Ecosphere

The global ecosystem comprises the atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere as inseparable components.

Coasts

As places of transition between land and sea, the coastal areas have played a vital role in the socio-economic development of mankind. Productivity Coastal zones are areas of high biological productivity. About 90% of world fishery catches come from near-shore and reef areas while coasts serve as nursery grounds for other open-sea fish. Looking after

Environmental Management is the art and science of ?looking after? man and nature. According to ?Environmental Management?(Atchia & Tropp, 1995) there are four main processes in ?looking after? or environmental management:

? environmental monitoring

? environmental enhancement

The precautionary approach

(Principle 15 of Agenda 21 of 1992) states that ?in order to protect the environment, the precautionary approach shall be widely applied? and ?when threats are serious or irreversible damage is being done, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent (further) degradation?. Each concerned group should discuss how to apply this approach to their immediate surroundings. Included here is the application of environmental accounting to all governmental, para-statal, institutional and corporate (i.e. private sector) accounts.

Let?s apply this principle to the looking after of our coasts, including those of Agalega.

Integrated coastal management

The concept of sustainability means ensuring the continued existence of a healthy coastal environment, the resources from which can be continually enjoyed by the inhabitants of the region. A major danger lies in badly construed bodies such as our Beach Authority if it is mistakenly led to believe that good coastal management means beachfront constructions/concrete/beach furniture and other interventions. Once destroyed, a coast can be lost forever, whereas what is needed may simply be protection from intervention. For natural set-ups may have huge tourism value which shabbily built-up areas do not have. For example most wild animals of East-Africa can be seen in the zoological gardens of London, Paris and Berlin, yet millions of people spend millions to observe and be with these animals in the wild of the National Parks of Kenya and Tanzania.

Integrated coastal management involves planning the impact of human beings together with the occurrence of natural phenomena and hazards, such as cyclones, coastal erosion, sea-level rise, tsunamis, tides and currents, with full respect for natural cycles, such as fish reproductive seasons, access to mangrove, etc. Each of these aspects requires looking after; however for sensible results these must be looked after in relation to each other, that is integrated management.

What are our impacts on coasts? Tourists and local visitors to the beaches cause destruction of natural habitats; fishing, specially over exploitation of fish and other living marine resources impoverish the biodiversity; dredging for sand and the extraction of various minerals, fish-farming installations, hotel and other buildings, sea-front constructions, boats, agricultural and industrial run-off from the coastal lands, upland water impoundment lead to the degradation of coral reefs and the pollution of lagoons. Soon the pristine waters so desirable to tourists and us alike can become a nightmare of pollution and ugliness. Major oil-spills as well as frequent discharge of oil into the sea add to the problem.

Finally a major human tragedy is the preference given by various governments and authorities the world over to rich developers over the local and original coastal communities, causing stress on their quality of life, welfare, education, health and housing. The remedy as applied to the Masai tribal communities living just outside Masai Mara Natural Game Park in Kenya applies to coastal communities of fishermen in Mauritius and to the people of Agalega: they must participate in the planning and development of their region, in day-to-day decisions and reap a substantial portion of the revenues, be it in the forms of jobs, training, better infrastructure, etc.

Coastal responsibility

Design and implement a campaign for different key target groups from coastal areas (from fishermen to campement owners, from school children to picnickers, from developers and coastal village counsellors, through tourists and tourism staff to all levels of decision-makers) to introduce this concept. Coastal responsibility, like environmental citizenship, involves both the rights to enjoy and duties to protect the coasts by all its users. A basic and successful learning approach consists of learners actually doing things (e.g. cleaning beaches, replanting mangroves, putting up posters and bins, monitoring fish landing, doing field ecological observations and measurements such as salinity, temperature of water, species distribution, oxygen and E. coli in lagoon water, etc.) as a means of obtaining first-hand knowledge, not book or electronic information. This is to be followed by environmental reporting, i.e. trained journalists, public relations officers and others to provide information to the public, special groups and the decision-makers about coastal zone events.

Michael ATCHIA