Coastal management cooperation, enforcement key to avoid pending crisis for millions: ...(e degraded coastal environments than wea...)

A transparent and holistic approach to coastal management may also improve acceptance of truly difficult decisions, such as the need to reduce the catch of wild fish, the authors say.

There is no question that the great majority of coastal environments are overfished at present. Reducing that catch can only be achieved when local communities recognize the greater overall value of a sustainably managed coastal ocean, and when the plan put forward also addresses the employment and other societal needs of the population.

Reducing catches requires integration across jurisdictions, an integrated view of fisheries management, and close, effective interaction between managers and local populations.

The international community can help build greater success by:

• encouraging and publicizing up-to-date, comprehensive economic valuation of coastal environments at national, regional and local scales,

• fostering truly integrated coastal zone management, and

• rigorously holding national and local governments accountable for their management failures.

Many government agencies, meanwhile, need major structural and procedural changes, including realigning responsibilities to ensure effective collaboration across departmental, developing and using valuation tools to inform short-term and long-term economic / environmental tradeoffs, and fostering an internal scientific culture. And capacity building efforts need to include appropriate jobs for people eventually trained.

Science and management communities must be strengthened to give decision-makers logical options in the face of high uncertainty.

Eliminating inappropriate economic subsidies for enterprises and enforcing penalties for regulation violators are also prescribed by the
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