Australian Coast Management Plan - Essay Example

AUSTRALIAN COAST MANAGEMENT PLAN Pre planning phase The environmental protection ity is one of the most important s in the Queensland government. It is an important department of the government that helps to deal with the rising climate changes issues and the environmental matters. The organization has been playing an important role in the management of the environment matters for Australia. It has helped to preserve address various environmental effects which has helped to reverser the rate of environmental degradation. Though it has been addressing a range of environmental areas, one of the most important functions that it has been playing is in the management of the coastal area of Australia. Let us look at the current situation of the coastal area of Australia and the challenges that have been facing it. Australian Coast at the present The coast of Australia is an important asset to the country. It has great economic potential for Australian. Its value to the Australian economy calls for the taking of management measures that will ensure it remains to play its vital role in the economy. The coastal are has a unique values and resources that are very vital to the Australian way of life. It also plays an important role in ensuring ecological sustainability. Therefore development of sustainable coastal zone is imperative for the life of the Austrians for now and in the future. (Queensland Government, 2008c) The coast of Australia extends for more than 36 000 km including the external territories. The region has a wide range of climates, geographical and geological regimes and a mixture of various ecosystems that support the biodiversity. This biodiversity supports a number of activities including commercial and non commercial one. Commercial activities include transport of goods and services through the port, income generating recreational activities, urban development, aquaculture, mariculture, fishing, coastal agriculture, petroleum mining, and others. It is also home a variety of indigenous cultural values which include the coastal landscapes with cultural meaning, and others. (Queensland Government, 2008a) The above gives the importance of maintaining the Australian coast for the current and for the generation to come. This shows that it plays a vital role in the life of the people. The coastal area has turned to be a major focus for economic, industrial and social activities. With more than 86% of the population now living around the coast and with more people visiting the coast more often there has to be a management plan that will ensure that there is integrated management of the coast to ensure that it continue supporting these diversity. (Queensland Government, 2008b) The problem Due to this increase in the population of people that are living around the coastal area, there has been pressure exerted in the coastal resource which has led to their deterioration. This has become a major challenge for the management of the coastal line. According to The State of the Environment Report that was released in 2001, there has been continued effort aimed at improving the coastal area. However the condition of the coastal zone has continued to deteriorate despite all these efforts. The pressure that is being exerted on the coastal resources is increasing at an alarming rate compared to the number of initiatives that have been taken to address the issue. The rate of damage has increased at a higher rate compared to the time that is available for the coastal resource to recover. (Queensland Government, 2006a) This calls for the need to put in place a strategies plan that will target these criteria that have been undergoing deterioration at a higher rate than the rate of recovery. What is need is forward thinking in order to initiate national an integrated national cooperative focus that will address the various areas that have continued to deteriorate. An integrated management will help to reduce the rate of deterioration, allow for the recovery of the deteriorated criteria and ensure that there is sustainable maintenance of these criteria. It will ensure that the coastal area continue to play its traditional role that it has been playing in the lives of the Australian people. This plane will also help to manage the macro factor that has continued to deteriorate the condition of the coastal area. One of such factor is erosion that has deteriorated the condition of the coastal including the Islands in Torres Strait and other foreshores along the beaches of Queensland. This has been caused by the high vulnerability of the coastal area to severe storms and other events. The coastal areas have been experiencing recurring shoreline erosion problem for a long time now. This has been affected the natural shoreline activities including the long shore transport and channel immigrations. This calls for sound planning in order to protect the infrastructure, natural systems and the local amenities from the effect of the coastal erosion due to storms. (Queensland Government, 2006b,) Where Agency want to be in future in terms of management of the coastal area In the future the agency will want to have made steps in creating a sustainable coastal management plan. It will work towards achieving a well managed coastal area with planned development and sustainability of the eco-system. In the next 10 years, the agency would like to see a rehabilitated coastal region where soil erosion is greatly controlled. This will involve coming up with strategic plan that will ensure that the situation at the coast is mitigated. The agency would also want to see a management board put in place in order to manage different resources at the coast to ensure the regeneration of the natural resources and maintenance of biodiversity. In the future, a agency would like to see the collaboration of all stakeholders and those carrying out various activities at the coastal region under a framework that will enhance the overall management of the coastal area. Under such a framework, there will be regeneration of resources that would be used in the development of the coastal area. This will be an important step in achieving sustainability. In