Integrated Coastal Management (ICM) is increasingly being recognised as an effective method for managing and protecting the marine and coastal environments and associated freshwater catchments. It merits wider application, both for resolving existing problems and for dealing effectively with new ones.

ICM incorporates and promotes the following actions:

• Promoting coordinated, cross-sectoral and holistic approaches to the management of environmental resources and amenities, taking full account of environmental, public health, economic, social and political considerations;
• Conducting environmental impact assessments, risk management, and cost-benefit analyses in all decision making processes, and incorporating the value of ecosystem services wherever possible;
• Seeking the active involvement and participation of all major stakeholders (local authorities, private sector and interested public) in the design and implementation of ICM;
• Conducting regular reviews of management systems and their implementation, and adjusting priorities, targets and methods where necessary; and
• Strengthening institutional capacities through training and retraining programmes.

If existing global and regional environmental agreements had been implemented as intended, coastal areas would not be in their current precarious state. In many countries, legislative frameworks to achieve national goals and implement multilateral agreements are weak and inadequately enforced.

To address this situation, ICM recommends the following actions:

• Governments should adapt national legal instruments to conform to the provisions of internationally endorsed agreements;
• National and international attention should focus on compliance with existing international agreements rather than the development of new ones, unless they have compelling justification;
• Governments must adopt a consistent and coordinated approach in dealing with different international organisations and agreements;
• International bodies responsible for the implementation of global environmental agreements should improve the coordination of their secretariats and governing bodies to this end; and
• Further attention should be devoted at the regional level to harmonising national approaches and measures, and to cost-effective collaboration; the full potential of voluntary commitments and targets should be explored, including with the private sector; and further legally binding instruments should be developed.

The need for globally integrated freshwater, coastal and marine assessments facilitated the development of the Global International Waters Assessment (GIWA) together with a request from the UNEP Governing Council to conduct a feasibility study for the establishment of a regular process for assessing the state of the marine environment.

Source: GESAMP 2001a; UNEP, 2002