The role of the community in decision-making for coastal planning and management in New South Wales

Everybody wants access to the coast. The NSW coast is where people want to live, do business, create development and where people want to recreate (Holliday 1998). -- This thesis is about coastal management in NSW, Australia. Specifically, it's a study of the role that individuals and community groups have in the decision-making process for issues affecting the coastal zone and its management. The current international benchmark for coastal management is the concept of "integrated coastal management (ICM)" (Cicin-Sain and Knecht, 1998). This implies a particular "focus on the interactions between the various activities and resource demands that occur within the coastal zone and between coastal zone activities in other regions (OECD 1993)." Stewardship, that is, a sense of public ownership, responsibility and involvement in decision-making of natural resources and the manner in which they are utilised or protected, is a key component of ICM today and for the future. -- In this thesis, I argue that the current planning and management system for coastal management in New South Wales is not adequately equipped to monitor and evaluate public involvement / participation in the development and review of coastal management policies and programs. The current system, although responding to change, is off-track and there is a grave danger that a cynical and badly consulted public will lose interest in the management and protection of this precious resource. I will present a case that argues for the development of a model that monitors and evaluates public participation in coastal planning and management policies and programs, and recommend that it becomes imbeded within the New South Wales Coastal Policy as a tool that can be used by individuals, community groups and government to more effectively manage our coasts.