MEDITERRANEAN COASTAL MANAGEMENT CLEARING HOUSE

Ivica Trumbic, Daria Povh

United Nations Environment Programme, Mediterranean Action Plan
Priority Actions Programme/Regional Activity Centre (PAP/RAC), Split (HR)

Abstract
A correct and extensive information on complex natural and social characteristics and developments in the coastal area is of the key importance for a successful coastal management. This has been confirmed by a number of requests for building up mechanisms for the coastal management information exchange. Development of the idea of a Clearing House mechanism is presented in the paper. The Priority Actions Programme Regional Activity Centre (PAP/RAC) of the Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP), working in the field of Integrated Coastal Area Management (ICAM) in the Mediterranean for more than 20 years, has decided to establish such a regional mechanism for information exchange. The Mediterranean Coastal Management Clearing House, a bilingual (English and French) web site, is available on http://www.pap-medclearinghouse.org. Although the use of the Internet in the Region is developed to a rather limited extent, PAP/RAC's proactive approach will be facilitated through the support of the well-established network of its Focal Points in Mediterranean countries. The site has been built up in an interactive way, enabling and inviting the users to receive and provide information. The Mediterranean Coastal Management Clearing House is going to provide support to another PAP/RAC project, MedOpen, an on-line training course on ICAM, currently in the preparatory stage.

Introduction
Currently, as well as throughout the recent history, the situation in Mediterranean coastal areas reveals that the development pressures on the coast will continue to be the main issue in the future of the Region. The coastal population grew from 85 million in 1980 to 124 million in 2000, which is a 46% increase. It is estimated that only 40% of the total length of the Mediterranean is "useful" for human activities and settlements, out of which 75% has already been utilised for various purposes. Population pressure, including residents and tourists, has been estimated to be 5,700 to 6,600 persons per km of the coastline in 2000, while this figure is expected to rise to 11,000 to 12,200 in 2025. The population of the agglomerations in the South will grow from 145 million inhabitants in the year 2000 to 243 million in 2025, of which more than 30 million new inhabitants will reside in the coastal urban agglomerations. Contrary to that, the population of the agglomerations in the North will grow from 129 million inhabitants in the year 2000 to 135 million in the year 2025, with the urban population of the coastal regions remaining practically unchanged. The number of coastal settlements with more than 10,000 inhabitants has doubled from 1950 (750) to 1995 (1,500). There are more than 200 large tankers in operation in the Mediterranean in every moment, while the number of "hot spot" areas has grown over 100. It has been globally agreed that the Integrated Coastal Area Management (whether its acronym be ICAM, ICZM, or ICM) is an optimal approach to a successful coastal management. Moreover, successful ICAM is a necessity for reaching sustainable coastal development. Spatial and temporal complexity of the coastal area represents the main reason that makes sustainable coastal development an extremely difficult task. In order to harmonise conflicting user needs with the coastal natural resources capacity, extensive information is needed. In this setting, the value of the information is extremely high.


Rationale for improved information dissemination
Although the ICAM approach has been accepted in the Mediterranean (UNEP, 1995; UNEP/MAP/PAP, 2001), its implementation in practice is still rather limited, and there is still a strong need for disseminating the message on strengths and advantages of the ICAM approach. The experience has shown that, despite the large institutional capacities involved in coastal management, ICAM is still very often being mixed with the land-use planning, or with the pure scientific research, or even with the economic planning in coastal areas. Therefore, there is still a strong need to integrate all of these and many other activities, and to promote them, within a common framework of ICAM. The idea that the coast is a physical entity that comprises two equally important parts, the land and the sea, is still not sufficiently understood. Institutional fragmentation and restricted jurisdictions, lack of adequate coastal legislation and insufficient knowledge on coastal area and coastal regions, and how to manage them, are some of the additional reasons why the ICAM concept is not yet sufficiently accepted in the Mediterranean.

It can be claimed that although numerous projects related to coastal area issues have been carried out in the Region, very successful ICAM projects are still rather rare. Most of these projects deal with the sectoral issues. Coastal area complexity causes that the limits of any programme can not be precisely defined, and solving any coastal issue inevitably meddles with many neighbouring issues and disciplines. This, however, causes the difficulties in distinguishing an integrated coastal project (involving multiplicity of issues) such as coastal strategies and plans, from a purely sectoral coastal project, such as those dealing with coastal defence or pollution mitigation, for example.

