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and development in coastal regions and in small islands |
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and development in coastal regions and in small islands |
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work in progress 2
120. Seeking a way forward is never an easy task, and it is especially difficult when dealing with the wealth of knowledge and experience presented in the ‘Wise Coastal Practices for Sustainable Human Development Forum’ (username: csi; password: wise). Perhaps a comparison can be made with the phrase:
| ‘oceans of data, | |||
| seas of information, | |||
| rivers of knowledge, | |||
| drops of wisdom.’ | |||
In this case the ‘seas of information’ and ‘rivers of knowledge’ are contained in the Forum and our goal must be to channel these into ‘the drops of wisdom’ or ‘wise practices for sustainable coastal and small island living.’
121. The proposals included in this chapter should be viewed in the context of the planning diagram shown in Figure 1, which provides a framework for actions through to the year 2007.
122. While this present report focuses on the results and future of the Forum (username: csi; password: wise), the interaction of the three main modalities must be kept in mind. The simple graphic shown in Figure 3 illustrates this concept. The three modalities are the pilot and other related projects, the university chairs/twinning, and the Forum. These activities interact so that wise practices can be formulated, tested and applied on the ground at a local level; reviewed, analysed and incorporated into teaching programmes by the university chairs at local and regional levels; critiqued, amplified and transferred by the Forum at a global level. The three modalities are interactive and interdependent and a feedback mechanism provides for high quality, relevant wise practices which are directly relevant to decision making.
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Interactive modalities for wise practices
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123. At this point it might be useful to briefly retrace some of the steps taken in order to reach the present stage.
The CSI platform has initiated/co-sponsored and inherited (1996-1999) a number of very diverse pilot projects and university chair activities, that address problems at the local level. They cover most of the major coastal issues and viewed together they strongly advocate intersectoral and interdisciplinary approach to ICM.
During a workshop held in Paris in December 1998, and a subsequent electronic discussion group (January to March 1999), general criteria for wise coastal practices were proposed. These consist of 16 characteristics to define wise practices, which although developed in a generic format, were based on local field knowledge and experience.
Example wise practices, based on field experiences, were formulated and analysed in terms of the wise practice characteristics and posted on the Forum (username: csi; password: wise) for comment and discussion.
Among the results from the Forum (username: csi; password: wise) is a more thorough understanding of the nature of wise practices based on these 16 characteristics.
Since early 2000, the Forum (username: csi; password: wise), through a carefully moderated process, has been used to further explore ideas relating to wise coastal practices by an increasingly large group of participants.
124. ICM encompasses a wealth of topics, approaches, disciplines and geographic areas such that it is very difficult to develop a cohesive framework for achieving sustainable living in coastal regions and in small islands. It has been suggested (UNESCO, 2000) that wise practices may represent a common language or universal framework which might help to encompass this inherent diversity.
125. The process of formulating new innovative practices has been ongoing for some time. This present initiative builds on previous efforts, which have attempted to define ‘what should be done’ through ‘best practices’. Acknowledging the inequalities and diversity of the real world, the wise practices initiative attempts to provide guidance on ‘what can wisely be done with that which is available’ so as to achieve a ‘better than before state’. Thus the goal is to define the wisest possible action under sustainable criteria.
126. Figure 4 shows a simplified representation of some of the tensions and foci that exist within ICM. When considering these often divergent directions, we need to seek a ‘common ground.’
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4.3 Seeking a 'Common Ground' Between a Top-down/Bottom-up Approach
127. Coastal management has traditionally been top-down. In reaction to this, wise practices should not focus so completely on the bottom-up approach or the top-down approach exclusively. There is a need to seek a common ground, which will involve the general public and community levels with the senior administrators and politicians in the management process. It is recognised that this is very difficult to do in practice. Furthermore, in certain cases, e.g. in remote islands where there is no national or regional government presence, control is entirely up to the local community. While, in other situations only top-down management may be acceptable for political reasons. Thus while seeking a common ground on the continuum between top-down and bottom-up approaches, each situation has to be evaluated independently.
