Principles for sustainable governance of the coastal zone: In the context of coastal disasters

As increasing numbers of the global population gravitate toward the coasts, pressure mounts on ecosystems and the infrastructure at coastal locations. In the coastal zone many problems have arisen, including coastal population growth and degradation of natural capital, from the neglect of the four capitals that enhance sustainability: natural, built, social and human. New strategies need to be devised that will allow coastal communities to continue to live in these regions without further degrading natural capital. The Brundtland Report initiated the idea of sustainability, which was further advanced at United Nations meetings in Stockholm (1972) and Rio de Janeiro (1992). Following these meetings and the adoption of Agenda 21, concern about growing pressures on the oceans lead to an Independent World Commission on the Oceans (IWCO) workshop where a number of Principles for Sustainable Governance of the Oceans (Costanza, R., Andrade, F., et al., 1998) were developed. In the light of recent coastal disasters such as the Indonesian Tsunami (2004) and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita (2005), this paper examines the current problems inherent in the coastal zone and attempts to develop new principles for sustainability using the IWCO derived principles as a springboard.