Eritrea's Coastal Marine and Island Biodiversity Conservation Project

8. The Way Forward
With a coastline of more than 3,300 km (mainland and islands), Eritrea has a major asset and part of its future is along this coastline, as many different
activities are linked to the sea, including fisheries, tourism and transport.
Commonly coast or coastal area is equated with shores of an ocean, sea, lake or any large body of water, areas surrounding such water body. For
environmental sustainable management purposes coastal area means all areas that have connection to the water body. Such areas have an impact on the
water body and are impacted by the water body. In our case coastal area includes the entire watershed on terrestrial/land side and the territorial waters
of Eritrea including the islands on the marine side.
From the first draft of this document in May 2005, numerous changes have occurred along the coast and it is evident that without proper regulations
and management, the country can loose numerous opportunities.
For this reason, the ECMIB project has accelerated two other activities, the preparation of the Coastal Policy (final draft in December 2006) and of the
Integrated Coastal Area Management Plan (ICAM - on going activity). The next step is the preparation of the legislation for the coast and the definition
of the administration for its implementation.
The Eritrea’s proposed Coastal Policy is a framework meant to serve as base for laws, rules, regulations, guides and institutional structures for
sustainable management of the coastal area natural and human-made assets. It was prepared by the participation of practically all concerned ministries
and organisations, inter alia, has four main objectives: sustainable use of the coastal area for multiple purposes, location of coastal facilities and
development projects in consideration of the coastal process, protection of public foreshores or establishing appropriate setbacks (public property
areas) and protection of natural and cultural values of the area. Any Policy is based on principles; in our case the guiding principle, as clearly stated in
the Constitution is- we shall meet our needs without comprising the ability of future generations to meet their needs or we shall develop without
destroying the chances of future generations to develop.
In 1995, the Government of Eritrea adopted an integrated approach for development. The preparation of the Integrated Coastal Area Management Plan
is trying to apply the overall Government development approach to the coastal area as defined above.
ICAM is a mechanism that avoids and mitigates environmental damage through coordinated planning and implementation of activities and minimizes
unknown risks using the precautionary principle. It can also be understood as a tool that enables conservation of ecosystems by managing development
activities. In addition to ecosystem conservation benefits ICAM enhance the value of the coastal assets. ICAM will enable us to define location of
facilities and development activities in line with national needs and sustainability opposed to investor preferences only in the coastal area; and to
resolve and mitigates conflict of interest over the assets.
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