128. Many participants have taken advantage of the informality of the Forum (username: csi; password: wise), and have felt free to express their opinions in a frank manner. Thus ideas have emerged that might not have been voiced in other more formal settings, such as workshops and conferences, or in publications. As Schmid (229) wrote in May 2000:
‘This amounts to nothing less than a genuine bottom-up approach on a truly global scale …… and provides a platform for quick discussions and responses, creating a true network for the exchange of first-hand experience and know-how.’
129. Other participants have commented that the exchange of experiences regarding certain problems has been helpful, not only in leading to solutions, but in providing assurances that they are not alone. Thus the Forum (username: csi; password: wise) may be considered as a participatory activity at a global level.
130. Indeed, as was discussed in Chapter 2, one of the major themes emerging from the Forum (username: csi; password: wise) was that of empowering communities and the public to manage their own resources - including intellectual resources, traditions, societal organisation, natural and economic resources, in order to progress towards sustainable living.
131. In order to develop a ‘common ground’, there is a need to further involve active participants from all groups on the spectrum. As was pointed out early on in the Forum (username: csi; password: wise) discussion, in June 1999, by Voi (3):
‘… there is a need to involve all interested parties in this discussion on wise practices … investors, developers, politicians, communities etc. …… at the moment our discussion is somewhat one-sided.’
132. A preliminary survey of the affiliations of the authors of the Forum (username: csi; password: wise) contributions is shown in the following table and Figure 5.
| Academic institutions | 42% |
| International organisations | 22% |
| Government agencies | 13% |
| Consulting professionals | 8% |
| Regional organisations | 5% |
| Private sector | 5% |
| NGOs | 4% |
| Journalists | 1% |
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However, this breakdown represents less than 5% of the Forum participants and is not necessarily representative of the entire Forum. (The information is not available at present for a similar analysis of all 1,800 Forum participants).
133. Every effort is being made to involve all societal sectors in the Forum (username: csi; password: wise), but certain limitations exist. Government organisations often do not see the relevance of activities like the Forum and therefore do not make the time to participate. Similarly with the private sector, there is an inherent lack of understanding and sometimes a certain resentment towards academic and bureaucratic approaches to issues. While with the public and communities it must be recognised that in many countries the Forum is essentially for the elite - those with access to computers and phone lines and with knowledge of certain languages. Thus although direct and equal involvement of all societal sectors remains a long term goal, the immediate approach is to focus on whatever is realistic.
134. Where communities and stakeholders from the general public cannot be directly involved in the Forum (username: csi; password: wise) for the reasons mentioned in the foregoing paragraph, their input can be obtained through activities on the ground such as the pilot and similar projects, as well as through local and national workshops and meetings.
135. Increased participation of professional and trade organisations, and other fora and media organisations will widen the Forum’s reach to the public and private sectors, as will greater publicity about the Forum at international conferences and meetings.
136. Furthermore, the Forum (username: csi; password: wise) could provide linkages between regional and international organisations with similar objectives and thus reduce duplication of effort and lead to more complementary and cost effective approaches.
4.4 Seeking a ‘Common Ground’ Between Local and Global Levels
137. The CSI platform, through the interaction of the three modalities has moved from a local level to a global level and back again several times over in a time period of less than two years. Continued interaction between the different levels will be essential in order to formulate, test and transfer wise practices.
138. The Forum (username: csi; password: wise) has the potential to facilitate interaction between the local, regional and global levels. For instance, following the exposure provided by posting the example wise practice on ‘Private sector investment in marine conservation / Chumbe Island-Tanzania’ (185), the project representatives were invited to make presentations at a regional workshop and at an international conference.
139. Many actions at a local level are influenced by regional events, e.g. trade agreements, economic slowdowns. Thus besides moving between local and global levels, a focus at a regional level seems appropriate.
