Population:
18 million
Land Area:
65,00 km2
Coastline:
1,562 km or
860 mi
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Audio from a Coastal Manger |
Cicin-Sain, Biliana and Robert W. Knecht. 1998. Integrated Coastal and Ocean Management: Concept and Practices. Appendix 1: ICM Practices in Twenty-Two Selected Nations, Part III: Developing Nations, case study on the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, pp. 411-416. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.
Lowry, Kem, Nirmalie Pallewatte, A.P. Dainis and H.J.M. Wickremeratne. 1988. Coastal area management in Sri Lanka. In Ocean Yearbook 7, eds., Elisabeth Mann Borgese, Norton Ginsburg, and Joseph R. Morgan, pp. 263-293. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press.
Country Contacts
The Project Manager, CRMP, 1 Gower Street,
Colombo 5, Sri Lanka.
Tel. & Fax: +941-500207.
Mr. R.A.D.B. Samaranayake, Manager - Coastal
Resources
Development, CCS, 4th Floor, Maligawatte New
Secretariat,
Colombo 10, Sri Lanka.
Tel.: +941-449751 to 56.
Fax: +941-438005.
The Coastal Setting
The Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka comprises one large island and several smaller islands in the Indian Ocean, situated about 80 kilometers (50 miles) east of the southern tip of India. Sri Lanka has a land area of 65,000 km2 and a coastline of 1,562 km (probably more than 2,000 km if the coastlines of lagoons, bays, and inlets are added). The coastline itself consists of a wide range of geomorphological features such as headlands, bays, lagoons, peninsulas, spits, bars, and islets. It encompasses a variety of tropical habitats including wetlands; lagoons and estuaries; mangroves, salt marshes, and seagrass beds; coral reefs; and coastal sand dunes, barrier beaches, and spits.
As a result of increased migration to coastal areas since Sri Lanka's independence in 1948, development activities along its coastline have created many coastal problems, including coastal erosion, degradation of valuable coastal habitats, and resource use conflicts. A key coastal management problem is coastal erosion resulting both from the natural action of tidal waves and currents and from human causes such as ill-designed coastal erosion protection works and coral mining. Shoreline erosion has resulted in damage to or loss of hotels and other buildings near the shoreline, destruction of coastal vegetation, and disruption of fishing and recreation. The most severe effects of shoreline erosion have occurred in Sri Lanka's western and southwestern coastal areas.
Moreover, the concentration of population in Sri Lanka's coastal areas has contributed to the increased rate of degradation of valuable coastal habitats, such as mangrove forests, small lagoons, coral reefs, and sea grass beds, that eventually causes collapse of local fisheries. Coral and sand are mined for construction and other purposes. Most of the coral mining occurred along the southwest coast. Sand is mined from river mouths and dunes such as the Kelani River and the Uswetakeiyawa area, contributing to instability of the river and the entire beach areas. Development activities also threaten other natural settings such as those of Hikkaduwa, a tourist destination settled about 100 km south of Colombo, and Rekawa Lagoon, a rural lagoon environment lying on the southeast coast about 200 km from Colombo.
Status of ICM Program
Building on a number of studies and reports in the early 1960s, and resulting from a national discussion on coastal management conflicts and problems in 1977, Sri Lanka established a Coast Conservation Department (CCD) within the Ministry of Fisheries in 1978, and enacted a Coast Conservation Act in 1981. The Act required the CCD to prepare a coastal management plan within three years, and stipulated that all development activities in the coastal zone be subject to permit review by the CCD.
In the early 1980s, Sri Lanka developed a national coastal management plan. A key element of the CZMP was a national permitting program, which required construction setbacks within the 300-meter coastal zone. The permit system became an effective and controversial tool for achieving the program's limited management goals. The enforcement of the coastal setback provisions was criticized by the tourist industry. In response, CCD held an open forum and workshop that brought together government officials and the private sector to review the regulations. The resulting compromises were incorporated into the revised CZM program.
The CCD undertook a more comprehensive CZM program in January 1986, with financial and technical assistance from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the University of Rhode Island's Coastal Resources Center (CRC). The program focused on four key issues in a narrowly defined coastal strip: shorefront development, coastal erosion, habitat loss, and the decline of recreational and cultural sites. The first generation effort was designed to reduce coastal erosion through a combined effect of the regulatory program (coastal permit applications primarily for house construction and sand mining), an extensive program of public education, and the construction of some coastal protection works.