the road to the achievement of the future sustainable coast area, there will be steps that will be taken in order to put in place a management plan that will act as guideline for the implementation of the overall plan. It will also involve putting in place an integrated management plan that will address various issues affecting the Australian coast. The planning phase The planning phase is one of the most important phases in the development of nay plan. The planning phase acts as the overall guideline that helps in the development of the whole plan. It gives a road map with is to be followed in the development of the new plan. The planning phase is important as it determines whether the while plan will meet the laid down objectives or if it will not meet these objectives (Mintzberg, James and Sumantra1999, p. 654). The planning phase will involve the preparation of the whole plan. It will bring together stakeholders who will help to come up with a working plan to deal with the problem. It will involved seeking the participation of diffident stakeholders in coming up with the overall plan. The following are expected to the stakeholders in the implementation of the overall strategy. They will be selected from different areas of specialty in order to bring about diversity in professionalism in the approach for the issue. Officials from the Environmental agency Government official from the ministry of dealing with environment and finance Representatives from the environment activist groups Representatives from non-governmental organization Representatives from the communities living around the coastline International consultants on environmental matters The above will be the stakeholder who will be involved in coming up with the strategic plan for the management of the coastal line. The stakeholder will be given the flowing mandate: Compose a management board from among themselves that will oversee the implementation of the overall plan Come up with the management strategy Put the strategy into action Monitor the progress of the strategy and take the necessary changes Advice the Environmental Agency and the government on further measures that need to be taken in order to preserve the coast Explore other economical and social activities that can be implemented in order to help to preserve the coast Objectives of the management plan This plan is prepared in light of the problems that have been facing the coastline of Australia. Therefore the objectives of the plan will be aimed at ensuring that the coastal area is maintained as before (Gomez-Meijia, David and Robert, 2001, 25). There will be major and minor objectives Major objectives The major objectives will be: Assessing the major factors that have contributed to the deterioration of the coast line and which continue to threaten the sustainability of the coastal area Put in place management measures that will address the core problems affecting the coast in an integrate manner Ensure the development of measures to ensure sustainability of the coast Align these measures with the integrated planning act 1997 framework and other natural resource management plan that has been initiated by the government. Investigate new ways of proving appropriate locations for the developing of the new and the expansions of the urban development Align these new development with the environmental management measures that have been put in place by the authority Minor objectives There are other minor objectives that will be implemented in the line with the major objectives. These minor objectives will be specific to achievement of major objectives. They will be implemented together with the major objectives but will be flexible enough to be changed Develop framework for the assessment of the coastal area Consult with other coastline management authorities in the world in order to come up with a framework for integrated management of the coastal area Develop a working soil erosion management plan that will mitigate the current soil erosion problem that is facing the coastal are Form a management team that will help in building up new measures that will be used to develop the management framework Develop the timeline scale for the implementation of the management strategy The framework for the implementation The management plan will be developed in line with section 42 of the Coastal Protection and Management Act 1995. This act allows for the review of the coastal plans within a period of seven years of the commencement of any plan. This will also be in line with the announcement that was made by the minister for Sustainability, Climate change and Innovation which was announced in January 2008. The plan will also be implemented in line with the Section 115 of the Nature Conservation Act 1992 of the Marine Parks Act enacted in 2004. This will help to bring together landholders local government, and other interested groups and persons in order to put in place a management plan that will address the various needs of the coastal area. This assessment will be carried out in order to make sure that the plan that has been put in place is not in conflict with the existing law. This will be import in order to ensure that there is sustainability of the strategies that will be taken and reduce their conflict with provision of the law. This may required the services of the environmental lawyers with local and international expertise. T his is because the coast of Australian does not affect the coast alone but it is a shared natural resource and the strategies that are take by the Agencies may be in conflict with others that are take in the other areas. Therefore t there will be a need to harmonize the new strategy to be in line with the international laws governing the marine environment. Expected procedure for implementation In order to implement the overall strategy and take the organization where it want to in the management of the coastal are, it will need to put in place an implementation plan that will help in the overall implementation of the overall strategy. The whole strategy will be implemented in round. There will be three major rounds. This will basically involve the consultation, planning and implementation