Evaluation of Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) in ...

Evaluation of Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) in Europe – Final Report
Degree of Implementation of ICZM Principles in the Baltic Sea Countries
environmental protection in general, and is not specific to ICZM. Specific projects, such as the
SUCOZOMA Project, have and are providing local and national government with reports on
findings and analysis to re-structure the problems identified in exploitation of coastal and marine
resources.
6) Is the process based on
participatory planning and
management?
7) Does the process
support and involve all
relevant administrative
bodies?
8) Is there a balanced
combination of
instruments in planning
and management?
Public participation is a bottom-up approach, and the influence from public stakeholders may be
more formal than real, and consequently local-context specificity may be in reality limited and
weak. However, the new Environmental Code enables civil societies, such as NGOs, to
participate in decision-making in a concrete way, rather than in the usual reactive way. Recently,
NGOs have become more active in the planning process, especially trying to protect certain
areas for natural and cultural purposes. In addition, spatial panning involves public participation,
with public phases during which the planning proposals are made public and to which objections
can be made, if any. This public information in the planning process is regulated by law. In this
regard, public access to information is very high.
Yes, the relevant administrative bodies in central, regional and local government are involved.
There are three relevant levels of statutory planning: the central government, the counties and the
municipalities. The municipality has the most overall responsibility, but for more special sector
planning it can be the regional level or even the national level that is responsible. However, a
need is being felt to invoke more ICZM in municipal planning.
The National environmental code is meant to take into account the development within
environmental policy. Legislation is used as a tool for reaching the environmental objectives,
while the spatial planning is the instrument to achieve these goals. In spite of this, however, there
is no overall national legislation specifically for coastal zone planning. On the other hand, there is
a long planning tradition and comprehensive planning is used as a tool for integrated planning. A
regional planning programme or policy, established by the county administration, could be an
appropriate management tool. Weaknesses occur in order to get financial means to achieve an
active continuous planning. There is also a lack of environmental data to fulfil the demands of the
Environmental Code. In the meantime, there is an increased awareness on the national level, but
the municipalities are supposed to plan for the coastal areas and here ICZM is not a well known
expression. Thus the municipalities should be promoted to let them act with their own power.
HELCOM recommendations are being incorporated into the Swedish environmental policies as
much as possible.
4.2.4 Scope and Implementation of ICZM on the Regional Sea Level
The following sub-chapter focuses on those ICZM elements, which
are viewed as being most relevant on the regional seas level. Of
special interest is the degree of scope and implementation of these
elements in the country towards a regional sea's context. This crosscountry
analysis emphasis on the respective national levels whether
there is scope for and existing implementation of bi- and/or multilateral
agreements. The issues of cross-integration of different
institutions from local, regional to national and international levels are
another focal point in this chapter. Therefore the scoring in these
elements (see table 5 below) may differ from the country-case
assessment of the ICZM principles in Chapter 4.2.3.
• ICZM element "Strategic Approach" endorses aspects of
whether and how far the respective country has considered
this element to be of relevance to a regional sea policy, e.g.
achieving an integrated system that will function across the
different jurisdictions that cover the coasts and estuaries of
the respective regional sea.
• ICZM element "Participation" covers aspects beyond the
scope of local participation, but looks more on whether there
are mechanisms in place that provide dialogue arenas across
national borders, e.g. "whole estuary approach". Similarly,
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