anting permits for development projects, the quality of the EIA report, based on which decisions are made, is a problem across the region. Worse, systems for enforcement and monitoring post-clearance are weak. It was also recognised that an individual project EIA is an insufficient tool for decisions making and that countries will have to develop a robust methodology for cumulative assessment.
“What has definitely come out in this convention is the great need for improving governance and training people on governance and environment,” said Chris O’Brien, Regional Coordinator, Bay of Bengal Large Marine Ecosystem (BOBLME) project.
There is a clear recognition in the region that soft solutions for coastal protection — planting mangroves to beach nourishment are economically efficient and long-term solutions compared to hard solutions like sea-walls and groynes, which only transfer problems from one place to the other. Countries have started implementing soft solutions for coastal protection.
South Asia is highly vulnerable to climate change. Sea level rise and extreme weather events are affecting the coastal areas of South Asia. While some countries are beginning to put in place systems to adapt to climate change — Bangladesh and Maldives — others such as India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan need to do more.
For instance, Maldives has proposed to convert the country into a biosphere reserve so that it prioritises protection of corals and mangroves and build natural protection. Bangladesh has an adaptation plan. Clearly, countries like India will have to put into place systems to plan for coastal development taking into account this new vulnerability.
Ibrahim Naeem, Director of the SAARC Coastal Zone Management Centre and Director of the Environment Protection Authority in Maldives, stressed the need to make coastal plans keeping in mind the threats of climate change, “We need to make sure these plans incorporate climate change to make them more meaningful to countries like ours.”
The participants emphasised that regulation is just one tool to manage coastal areas. There are other tools such as putting information and maps in public domain, training and education, involvement of the local community in management etc that need to be used to develop a holistic governance systems for the coasts. Probir Banerjee, President PondyCan, stressed that the “worst affected are the people living at the margins and the objective has to be to enhance livelihoods and not compromise them.”
Lastly, the meeting recognised that coasts in each country are limited and face competing demands. Every thing from ports to power plants to cities to livelihoods of local communities have to be accommodated. In this context, Integrated coastal zone management (ICZM) has to be a practice and not a just buzzword. ICZM must be institutionalised so that the interests of all stakeholders including those advocating conservation and habitat protection are accommodated and managed.
The delegates at the convention collectively felt the need for experience sharing in the region. “It is important for different South Asian countries to arrange study tours in different countries to learn from each other’s successes and failures,” feels Anil Premaratne, Director-General (DG) of Sri Lanka’s Coast Conservation Department. Naseer Khan Kashani, DG Pakistan (Balochistan) also seconded this opinion, “Every country has a story to tell and it is important to learn from each other. We need better information exchange and information access among the South Asian countries.”