140. Indeed, the Forum (username: csi; password: wise) discussions have illustrated many differences between regions, e.g. the way in which NGOs are viewed. Following a contribution on the Indian Ocean islands (52), the role of NGOs was the subject of much debate. In some regions of the world, particularly Africa and Southeast Asia, it appears there are many unscrupulous and unethical environmental NGOs whose only goal is to make money for individual gain by whatever means. Whereas in some small islands in the Caribbean region and Indian Ocean, where governments may be weak and unstable, NGOs may provide more reliable institutions for the management of environment projects. Such diversity of opinion perhaps emphasises the need for further development of the Forum along regional lines.
141. The Forum (username: csi; password: wise) also has the potential to link and integrate individual pilot projects and related awareness and capacity-building activities, including dedicated university chairs, within regional frameworks, in contrast to the relative isolation in which many of them have been working prior to mid 2000. For the pilot projects/capacity-building activities, when viewed together, represent a far more comprehensive approach to ICM, than they do on an individual basis.
142. Ultimately implementation of wise coastal practices for sustainable human development will have to take place at the local level through the pilot and similar projects, as well as the related awareness and capacity-building activities, including university chairs/twinning. Nevertheless there is much to be learnt, especially through information exchange, at the global level. For example, a Forum (username: csi; password: wise) discussion of sand mining practices in the Caribbean and Pacific islands influenced a specific decision, such that administrators in a Pacific island decided that laws and regulations alone would not solve their sand mining problems, but that instead a more integrated approach was called for, which would include developing alternative sand supplies and economic incentives (88 and following discussion thread). Indeed, as a consequence of numerous shared characteristics and similarities, the potential exists at an inter-regional level to develop wise practices for small islands.
4.5 Seeking a 'Common Ground' Between Sectoral and Integrated Approaches
143. The goal of CSI is to reinforce intersectoral approaches. The Forum (username: csi; password: wise), as seen from the diversity of the contributions, covers all societal sectors. Several of the Forum contributions develop integrated management approaches. To take but two examples: an integrated approach involving industry, government, workers and communities is proposed for a coastal industrial area in India (85); and similarly, a management approach involving several different government agencies, university faculties and other institutions is developed in Uruguay (66).
144. The Forum (username: csi; password: wise) has the potential to further develop such integrated approaches, for instance experts from different disciplines (planning, science and landscape architecture) have proposed similar solutions to coastal erosion through the Forum (239). The key now is for these groups to combine their efforts to convince key stakeholders such as landowners, developers and politicians of the merits of the proposed approach. Such actions will have to be implemented at the local level through the pilot and similar projects and the university chairs, although with the Forum continuing to play a role by evaluating and transferring the results of such activities.
4.6 The Forum as a Means to Re-focus the Pilot Project/University Chair Activities
145. Reference to Figure 1 shows that one of the goals of the Forum (username: csi; password: wise) is to use the findings to evaluate, re-focus and advance the activities of the pilot projects and related awareness and capacity-building activities, including university chairs, as well as to positively influence activities elsewhere.
146. The purpose of evaluation is not to ‘rate’ a particular project or university chair, but rather to advance the particular activity to fully achieve its goals within the intersectoral and interdisciplinary context of the CSI platform.
147. Standardised evaluation procedures and formats need to be developed, although these should retain the flexibility to accommodate the variety of situations encountered.
148. Several of the contributions to the Forum (username: csi; password: wise) have suggested that the wise practice characteristics could be used to evaluate and possibly re-focus the pilot project and related awareness and capacity-building activities, including university chairs, e.g. Kiai (42) says:
‘The exercise is useful in that it forces one to really delve into the intrinsics of the project and to think about impact, participation and so on, making it a valuable tool for monitoring and self-evaluation, as the weaknesses and strengths become clear.’
149. In developing these suggestions a stage further, it may be possible to avoid the pitfalls of self-evaluation by developing a core group of external evaluators from the leaders of the pilot and similar projects, and the university chair holders. These external evaluators would also bring the benefit of their outside experience to the particular activity.
150. The wise practice characteristics which include goal, method and value criteria, could form the core of the evaluation procedures, together with other key factors such as interdisciplinary and intersectoral criteria; documenting what was supposed to happen and what did happen; determining ways to improve what went wrong and ways to enhance what went right. The evaluation would also serve to record the progress of a particular project.