As of 1991, the most prohibitive measure adopted in the Sri Lanka CZM program was a complete ban on coral mining except for research purposes. Enforcement of this measure and its effects on the livelihood of coral miners was the most difficult challenge faced by the CZM program. The CCD continues to make various efforts to resolve coastal management issues by pursuing local support. In 1990, in a provincial-level program titled "Implementation of CZM Plan," and in 1995, in a local-level program called "Preparation of Special Area Management Plan," residents were encouraged to become actively involved in the decision and implementation of the coastal zone management program. This bottom-up approach was designed to make the local community "fully aware of and integrated into the planning effort so that it is truly participatory."
A new development took place in 1991. After the Sri Lanka National Coastal Zone Management Plan was formally adopted by the national Cabinet in 1990, CCD staff began to consider a broader and more integrated approach to coastal management. The result was a strategic plan called Coastal 2000: Recommendations for a Resource Management Strategy for Sri Lanka's Coastal Region. Coastal 2000 recommends a second generation coastal resources management program which employs a "two-track" approach, in which plans are implemented simultaneously at both the national and local levels. One of the initiatives implemented in the revised CZM program has been the Special Area Management (SAM) Plan.
The local track of the Coastal 2000 strategy includes the designation of special management areas in which residents are actively involved in both the design and implementation of a special area management plan (SAMP). In these selected sites, methodologies in the sustainable use of coastal resources can be tested at the grassroots level. By the end of 1992, two sites were chosen. One was Hikkaduwa, a small town on the west coast, known for its coastal tourism and marine sanctuary. The other was Rekawa Lagoon, important for its local fisheries, mangroves, beaches and agriculture.
ICM Program Information
SAM plans are a bottom-up strategy for managing coastal resources that complements the existing top-down regulatory approach in Sri Lanka. They allow for intensive, comprehensive management of coastal resources in a well-defined geographic setting (as contrasted with a use-by-use regulation-by-permit approach). Participation by community residents or stakeholders in planning and management is central to the SAM concept. Most advocates of this concept see government agencies playing a variety of roles in SAM planning and management. Government agencies serve as catalysts or facilitators that help organize communities to engage in resource management and provide technical support, as mediators to help balance competing demands in resource management and as partners of communities engaging in co-management with community groups.
The SAMP process at Hikkaduwa has facilitated the effective management of the Hikkaduwa Marine Sanctuary and Harbor, heightened awareness amongst tourists and residents of the need to protect and manage the coastal environment, and initiated a waste management and a glass-bottom boat owner association, among others. In management of Rekawa Lagoon habitat, fishery and livelihood issues have taken highest priority. Introducing ecotourism to the area and providing alternate livelihood opportunities (for example, former coral miners are now involved in poultry farming) are two of the various SAM initiatives.
In 1992, CCD staff and representatives from the Coastal Resources Management Program (CRMP) began the process of SAM planning at both sites. Government officials in selected agencies at the national level were contacted, and their interest and support was solicited. At the same time, CCD and CRAP staff began to work with community organizations to identify groups with whom it might be possible to undertake identifying community perceptions of resource management problems and priorities. Over the next three years, government officials, community groups and interest group representatives identified priority resource management issues and technical questions. Special Area Coordinating Committees, composed of both community representatives and government officials, were established at both sites. Technical studies were commissioned and environmental profiles were developed for each site. Resource management issues and strategies were identified for both sites and compiled into SAM plans. These plans were both adopted by their respective coordinating committees in 1996.
In late 1996, the CCD, the CRMP and the Sri Lanka US Agency for International Development office commissioned an evaluation of the SAM planning and management processes at the two SAM sites. One of the criteria used for assessing the progress of the two Sri Lanka SAM programs is the degree to which coastal management efforts integrate multiple agencies and programs, levels of government and technical analysis. The SAM programs at Hikkaduwa and Rekawa are integrative by design. The plans for both sites were developed by multidisciplinary teams working with community groups and national, provincial and local government officials. The plans are based on regulatory activities, coastal development projects, research, monitoring and organizational efforts undertaken by both government agencies and community groups. Implementation of the two plans requires the collaborative efforts of many agencies at all three levels of government. Coordinating committees at both sites are working to maintain a comprehensive approach to improving resource conditions.
Case Study prepared by Dr. Ampai Harakunarak, Center for
the Study of Marine Policy.