phases. The following will be implementation time table the will help to take the organization where it will want to be in the management of Australian coasts (Goodstein, Timothy and William 1993, p. 76) Planning for implementation This will involve sharing of duties and responsibilities on who will take on what and when will it be implemented. This will be important in order to assign duties and responsibilities to all the stakeholders. Once everyone knows what is expected of them, they will be able to carry out their plans accordingly. Assigning duties to different take holder will also ensure that there is less conflict between them since every one understands the roles that they have to play. Every individual will be assigned to specific duties that they will be carried out in individual capacity or in group. There will be even distribution of work between all the participants according to their area of specializing. This is the main reason why the preparation phase has called for the participation of different stakeholders. (Drucker 1990, p. 67) Implementation phase Putting the plan to action This phase will involve putting the whole strategy into action. This will involved each and every individual carrying out there duties as has been assigned. Individuals will be expected to carry out their duties according to how they had been assigned. Where it will involve group work, they will be facilitation by consultant who will be hired by the authority. In the implantation plan, the initial steps are supposed to identity the various areas the needs to be addressed in order toe reduced the rate of destruction of the Australia coast. This phase will involve the consultation of the environmental experts from the agency and other non governmental organizations in order to identify the specific areas that have been of concern to the resident of the Australian coast. After the identification of the specific area, the Agency will put in place different committees that will come up with strategies of dealing with each specific area that will have been identified. This will be an important step as it will hope the agency to identify the steps that will to be integrated in the overall strategy that will address the problem. After this the overall strategy will have to be drawn. The overall strategy as expressed above will provide the guideline that will be followed in the overall implementation of the whole strategy. The planning of the overall strategy will bring together the finding that will have been identified by different groups that will be set to address the specific areas at the coast that need to be addressed. Therefore it will bring together and integrate the different views of the stakeholders. Then there will seeking of the input of the environmental lawyers who will bring in their contribution on the best way that the plan can be put into practice in light with the provisions of the international laws. This will help to harmonize the strategy that will be taken by the agency in addressing the issue with the strategies that have been taken in other countries as this is a problem that affect the cost of all the countries. Involved of the local community The local community and the business community that operate in the area are some of the most important stakeholders that will in the success or failure of the plan. The local community will need to be well involved in the implementation phase in order to ensure that they address the overall problem that is affecting them. Involvement of the local community is an important step that will help them to have a sense of ownership of the strategy. This will help in the sustainability of the whole project since they can give their contributions and help that agency in implementation of the whole strategy. Monitoring and evaluation There will be constant monitoring and evaluation of the whole strategy order to ensure that it is inline with the original plan. Monitoring will be cared out continuously in which the effectives of he strategies that have been implemented will be tested. Where there will be some deviance noted, prompt measures will be taken in order to address this problem. The evaluation phase is very important especially for the Agency since it will give information that can be used to determine the future effect of the problem and make the needed changes before it is too late. The monitoring phase will help the agency to determine other stakeholder the will need to be brought aboard during the implementation Evaluation will be carried out after every two years in order to asses the impact of the strategies that will have been implemented. The overall evaluation will help the agency to assess whether the strategy has met the overall objective of the plan. Bibliography Drucker, P 1990, Winning Strategies, In: Managing the Non-Profit Organization, Harper Collins, New York, pp 59-71. Gomez-Meijia, R. & David B., & Robert, L. C 2001, Planning and Implementing Strategies HR Policies, Prentice hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, pp 20-29 Goodstein, L., Timothy, N. & William, P 1993, Applied Strategic Planning: How to Develop a Plan that Really Works, McGraw-Hill, San Francisco. Mintzberg, H., James, B. & Sumantra, G 1999, The Strategy Concept, In Strategy Process, Pearson Education Limited, Essex, England. Queensland Government, 2006a, Environmental Protection Agency: National Cooperative Approach to integrated coastal zone management- Framework and implementation Plan, Retrieved from http://www.epa.qld.gov.au on 10th June 2008 Queensland Government, 2006b, Environmental Protection Agency: Costal erosion and its implication for communities, Retrieved from http://www.epa.qld.gov.au on 10th June 2008 Queensland Government, 2008a, Environmental Protection Agency: Draft Fitzroy Island Area Management Plans, Retrieved from http://www.epa.qld.gov.au on 10th June 2008 Queensland Government, 2008b, Environmental Protection Agency: State Coastal Management Plan Review, Retrieved from http://www.epa.qld.gov.au on 10th June 2008 Queensland Government, 2008c, Environmental Protection Agency: Coastal management, Retrieved from http://www.epa.qld.gov.au on 10th June 2008 Read More