151. To facilitate the evaluation process, summaries for each project/university chair activity will be developed based on a standardised format. Such summaries already exist for some of the pilot projects. CSI would play a key role in assigning the core group of evaluators, matching similarities and filling in gaps. Evaluation must be a cooperative process between the evaluators and the project leader/chair holder. The two parties would then work with CSI to re-focus the activities such that the projects become on-the-ground examples of wise practices for sustainable coastal and small island living.
152. The pilot and similar projects and the related awareness and capacity-building university chair activities are very important in their own right at the local level, but when viewed collectively they may well provide a scenario where the sum of the parts adds up to more than the whole. In other words, when viewed together, many lessons for ICM, hitherto unknown or hidden, may emerge and the Forum (username: csi; password: wise) has a vital role to play in this process.
153. The Forum (username: csi; password: wise) started in a very focused manner, asking participants for example wise practices in a standardised analytical format. For the past ten months, since January 2000, the Forum has moved into a broader discussion phase, which has been very informative and has produced some useful discussion threads, which highlight both the differences and similarities between regions.
154. To date the Forum (username: csi; password: wise) has provided a clear picture of the characteristics of wise coastal practices. Now it is necessary to re-focus the Forum and to clearly define its role in the development of wise coastal practices. In this light we need to consider the geographical scope and the content of the Forum.
155. Of the 30 Forum (username: csi; password: wise) participants contributing to this report, the overall consensus is to continue the global Forum and to allow it to evolve.
156. Following site meetings in the Philippines and India (July 2000), and complementary to the global Forum (username: csi; password: wise), regional fora will be developed. These will have the advantage of using local languages, obtaining more participants without losing focus, concentrating on specific themes, and incorporating other activities such as face-to-face discussions and workshops. Important issues arising in the regional fora may be fed back into the global Forum for exposure to a wider audience. It is proposed to test these ideas with regional fora in Gujurat, India and Palawan in the Philippines, starting in late 2000/early 2001.
157. Complementary to the regional fora, a small islands forum has been proposed by several of the Forum (username: csi; password: wise) participants contributing to this report.
158. The need to refocus the Forum (username: csi; password: wise) debate towards assisting in the testing of wise practices and developing an international code of practice has also been suggested.
159. Proposals have been put forward by the participants contributing to this report to focus debate on all or some of the following topics:
conflict resolution;
governance and institutional issues e.g. economics and finance;
use of modern technology in management;
integrated approaches, successful and unsuccessful case studies;
priority issues where there is a high likelihood of success.
160. The transferability and consequent applicability of any wise practice should be subject to considerable thought, analysis, prudence and evaluation, given the multiplicity of factors and processes involved. The Forum (username: csi; password: wise) could become the crossroads for a collective effort towards determining the feasibility of transfer and exchange of the wise practices and the wisdom therein, benefiting from the similarities and learning from the differences.
161. This chapter has discussed several different options for a way forward for the Forum (username: csi; password: wise). With the limited resources available, it will be impossible to follow all these directions simultaneously. Thus there is a need to prioritise and plan appropriate and worthwhile actions for the next seven year period (2001-2007). To ensure multiple and long-term benefit to all involved and concerned, Forum recipients are urged to play an active role in this process of prioritisation by commenting, discussing and critiquing this document and the present chapter in particular.
Commonwealth Secretariat, World Bank, 2000. Small States: Meeting Challenges in the Global Economy. Report of the Commonwealth Secretariat/World Bank Joint Task Force on Small States. 127 pages.
Constitution of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Adopted 1945, amended numerous times since then. 10 pages.
Interim Report of the Task Force on UNESCO in the Twenty-first Century. May, 2000. 159 Ex/39. 46 pages.
Wise Coastal Practices for Sustainable Human Development: results of an intersectoral workshop and preliminary findings of a follow-up virtual forum, UNESCO 2000. CSI info 10. 126 pages.
Wise Coastal Practices for Sustainable Human Development, Work in Progress 1. January 2000.
