WHAT IS A COASTAL STRATEGY?

Objective of Coastal Strategy

The objective of a Coastal Strategy is to provide the stakeholders with a common vision and framework for action in developing and managing their shared coastal area. Coastal Strategy document is a unified, echoed and parallel voice of stakeholders, written by the stakeholders and formulated in a form of a written documentation. It is a tool that clearly defines a common vision, mission and action plans and program that has to be undertaken by the stakeholders to achieve the common goal.


Process of Developing Coastal Strategy

A series of consultative and participative processes were conducted among the stakeholders in the project area to formulate the Strategy. In the workshop, participants were asked to identify all the values, resources and economic activities that play a major role in the Klang and Kuala Langat districts. Then, corresponding to each of the values and resources mentioned, they were asked to identify the prominent threats to the respective values and its relative impacts.

Value can be of economic, historical features and environmental services. This includes ports and shipping, residential, industry, fisheries, aquaculture, mining, poultry rearing, historical sites, mangrove, birds’ migration spots and shoreline protection, among others. Basically this deals with what the benefits, tangible and intangible coastal area has to offer to its tenants.

Threats basically concerns on the human activities that threatening the balanced relationship between the coastal and marine ecosystems and its surroundings. This can come in the form of pollution, habitat destruction, unsustainable resources extraction and multiple-use conflicts. This consequence arises from, among others, lack of coordination, lack of awareness, and lack of proper planning and also a loophole in the legislation. The threats’ impact on the values has to be accessed and evaluated for action plan formation.

Vision is a one common, long-term goal of the coastal zone area. This can be of a ten or twenty years’ aspiration.

Mission is a short-term goal for the coastal zone area. This is of a shorter term, component goal of the vision of a one, two or three year timeframe.

Strategies outline each probable approaches and outline to make the vision a reality. This strategy can be of a management, education, communication and technical approach. Among the strategy that can be used is as follow:
                    o Sustain
                    o Protect
                    o Preserve
                    o Mitigate
                    o Prevent
                    o Develop
                    o Manage
                    o Inform

In formulating each of the strategy, we have to define key objectives of the strategy, together with its action program and its corresponding lead agency/sector.