determine the rational and sustainable use of these resources. To fulfill these requirements, the Ministry of Natural Resources will establish closed seasons for fishing, put restrictions on the collection of certain species, and define criteria for target population stocks and growth rates for a variety of endangered marine and coastal ecosystem species (Vega et al. 1994).

In El Salvador, passage of the recent Environment Law has led to conflicting mandates and resulted in the revision of legislation in such a way that it fails to address the current pressures on the mangrove ecosystem. The Forestry and Fauna Service, a division under the DGRNR and a sub-directorate of the Ministry of Agriculture, has held the mandate to administer mangrove forests in accordance with the terms laid down in the Forestry Law since 1973. The Forestry Service performs its work under precarious conditions, having experienced a significant reduction in funds available for investment and operations, a factor that has undermined its ability to review, uphold, and enforce the law. The advent of the new Environment Law in 1998 passes the normative and regulatory responsibility for protected areas to the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (MARN). However, the division of responsibilities and separation of normative roles of each of these institutions is still not clearly defined. In the case of the mangroves, this new Environment Law requires that MARN implement agreements with the municipalities and other competent local authorities to establish parameters for the protection of natural resources in the coastal marine zone, developing an integrated management regime. The planning process and its execution, as it is defined in the Environment Law, requires the participation of all institutional actors and other interested sectors.

In El Salvador, the mangroves are defined in the current law as "ecological reserves in which no alteration will be allowed,"^[16] because they are considered to be highly fragile and vulnerable ecosystems. Unfortunately, the concept of an "ecological reserve" is not adequately defined in the law and no guidelines have been set for how such a reserve can be managed. Furthermore, the rigidity of a mandate that does not permit "any alteration" is inconsistent with the national and local reality, where coastal populations depend on environmental goods and services for their livelihoods. Such a mandate is impractical, as its application will only result in the criminalization of activities and practices that are unlikely to change in the absence of measures to relieve environmental dependence and channel resources to these coastal populations, or to modify and regulate upstream activities that undermine the health of the mangrove ecosystem.

Further revision of the legislation and the regulatory framework will be required in El Salvador and Honduras to produce a workable definition of sustainable mangrove management that incorporates the competing uses and pressures to which the mangrove ecosystem is subject. Resources will also need to be dedicated to strengthening local institutions to ensure their full and active participation in this process.

The revision of the legislative and regulatory framework should not only focus on governmental structures and functions, emphasis also needs to be placed on the participation of local and community institutions. At the local level, community and municipal organizations lack the capacity to balance the twin goals of community development and environmental management. Enhancing local management capacity is critical for the promotion of more decentralized sustainable management practices.^[17]

Next Steps

» Review existing property and access rights. One of the primary tasks of the multi-sectoral commissions is to review the allocation and current distribution of de facto and de jure property rights and concessions to the mangroves in each country. This review should take account of the economic, social, and cultural value of the ecosystem to the stakeholders and recognize the array of de facto, de jure, and customary use rights currently exercised by all stakeholders.^[18] The gender of resource users should be taken into account and the full profile of resource use in the mangroves should be explored. The final decision about the assignation of property, access, and use rights to the mangroves should be consistent with the definition of sustainable management to be determined by the sustainability commissions. Where trade-offs occur between different activities, decisions will have to be taken about which activity will be prioritized. These decisions should be informed by the Cost Benefit Analyses required by the sustainability commissions. Concrete actions that need to be undertaken in both El Salvador and Honduras are:

• Determine the appropriate property rights regime for biological and genetic resources in addition to establishing the nature of ownership and access to mangrove, wetlands and fisheries resources that recognize customary rights to use of natural resources at the local level;
  
  
• Define rules and procedures for access to natural resources in accordance with the national environmental laws; and
  
  
• Establish the normative and administrative procedures for community participation.