However, information on any coastal project is rather scarce and dispersed. Up to now, lack of a systematic database containing information on ICAM, as well as of a certain archive of projects in the Mediterranean represented a serious problem. Poor exchange of information contributed to the slower learning process, lower quality of ICAM programmes, management failures in ICAM interventions and slower progress in ICAM development. In a same way, the absence of the information on successful use of specific ICAM tools and techniques, as well as the outcome of such studies slowed down the development of these tools and techniques.

The coastal area complexity urges for an extensive baseline information for any ICAM project. Numerous environmental and social problems of the coastal areas in most occasions cannot be solved by one - off ICAM project. Usually, good project leads to follow-up activities. Reaching sustainable development is an arduous process that takes long-term and continuos efforts. Therefore, proper organisation of the information collected, as well as of the outputs and of the results, is of the utmost importance. Such database is going to be useful for the future work in relevant area, but also, in numerous coastal areas in the Region, dealing with similar problems. Therefore, organising database, a mechanism for an easy search and provision of information will strongly contribute to the future work aiming to sustainable coastal development. The possibility of using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for providing information on coastal management through a wide, low-costly and easy dissemination, is recognised as an exquisite opportunity.

About the "Clearing House Mechanisms"
In 2002, the Priority Actions Programme Regional Activity Centre (PAP/RAC) of the Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP) has built up a bilingual web site - the Mediterranean Coastal Management Clearing House. In this context, a clearing house represents a place where information on coastal management in the Mediterranean is exchanged. A clearing house is a term deriving from financial circles, meaning the establishment maintained by banks for settling mutual claims and accounts. Today, this term has a broad meaning indicating an informal channel for providing information or assistance. Lately, it has been largely used in the environmental management field.

In 1996, the Resolution of the General Assembly of the United Nations called upon States to take action in the governing bodies of relevant intergovernmental organisations and programmes so as to ensure that these organisations and programmes take the lead in co-ordinating the development of the GPA Clearing House Mechanism (Kullenberg, 1999). This mechanism is structured according to the categories based on the land-based sources of marine pollution (GPA, 2003). Recently, a global Clearing House on ICM has been established as a GPA and NOAA joint project, and it is being constantly up-graded (NOAA and GPA, 2003). At the same time, the Mediterranean, the first UNEP Regional Sea Programme and today by far the most successful one, is again the first Regional Sea to have its own Regional Clearing House on ICAM.

In 1997, at International Workshop on the Integration of Marine Sciences into the Process of Integrated Coastal Management, sponsored by UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission and China's State Oceanic Administration, recommendation has been given to create clearing houses, mechanisms for providing information. Cicin-Sain and Knecht (1998) are pointing out the need to establish a clearing house on ICAM, following the example of the Global Programme of Action on Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-Based Activities.

A successful example of the clearing house development is represented by the Clearing House on Biological Diversity, which currently, besides the central site, provides a link to 62 countries with clearing houses mechanism web sites. The decision on establishment of the Clearing House on Biological Diversity has been taken in 1994, at the first Conference of Parties to the Biological Diversity Convention, with the aim to promote and facilitate technical and scientific co-operation (Cicin-Sain, 1996). This Clearing House is based on the philosophy that broad participation and easy access must be a top priority. Moreover, it ensures that all governments have access to the information and technologies they need (UNEP/Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, 2003). A clearing house mechanism has also been pointed out as a UNESCO's tool used to provide information on environmental education (Kuijper, 2003). In Australia, Marine and Coastal Community Network, developed by the Ocean Rescue 2000, programme of the Department of Environment, Sports and Territories, through its regional co-ordinators provides regular national and state information and acts as clearing house for inquiries and information on any marine matters (Wescott, 2000).

Project objectives and expected results
The main goal of this project is to improve the practice of ICAM in the Region by offering an easy obtainable, well organised and up-to-date information search and exchange mechanism for coastal issues and practices in the Mediterranean coastal areas. In addition, this project aims to: set up the Mediterranean network of ICAM practitioners, decision makers, researchers, and other parties involved in coastal issues; provide a forum for exchanging information and practices from the Mediterranean coastal areas; encourage, facilitate and speed-up co-operation among the countries in the Region, different levels of the governments and others involved in coastal issues; and to ensure a rapid feedback.
Project expected results are the following:

Project methodology and procedures
Building up of the site lasted a bit longer than a year. A number of professionals participated in this process directly, while many more participated indirectly, with the information they have provided.

The structure of the Mediterranean Coastal Management Clearing House was proposed on the basis of the PAP/RAC expertise and tested through a virtual opinion poll performed among the members of the coastal management community, in spring 2002. The Clearing House was established with the aim to satisfy the needs of those who filled in the on-line questionnaire, and to tackle the issues of major importance for a successful coastal management. Direct requests for filling in the questionnaire were sent to approximately 300 persons, while more than 2,000 members of the coastal management community were informed about the project and virtual opinion poll through 2 newsletters, EUCC's "Coastal Guide News" and the Coastal Management "icoast" newsletter. There were 56 respondents to the poll.
The web site, in English and French, was open in November 2002, and it can be found on the following web address:

http://www.pap-medclearinghouse.org

Information about opening of this web site was sent to approximately 3,000 persons. In April 2002, the site was selected as the Site of the Month with the NetCoast.
The most ambitious task of the Mediterranean Coastal Management Clearing House was creation of a Projects Inventory. The Projects Inventory contains presentations (brief and detailed) of projects related to coastal management and carried out in the Mediterranean Region in the last decade.

The methodology used for the collection of ICAM projects in the Region was based on the engagement of 4 consultants, each of them covering 4-5 Mediterranean countries. The countries were divided in 4 groups according to their geographical setting and economic situation. One of the most valuable PAP/RAC and MAP assets, their Focal Points network in Mediterranean countries, assisted the consultants in collecting information for the web site. The consultants used also their private channels and contacts to obtain information in a relevant country. However, it was quite difficult to collect all information about the outputs of the past ICAM projects due to poorly organised archives in the relevant organisations, and due to additional difficulties generated by a big bureaucratic apparatus in several Mediterranean administratively highly centralised countries.

This instrument is up-dated regularly by PAP/RAC experts. All those who are dealing with coastal management have been invited to provide PAP/RAC with all information available on the implementation of ICAM projects in their countries, as well as any information they deem to be relevant for the structure of the ICAM clearing house mechanism. To that end, a downloadable form for a brief presentation of projects is available at the web site.

According to criteria for the selection of ICAM projects, the projects should:

The structure of the Mediterranean Coastal Management Clearing House
The Mediterranean Coastal Management Clearing House encompasses the following topics:

Also, the site provides the user with the following features:

Information available at the Mediterranean Coastal Management Clearing House
The Projects Inventory provides information about the Mediterranean coastal management projects carried out during the last 10 years, as well as a wide spectrum of information related to and needed for a successful ICAM. In August 2003, the Projects Inventory contained brief presentations of 75 projects, and detailed descriptions were already available for 27 of them. For the user who needs more information about a certain project, a contact person is given, including his/her complete address, phone, fax, and E-mail. Also, every project is provided with a list of relevant links, while detailed projects descriptions are linked to a list of publications. Projects have been prepared in MS Word format, and transferred automatically into the database on the Internet. It was requested that every project be accompanied by a map and a photo, but it turned out to be a difficult task. Therefore, GIS maps are rather rare in the Mediterranean Coastal Management Clearing House. However, the objective is to improve this situation in the future.

The Funding Guide gives an overview of recent calls for the submission of proposals, with a link to their home page. It provides crucial information about who may submit a proposal, submission deadline and the institution in charge. On the same page, a link to NetCoast ICZM Funding Guide, as well as to WelcomEurope, a search engine for the European grants and loans, is provided.

The Experts Register provides a list of PAP/RAC experts and their CVs expressing the interest in being included in this register. To that end, experts have been invited to fill in the form, which can be found on the web site. Currently, the Experts Register lists 64 experts.

The topic on Books, Reports & Articles contains documents and publications from the PAP/RAC library. Summaries of many PAP documents can be found on the PAP/RAC web site. Documents in PDF format can be downloaded, while hard copies are available at request. The topics are divided into PAP/RAC publications and other sources. The first category - BASIC, contains materials which are recommended as the basic literature on ICAM. MEDITERRANEAN IN GENERAL contains books on the Mediterranean issues, while MEDITERRANEAN IN SPECIFIC treats some particular location, area, country or several countries in the Region. The topic on EUROPEAN COASTS contains publications treating the coasts of Europe. The category GENERAL contains all other documents related to ICAM. The category that follows, contains training materials and conference proceedings. In the category ARTICLES, articles are included from the scientific journals related to Mediterranean coasts and the Sea, or treating important issues on ICAM. The list of publications is up-dated regularly.

