Integrated Coastal Zone Management – Need for Pakistan

Abstract

Coastal area of Pakistan is of strategic significance due to its huge potential w.r.t economic growth. It gives access to sea based resources on one hand and offers numerous indirect economic opportunities on the other. The sea based resources include both living such as fish and non-living such as minerals and hydrocarbons while the indirect opportunities come in the form of ports & harbours, coastal tourism and wind farms/ electrical power generation etc. On the other hand, huge potential of coastal tourism offered by the sandy beaches, coastal cliffs, archaeological sites and diversity of flora and fauna etc. along the coast is yet to be developed. While the economic potential remained largely untapped, living resources along the coast have been under severe pressure from human activities. The coastal fish stock is depleting due overexploitation, IUUF practices and discharge of harmful untreated industrial waste into the coastal waters, whereas, mangroves remained subjected to deforestation at unsustainable rate. Moreover, lack of coordination among stakeholders, non-realization of the sectoral interdependencies for managing the coastal area and incoherence in marine/maritime policies have led to various environmental and socioeconomic problems along the coastal belt. The existing sectoral based management system is creately fragmented is considered to be the major factor for unsustainable/ suboptimal utilization of the coast and maritime resources. Accordingly, ICZM BEING a cross sectoral comprehensive approach and adequate coordination framework is considered as best possible alternative management setup for the coastal areas of Pakistan. The ICZM has gained recognition as the most suitable system for sustainable development of the coastal area as it accounts for uniqueness of the coastal area, fragile nature of the coastal resources and its interactions with various economic sectors sharing the same maritime space.