Addressing Coastal Security through Natural and Man-made Hazards Prevention and Management

This issue of Tropical Coasts highlights how a gathering of local government executives bounded by the common mission of "serving as a network of local governments in East Asia, which, along with their stakeholders, shall promote the application of ICM as an effective management framework to achieve sustainable coastal development," can become an indispensable mechanism for knowledge validation, transfer and replication. The 2007 Forum of the PEMSEA Network of Local Governments for Sustainable Coastal Development (PNLG)* held in Danang, Vietnam, on 5–7 September 2007 focused on the theme "Addressing Coastal Security by Investing in Natural and Man-made Hazards Prevention and Management." The forum provided a venue for facilitating the exchange of information and experiences in DRR among local governments, national agencies, partner organizations, civil society groups and the private sector. It also provided a platform for the ICM sites to discuss how institutional strengthening in the context of DRR can be achieved and identify innovative solutions and opportunities to implement DRR options based on specific risk context and circumstances of the respective sites.