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Environment and development in coastal regions and in small islands |
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Environment and development in coastal regions and in small islands |
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Regional Workshop for the Asia-Pacific University Twinning Network ‘Exploring Wise Practice Agreements’
1.
Introduction
1.1
Background
Among
the global initiatives addressing sustainable development in coastal areas is
the intersectoral platform for ‘Environment and
Development in Coastal Regions and Small Islands’ (CSI), established by
the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1996. This initiative seeks
to develop wise practices for environmentally sound, socially equitable,
culturally respectful and economically sustainable development. Through three
main modalities: field projects, university
chairs/twinning networks and a global
internet-based discussion forum on Wise Coastal Practices for Sustainable
Human Development (WiCoP), the CSI platform works towards mitigating and
managing conflicts over coastal resources and values and developing ethical
codes of practice for equitable resource sharing in small
islands and coastal regions.
The
three modalities interact so that wise practices can be:
Formulated, tested and implemented in a participatory and
collaborative manner at the local level through the field projects
Reviewed, analysed and incorporated into teaching programmes by the
university chairs/twinning networks at the local and regional level
Critiqued, amplified and transferred to other sites through the
WiCoP forum at the global level
While
it is recognized that each field project consists of activities with unique
characteristics, much more can be achieved through increased interaction and
linkage among the projects so as to provide a more comprehensive approach to
wise practices. Furthermore, there is much to be shared with and learnt from
other initiatives, and to this end a special effort is being made through the
WiCoP forum and other means to link up with complementary activities.
1.2 Asia-Pacific University Twinning Network
The
principal objective of the Asia-Pacific University Twinning (UNITWIN) Network
for Wise Coastal Practices for Sustainable Human Development is to promote an
integrated system of research, training, demonstration, information and
documentation of activities in the field of ‘Integrated Coastal Management and
Sustainable Development’ in the region.
The
network scope and agenda was
drafted in November 2000 by the University of the Philippines in consultation
with UNESCO
(CSI)
and four other universities:
University of Bhavnagar, Bhavnagar (India)
University of Chulalongkorn, Bangkok (Thailand)
University of Papua New Guinea,
Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea)
National University of Samoa, Apia (Samoa)
The
entire text of the agreement is to be found in Annex 1.
1.3
Wise practice (multi-stakeholder) agreements
The concept of a wise practice agreement has evolved through the advancement of field projects, interregional workshops and exchanges, and contributions and discussions on the WiCoP forum. A wise practice agreement was defined as a voluntary accord among multiple users of a tangible or intangible resource characterised by mutual recognition of rights to the resource. Preliminary discussions were conducted during a workshop on ‘Furthering Coastal Stewardship in Small Islands’ held in Dominica in the Caribbean in July 2001, (http://www.unesco.org/csi/pub/papers2/domr.htm). Here some general concepts for developing and implementing multi-stakeholder agreements so as to help resolve conflicts over the use of beach resources were discussed in the context of several specific situations in Dominica. During the preparation of the report on this workshop, the name ‘wise practice agreement’ was first proposed. However, since this is a new and fairly unfamiliar term, it is used synonymously in this present report with ‘multi-stakeholder agreements’. The concept was revisited and further advanced later that year in the context of continental coastal areas during a workshop held in Maputo, Mozambique, on ‘Wise practices for coastal conflict prevention and resolution’ (http://www.unesco.org/csi/pub/papers2/map.htm). During this workshop the ethical dimension of resource sharing was discussed in some detail. These workshops involved project leaders, stakeholders and policy makers, invited from the 18 CSI field project sites around the globe.
With the formal establishment of the Asia-Pacific UNITWIN network, the potential to utilise this network to further the conceptualisation and implementation of wise practice agreements in a comprehensive and integrated manner, was apparent. Thus a workshop was convened in Khuraburi, Phang-Nga Province, Thailand, from November 25-28, 2002. This workshop drew on the previous groundwork laid in Dominica and Maputo and provided a forum for the discussion of multi-stakeholder agreements in the Asia-Pacific region. In this way, the Khuraburi meeting served as a focus for a more detailed examination of the potential of such agreements.
In
following up the Khuraburi workshop, field projects in the Asia-Pacific region
will be selected to test the effectiveness of multi-stakeholder agreements for establishing
a process of dialogue between relevant stakeholders at the local level in order
to develop and implement solutions to the conflict at hand. Mechanisms for
maintaining this dialogue among stakeholders will be identified such that
similar conflicts do not recur. The resulting agreements and lessons learnt will
provide the basis for a set of practical tools for application to coastal
dispute situations elsewhere. The WiCoP
forum will serve as a virtual laboratory for sharing these experiences.
The
‘Regional Workshop for the Asia-Pacific UNITWIN Network - Exploring Wise
Practice Agreements’ brought together leaders, stakeholders and community
representatives from the CSI field projects and
representatives from the Asia-Pacific UNITWIN network. The specific objectives
of the workshop were to:
Discuss
whether a wise practice (multi-stakeholder) agreement could be applied to
the CSI projects in the Asia-Pacific region and examine the various tools
that may be used to develop and implement these agreements
Bring
together different stakeholders in the CSI projects in the Asia-Pacific
region
Advance
and interlink the field project and university chair/twinning network
activities
Provide
for formal and informal interaction among persons with different backgrounds
from different countries.
Khuraburi,
Thailand was selected as a venue for the meeting due to the presence of an
active field project in nearby Ko Surin
that could serve as a sounding board for the workshop discussions, and because
of the availability of the administrative and technical support provided by the
UNESCO Bangkok Regional Office.
1.5
Programme and organization
The
workshop programme is presented in Annex 2. Prior to
the workshop, participants were asked to prepare and submit short papers discussing how a multi-stakeholder agreement among stakeholder groups might help to manage conflicts over resources
and values at their particular CSI field project. Participants from each field project collaborated together
with other local project partners in the preparation of their papers.
The
following field projects were represented and their activities were discussed at
the workshop:
A place
for indigenous people in protected areas, Surin Islands, Andaman Sea,
Thailand
Education
for sustainable village living, Sä’anapu
and Sätaoa villages, Upolu
Island, Samoa
Sound
development in the Motu Koita urban villages, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
A
visit to the field project in Ko Surin
as well as the participation of local stakeholders over the duration of the
workshop provided participants with an opportunity to interact directly with the
Ko Surin field project and to further the conceptualisation of a
multi-stakeholder agreement at this site.
A
list of workshop participants is contained in Annex
3, they came from France, India, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea,
Philippines, Puerto Rico, Samoa and Thailand.
Each
project was represented by a university resource person and an on-the-ground
partner or stakeholder who was not attached to a higher education institution.
Thus it was possible to cover both the regional and local contexts in an
intersectoral and multi-disciplinary manner. Furthermore, the participation of
university resource persons was essential for the discussion of UNITWIN
networking development.
1.7
Organization of this report
The highlights of the presentations and papers,
and the key discussion items have been incorporated into four chapters in this
report as follows:
