At the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the nations of the world discussed marine and coastal issues that were considered as being of major importance to the planet. Chapter 17 of "Agenda 21" (the conference's global action plan) was entirely devoted to coastaland marine management.
A major commitment was made for nations to implement Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM). ICZM attempts to integrate planning and management in a region (eg. the State of Victoria) across the land / sea interface and the private / public land interface, to treat the coastal zone as one biophysical entity. In practice this involves:
- Horizontal integration
or the integration of planning and management by the coordination of
activities of the various government agencies and non-government organisations
in the coastal zone.
- Vertical integration of the various tiers of government action or the integration of the coastal and marine activities of the Commonwealth, State and local governments, including a commitment to community consultation at all tiers.
State governments have agreed to implement ICZM, which is now the accepted
approach to managing areas such as the Victorian coast. The Victorian
Coastal Strategy is based on these ICZM principles.
The Victorian Government
is committed to the protection of our marine and coastal ecosystems and
to building the principles of ecologically sustainable development into
decision making processes across government.
The sustainable management of Victoria's marine and coastal environments
requires recognition of the interaction between management activities
on the land and in the sea, as well as along the whole length of the coast.
This involves consideration of ecological, social and economic values and the impacts of uses on those values; the coordination of sectoral (eg. fishing, petroleum and mineral exploration, tourism, marine conservation, recreation, shipping, cultural uses, research) management activities within and between spheres and levels of government; and the involvement of community, stakeholder and industry groups in management decisions and implementation.
Historically, the management of oceans and coastal areas has been based on 'sectoral' planning, which is typically characterised by institutions executing their roles and responsibilities in isolation of each other and making decisions without consideration of other existing or potential uses. The process of integrated coastal and marine management is designed to overcome these deficiencies.
Ecologically sustainable use and development of Victoria's coastal and marine areas will require recognition, acceptance, and a shared understanding of this common goal.
While this Strategy seeks to provide leadership and ensure coordination of action across the State, implementation will be achieved through the responsibilities of agencies and groups, guided to a large extent by existing statutory mechanisms. Whilst there are reasonably well developed coordination arrangements for terrestrial issues, consideration needs to be given to future governance arrangements for marine areas. Effective mechanisms must exist to coordinate decisions that have cross sectoral impacts, and importantly to ensure, in the long term, that coordination and planning arrangements are in fact working.
