Development Pressures and Management Considerations in Small Caribbean Islands' Coastal Zones

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the management of coastal zones in island states in the Caribbean; to highlight the developmental and environmental pressures that are experienced; and to discuss some of the constraints to management. Caribbean island states face a number of development constraints due to the small sizes of their economies, populations, resource bases and land areas. With limited potential for economic diversification and few development options many small Caribbean islands have pursued tourism to generate income and employment. Human-induced changes resulting from tourism-oriented development generate a host of impacts in the coastal zone such as increased sedimentation rates from land clearance for development, and nutrient enrichment of coastal waters from inadequately treated waste. Small Caribbean islands which rely on their coastal zones for economic, social and ecological benefits and services therefore require effective management tools that can resolve existing use-conflicts and find a balance between conservation and development objectives.

Several confounding constraints to coastal zone management exist, namely the trans-boundary nature of coastal zones, unclear property rights and management institutions, limited information about the costs and benefits of different uses and management approaches, uneven dissemination of that information, and diverse and often disorganised stakeholder groups. Achieving management goals therefore depends on these constraints being addressed. The paper supports the recent re-thinking that management approaches need to focus on the delineation of rights and responsibilities of coastal zone stakeholders, the range of possible institutional arrangements for management, the role of coastal stakeholders in management, the evolution of stakeholder preferences for management options, and the use and treatment of information, how information is presented, to whom it is disseminated and how it is disseminated.

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ORCID for Emma L. Tompkins: orcid.org/0000-0002-4825-9797

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