4 - Integrated Coastal Area Management and Public Perceptions
in the Caribbean Islands: Introduction

               Ben L. Oostdam             Paul A. Billeter

This paper deals with geologic and related aspects of coastal area management in the Caribbean Islands. Areas of interest include:

1. natural hazards and anthropogenic problems affecting the coastal zone
2. coastal geological resources and their utilization,
3. laws and regulations pertaining to the coast and its resources.
4. institutional arrangements and other adjuncts to Integrated Coastal Area Management (ICAM)

This investigation was conducted under the Caribbean Coastal Studies (CCS)project at Millersville University, PA and is based partly on fieldwork and interviews by one or both of the authors in 1980, 1986, 1989 and 1992, but chiefly on literature research, correspondence and questionnaires by the senior author and three of his oceanography students from May through October, 1995.
Coastal Area Management (CAM) celebrated its 25th anniversary in 1995 and has achieved considerable interest and success. It is a meeting ground of legislators, scientists, economists, environmentalists, and a complete alphabet soup of national and inter national agencies and non-Government organizations (NGO's). Its rapid growth is attested by the sheer number of participants and papers in the biennial COASTAL ZONE conferences: three or more thousand page conference proceedings resulted from each of the conferences since 1989. (Magoon, Orville T. et al., editors, 1989, 1991, 1993).

Separate study projects and conferences on the Caribbean islands deal with specific topics subsumed in coastal zone management or "integrated coastal area management," which is its latest preferred designation (World Bank, 1995), e.g. natural hazards (Ambeh, 1994; Conservation Foundation, 1980; Doehring et al., 1994; Shepherd et al., 1979; Tomblin, 1981; Villanueva & Pybas, 1993), tourism (Beekhuis, 1981; Blommesteyn & Singh, 1987; Butler, 1991; Jackson, 1986; Pendleton, 1994; U.S. AID, 1987), coral reefs (Ginsburg, 1993; Hughes, 1994; Ogden, 1983; Roberts, 1993; Hierta, 1994), oil spills (Georges & Oostdam, 1983; IMO/UNEP/OAS, 1983; Reimburg, 1984; Research Planning Institute, 1978, 1987; United Nations, 1983; USCG, 1991), sustainable economic development (Beller, 1979; Butler, 1991; Glassner, 1993; Lewsey, 1991; Wilson, 1988; World Bank, 1985, 1995), effects of global climate changes (Gable, 1987; Gable & Audrey, 1990; Jelgersma et al., 1993; Maul 1989; Peck & Williams, 1992), environmental protection and conservation (Cambers, 1991a, b, 1992; Knausenberger & Fleming, 1989; Megank, 1991; Procter & Redfern Inter national, 1984; Rodriquez, 1981; Stanley, 1995; UNEP, 1983, 1989), and environmental education (UNEP/FAO, 1985, UNESCO/UNEP, 1994).
Several of the above projects were (co-)sponsored by a variety of agencies listed in sections 5.1 and 5.2.

Because the Caribbean Islands constitute an island arc at the edge of two tectonic plates, they are highly diverse in geology (see this volume and its predecessors). In addition, remarkable diversity characterizes such other factors as government
(Bureau of Public Affairs, 1992/4; Ramcharan & Francis, 1989),population density, economy (Beller, 1979), and coastal development.
One common characteristic, however, is the abundance of sun, sea and sand which make the islands one of the most attractive tourist areas in the World. As a consequence of diminishing revenues in agriculture and fisheries, the shared dependence on tourism and development is one of the compelling reasons for ICAM on the islands.

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