Conclusion
People are drawn to the sea. The number of individuals who live, work, and play along the coasts is larger than ever before and continuing to grow. Each day, this burgeoning population uses the coasts in a multitude of ways—for waste disposal, shipping, r
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People are drawn to the sea. The number of individuals who live, work, and play along the coasts is larger than ever before and continuing to grow. Each day, this burgeoning population uses the coasts in a multitude of ways—for waste disposal, shipping, recreation, fishing, energy, housing, and many other aspects of life. Although these various activities may appear unrelated, they are connected through the flows of water, migration of organisms, dispersal of pollutants, human livelihoods, and community needs. Governance, government complemented by nongovernmental means of shaping behavior, has and will continue to change for coastal lands and waters in response to changing values within society. Enhanced understanding of social and natural systems often creates new expectations for human activities. When new values shape a new common interest, new laws follow. The aggregate results of this process, as described in earlier chapters and summarized in figure 11.1, have been changes in approach to management. Sector-based management followed by spatial and more recently by ecosystem-based management exemplify the changes. These management frameworks, although distinctive, are not exclusive. Rather, coastal lands and waters are subject to the simultaneous application of all three approaches. Before summarizing what the book has covered related to each management framework, it is useful to define the ends and means of coastal governance.
R. Burroughs, Coastal Governance, Foundations of Contemporary Environmental Studies, DOI 10.5822/978-1-61091-016-3_11, © Richard Burroughs 2011
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Figure 11.1. Coastal governance ends and means. Coastal governance has evolved as the society’s ends have shifted. New means to implement change have been utilized, including those beyond direct governmental control. As a result, sectorbased management has been augmented by spatial approaches and more recently by ecosystem-based management.
Ends and means Evolution of coastal governance has resulted in the management frameworks described earlier in this book and schematically illustrated in figure 11.1. Each framework—sector, spatial, ecosystem—uses a mix of means to achieve a desired end. As pressures on resources increase and societal values shift, the end, or objective, changes. Consequently, new means—that is, policy instruments or tools—are needed. These simultaneous changes
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in ends and means are at the core of coastal governance and its change over time. The policy process establishes new programs in response to ends and creates means to reach them. Until approximately the 1970s, it was acceptable to pave over marshes and dump wastes into estuaries. However, as it became clear that these activities were damaging fisheries, recreation, and natural processes, the national agenda shifted. A new public commitment to preserving natural systems and the services they deliver (the end) resulted in new policies (the means) to shape human behavior. This process has been repeated in the evolution
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