In the category USERS CONTRIBUTIONS, articles published in national journals, unpublished articles, Master and PhD theses related to ICAM can be found. This category provides an opportunity of sending outputs, reports or articles, as well as of sharing one's experience with the world's coastal management community.

The topic on Legislation and Institutions contains an assessment of regional and national legislation and institutions related to ICAM. Under Regional Legislation, conventions and protocols on the protection of the Mediterranean Sea can be found and downloaded. More than 120 regional governmental and non-governmental organisations and institutions, as well as international organisations and institutions dealing with coastal management and coastal issues, are given under Institutions chapter and links. In the National chapter, there is an assessment of national legislation related to coasts for each Mediterranean country. Public Institutions at the national, sub-national and local level, as well as specialised committees are assessed, and a link is given, where available.

The topic on Economic Instruments is a link to GEF - PAP/RAC project on economic instruments. The construction of a database on economic instruments applied in 12 Mediterranean countries is underway.

Policies, strategies and plans provide a theoretical introduction to these subjects, accompanied by a number of practical examples and links. This topic gives an insight into the need for ICAM, the importance of the existence of a political will, and the role of the policies, strategies and plans.

The Tool Box presents an assessment of tools that might be used for ICAM. They are presented with a diagram and divided in 3 groups: Data Management; Evaluation and Assessment; and Instruments for Implementation. Tools, techniques and instruments are presented with a definition, description of benefits they may generate, as well as with links to examples of using a certain tool, technique or instrument. The definition of GIS, the benefits from its use and a number of links are given in the Data Management.

Besides information on the above-mentioned topics, the Mediterranean Coastal Management Clearing House provides special web features, such as the Discussion Platform, E-mail lists, the Notice Board, the On-line Calendar of Events and the Help Desk. The Discussion Platform is used for exchanging comments, opinions and ideas. The intention is to use the Discussion Platform for different thematic discussions, moderated by renown experts or researchers, and PhD students. The On-line Calendar of Events provides an assessment of the conferences, meetings, training courses and workshops on ICAM in the Mediterranean, as well as on important ICAM events from elsewhere in the world. By the end of 2003, the On-line Calendar of Events will be extended by the ICAM education opportunities. The members of the coastal management community who wish to be included in the PAP/RAC mailing list, can send their E-mail address by using E-mail Lists. The PAP/RAC Help Desk is assigned for the different coastal management issues in general.

Synergy of Mediterranean Coastal Management Clearing House and MedOpen
Based on its long experience in carrying out numerous training activities, mostly in the framework of its Coastal Area Management Programmes (CAMPs), PAP/RAC is developing MedOpen, an on-line, free of charge ICAM training course in the Mediterranean.

The main goal of this on-line course is to assist Mediterranean countries in building capacities for coastal management. Moreover, the project is expected to improve the Mediterranean networking activities in the field of coastal management, as well as to promote the use of the Internet among the coastal management practitioners in Mediterranean countries.

The target users of MedOpen are decision makers (at local, national, regional and international level), policy advisors, project managers, teams and experts of international organisations and institutions, academic researchers, students, and all those who are interested in coastal management.

The courses are composed of basic and advanced modules: the basic module provides basic information on coastal management and knowledge tests. The advanced module requires greater involvement on the part of the candidate and of PAP/RAC, offering to candidate the supplementary material and a simulation game. The Clearing House provides the MedOpen trainees with practical examples illustrated with ICAM projects, as well as with numerous information and links to important coastal management topics.

Conclusion
With this mechanism, PAP/RAC hopes to provide information, strengthen co-operation and networking among the coastal management community members, as well as to provide assistance to the improvement of the coastal management in the Mediterranean. It is believed that the Clearing House could strongly promote ICAM by presenting successful examples of the coastal management, while the project details, together with all other ICAM related information, could provide assistance and support to its implementation.

Every topic of the Mediterranean Coastal Management Clearing House is interactive, and information should travel on both tracks. Feedback and networking are important for the improvement of the quality of this mechanism, but they are also the measure of the project success. On its side, PAP/RAC is going to continue to up-date and build up information within the Mediterranean Coastal Management Clearing House, and to create the openings for interaction.

The optimum use of this mechanism would be to continue with its development at the national level. Since ICAM is mostly organised at the national level, while numerous projects are performed at sub-national or local level, collecting of relevant information in one place, which would be the National Coastal Management Clearing House, would be of great value for the Mediterranean countries.

References