Overcoming the challenges of integrated coastal management in Xiamen: Capacity, sustainable financing and political will

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2018.05.015Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Capacity building, sustainable financing and political will are vital for ICM.

  • Xiamen places emphasis on capacity building.

  • Xiamen has administered an exemplary sustainable financing mechanism.

  • Xiamen witness increasing political will for ICM.

Abstract

Capacity, financing and political will are three indispensable driving forces of sustainable development programmes. Xiamen initiated an Integrated Coastal Management (ICM) programme in 1993 and has built a successful ICM model known as the ‘Xiamen Model’ which has served as the operational modality for application in other coastal areas in China. In this paper, the authors illustrate Xiamen's experiences in overcoming the challenges of building capacity, developing sustainable financing mechanism and political will. With regard to capacity building, investments in on-the-job training and management skills development, as well as developing the capacity for monitoring and law enforcement are essentials. In the case of sustainable financing, optimal use of an appropriate financing mechanism in terms of government financial allocation, fees for sea area usage and marine ecological damage compensation and socially raised capital is critical. Further, by strengthening governance through the enactment of appropriate laws and policies, increased stakeholders participation and public consultation, can change the incentives of political interests and hence increase political will and commitment to implement Xiamen's integrated coastal management programme. Possibilities for further improvement of the ‘Xiamen model’ are also discussed.

Introduction

Confronted with increasing economic development pressures, sustainable development of coastal and marine areas has become a major concern as reflected in the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro (UN, 1993; Cicin-Sain et al., 1995). In response, many approaches including Integrated Coastal Management (ICM) (Cicin-Sain et al., 1995; Chua et al., 1997), Ecosystem-based Management (EBM) (Marisa et al., 2010), Regional Ocean Governance (ROG) (Hoagland and Solow, 2004) and Integrating Watershed and Coastal Area Management (IWCAM) (Singh and Mee, 2008), among others, have been introduced and implemented around the world. In light of the long practice, it is no doubt that these approaches are effective in addressing specific objectives or agendas and have contributed to the operational methodology in achieving sustainable development goals. There are considerable challenges in achieving sustainable development, among which, capacity, financing and political will have been identified (Harvey et al., 2001; Christie, 2005; Peng et al., 2009; Aswani et al., 2012; Datta et al., 2012).

Xiamen is a seaport city (Fig. 1). With rapid economic development and expanding use of coastal resources, Xiamen's coastal zone is under increasing pressure (Chua et al., 1997; Xue et al., 2004). Excessive reclamation activities and seawall construction have produced direct impacts on geomorphology and reductions in water surface area; increasing amounts of discharged wastes has led to the deterioration of water and sediment quality; and overexploitation and environmental pollution has drived down biological diversity, and so forth (PEMSEA, 1998; Xue et al., 2004; Hong and Xue, 2006; Qiu, 2018). In addition to these environmental issues, Xiamen has also encountered multiple sea use conflicts, e.g., the conflict between cage culture and shipping (Fang, 2018), and other numerous problems in sustainable management of its coastal areas, including the lack of a holistic coastal management plan, imperfect legislative system, weak management capability, financial constraints and weak political will vis-à-vis environmental protection, among others (PEMSEA, 1998).

Under the auspices of the GEF-UNDP-IMO Regional Programme, Xiamen was selected by the Chinese government to be an ICM demonstration site in 1993 (Chua et al., 1997; Hong and Xue, 2006), focusing on the application of an integrated coastal management system (ICM) to address marine pollution problems arising from economic development (Chua et al., 1997). ICM is a natural resource and environmental management system that employs an integrative, holistic approach and an interactive planning process in addressing complex management issues in coastal areas (PEMESA, 2011). ICM involves five forms of ‘integration’: intersectoral integration, intergovernmental integration, spatial integration, science-management integration and international integration (Cicin-Sain and Knecht, 1998). It aims at addressing major sustainable development challenges: water use and supply management, food security and livelihood management, pollution reduction and waste management, natural and man-made hazard prevention and management, habitat protection restoration and management (PEMESA, 2011; Chua, 2013). It aims to do this by protecting the functional integrity of these natural resource systems while allowing economic development to proceed (PEMESA, 2011).

Xiamen Municipal Government was able to implement a series of counter measures to address several of the above issues and these decisive actions ensured a successful implementation and development of the ICM programme since its inception. (Hong and Xue, 2006). Over the years, the operational methodology has been improved and Xiamen ICM was recognized as a successful ICM model, commonly known as the ‘Xiamen Model’ (Hong and Xue, 2006). Unlike other ICM sites, which have adopted somewhat different approaches: for example, Mindanao and Luzon in Philippines (Rivera and Newkirk, 1997) and South Australia (Harvey et al., 2001) all have successfully implemented community-based coastal management; Munakata in Japan has gradually transformed from a total top-down to a dual-directional approach (both top-down and bottom-up) (Liu et al., 2012; Kojima et al., 2013); Calabria in Italy has given priority to conservation and taken the Marine Regional Park as an ideal pattern (Cantasano and Pellicone, 2014); KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa has developed a place-based ICM implementation model for its sector-based governance system (Taljaard et al., 2013; Goble et al., 2017); etc., the Xiamen Model can be characterized as problem-oriented, legislation-first, local government-led and science-management integrated (Hong and Xue, 2006).

While the success of the Xiamen ICM programme may be attributed to various factors, in this paper we focus on sharing experience in capacity-building, sustainable financing and political will. This paper first present the methodology of this paper. Then, we analyse Xiamen's experiences in building capacity for management and technical skills and establishing the sustainable financing mechanism, and followed by analysing reasons for the positive changes in political will that have been observed (section 3). General discussion and conclusion are given in the last two sections.

Section snippets

Methodology

In examining Xiamen's approach to ICM, this paper uses a methodological framework based on the conception of ‘ICM system’, which was proposed and constructed by PEMSEA (Chua, 2013). The ICM system (Fig. 2) refers to the operational modality of ICM which sustains itself in continuous cycles (Chua, 2013). In most cases, the system consists of four components: a governance framework for addressing the management complexities of the coastal areas; coherent action programs to address major

Capacity building

Acknowledgement of the need to build in-country capacity for integrated management has been strongly emphasized in Chapter 17 of Agenda 21, adopted at the UNCED in 1992 (UN, 1993; Cicin-Sain et al., 1995). Capacity building underscores abilities from inception and implementation to monitoring and evaluation and, in particular, equipping local personnel and managers with essential technical and management skills to plan and manage coastal areas and resources (Chua, 2006). The successes of many

Discussion

This paper used a methodological framework based on the conception of the ICM system, in which the refining and consolidation phase occur at the end of each cycle (Chua, 2013).

As introduced in this paper, Xiamen's experiences of ICM could provide a reference for other coastal management initiatives in China. Since these trials have been proved useful in Xiamen's practice, the planning and management experiences and good practices should be well consolidated and more efforts should be enhanced

Conclusion

This paper summarised Xiamen's experiences on how to overcome the challenges of integrated coastal management with respect to capacity, financing and political will, which are indispensable driving forces of all sustainable development programmes. To overcome the challenge of inadequate management capability, the Xiamen Municipal Government placed considerable emphasis on capacity building and has made significant progress not only in upgrading the management skills of local officials but also

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