» Undertake an institutional capacity audit. The existing institutions in each country have been unable to monitor and enforce agreements about mangrove management. The multisectoral commissions should review the existing institutions and make recommendations about how these may be decentralized to ensure the effective monitoring and enforcement of sustainable management plans. The commissions should explicitly consider the gender of resource users and the ability of existing institutions to represent the needs and concerns of women in the communities and as resource-users.

» Develop and implement national policies and strategies on biodiversity and on the sustainable use of coastal marine resources. Currently there are no national policies that link biodiversity to habitats. What national legislation exists focuses almost exclusively on habitats without establishing parameters for the preservation or conservation of species or recognizing the interdependence of species.

There is a real need for policies and strategies to be defined to regulate the use and transformation of natural resources in the following areas:

• Biodiversity management
  
  
• Integrated coastal zone management^[19]
  
  
• Fisheries and aquaculture
  
  
• Conservation of protected coastal areas

» Create and/ or strengthen the institutional base for mangrove management at the national and local levels. The participation of communities, local governments, and non-governmental and community organizations should be the cornerstone of all strategies to promote equitable and sustainable development. There is an urgent need to strengthen local and national institutional capacities, and promote the active participation of women in the design and application of community resource management plans in order to ensure their equitable access to and control over these resources. This can be achieved by granting communal use concessions, based on sound ecological principles, that demonstrate a commitment to gender equality among beneficiaries and in the profile of access to environmental resources.

The sustainable community management of natural resources requires resources, training, and organizational inputs. Trainers will need to be identified to facilitate broader community fora that explore social and gender equity concerns about access to and control over the resources in rural and fishing communities. Resources should be allocated to:

• Support participatory processes to prepare and adopt community strategies for the sustainable use of natural resources in the coastal reaches of the Gulf of Fonseca;
  
  
• Strengthen initiatives to integrate and coordinate local actions through the Association of Mayors of the Gulf of Fonseca, an initiative established under the PROGOLFO project; and
  
  
• Identify, systematize, and share the initiatives on local and communal resource management, which are being undertaken in the region.

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[15] The increased role of municipal governments in environmental management provides evidence how this process has evolved in Honduras, particularly in the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch. Since 1998, municipalities have participated actively in land rehabilitation efforts, as donor agencies and national governments recognized their potential in mobilizing local resources and services (www. hurricane. info. usaid. gov/ stockmun. htm). Additionally, the Honduran Environmental Development Program (PRODESAMH) is supporting a project on environmental management at the municipal level. Thus far, the program has conducted 35 pilot projects in various municipalities throughout the country. The Pan-American Health Organization is also helping organize the municipalities' environmental units to enhance local capacity. In El Salvador, the Municipalities in Action Program supported by USAID has strengthened local capacity for environmental management in various coastal municipalities, including Puerto de la Union.

[16] Ley de Ambiente, Artículo 74. Decreto No. 233, Diario Oficial Tomo 339, No. 79, del 4 de mayo de 1998.San Salvador.

[17] An example of the important role that municipal governments can play is provided by the Verification and Control Commission in Honduras that has been operating through CODDEFFAGOLF since 1993. The Commission is made up of elected officials from the Municipalities of Valle and Choluteca, national police and local staff from the fishing directorate in the Ministry of Agriculture. The Commission reviews all new concessions and undertakes spot-checks on existing aquaculture activities to ensure that they are in compliance with the laws concerning effluent discharge, the purchase of larvae and the collection of wild larvae. Where infractions are observed and documented, they are reported to those national bodies responsible for enforcing the existing environmental legislation.

[18] De facto rights are those that are exercised without necessarily being enshrined or protected by legal statutes. De jure rights are legally recognized rights that have been ratified by legal bodies. Customary rights are similar to de facto rights, but these derive from cultural norms and dictates that communities have upheld for generations. Customary rights are sanctioned in community lore and are governed by strong codes of conduct.

[19]. Refer to Post and Lundin 1996.

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