A Challenging Journey: Coastal and Marine Policy Making in East Asia

PUBLICATION DATE:

Friday, December 01, 2000

PUBLICATION TYPE:

Magazines and Newsletters

STATUS:

Available

DESCRIPTION:

This issue of Tropical Coasts is about new approaches in policies related to our marine environment. The focus is primarily on national efforts towards developing coastal, marine and ocean policies in the East Asian Seas region through an examination of recently enacted policies or efforts to develop them. As may be gathered from the articles, there are no clearly agreed upon definitions of what exactly a national "coastal," "marine," or "ocean" policy is. Despite semantic differences, the key is that these policies represent new integrative approaches towards the marine environment. They identify the major issues that need to be addressed and establish a process for treating them in an integrated, inter-sectoral, and inter-agency manner in order to promote sustainable development of the coastal and marine areas.