Guidelines for coastal and marine site-planning and examples of planning and management intervention tools

Guidelines are presented for a process to plan for the sustainable management of coastal and marine ecosystems of discrete sites. The guidelines provide an agreed starting point to initiate a site-planning effort, help organize a complicated process into discrete components, incorporate principles of community-based and collaborative management, minimize the risk of conflict by directly involving representatives of all interest groups and identifying and addressing all issues at an incipient stage, promote development of a sense of ownership and support for resulting management initiatives by all stakeholders, address the cumulative effects of adverse impacts to coastal and marine environments, and implement an integrated approach by considering all interrelated elements that affect the site through the collaboration of all interest groups. Site-planning is a process of reviewing past progress and assessing current and future issues, threats, and needs to identify priority management intervention activities that will sustain ecological, economic, and cultural values; balance multiple and often incompatible objectives; address priority threats to natural ecosystem functioning; conserve ecological processes and biodiversity; achieve sustainable development; and fulfill institutional, policy, and legal needs. Examples of intervention tools for coastal and marine resources planning and management range from developing and implementing integrated site management plans, to identifying and promoting opportunities for alternative sustainable economic income generation.