Steps and tools towards integrated coastal area management : methodological guide, Volume II.

Abstract

It is a necessity, not a truism, to say that coastal areas are the places where demographic, economic and environmental pressures reach their maximum. The space is already subject to conflicts of use between different sectors such as fishing, fish-farming, industry, shipping, and recreation. In addition, all the impacts of global change will converge there: changes in sea level, climatic changes, etc. The sustainable development of these regions depends upon the way in which the use of the coastal areas is approached, not only by coastal communities but also Governments and international organizations. Hence the need to advice the inhabitants and managers of the coastal milieu, whoever they may be. This was the concern uppermost in our minds when we at the French National Committee for the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) decided to support the publication of Integrated Coastal Area Management (ICAM). The first volume published by the IOC described the general outline of ICAM. The second volume describes the ICAM process in greater detail, citing examples of the process in action from the experience of the contributors to the guide.