Combining project-based and normative approaches to upscale ICZM implementation

Highlights :

- In recent decades, Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) has emerged as a major tool for the implementation of sustainable development in coastal areas. Its application, although still undergoing development, has mobilized considerable human and financial resources for 20, 30 or even 40 years depending on the region. This makes the issue of the relevance and effectiveness of the resources deployed a particularly important matter

- Yet ICZM implementation is currently essentially done through projects to the detriment of a normative approach, which undoubtedly raises questions in terms of public policy. The project approach, and its primacy, is problematic: in addition to acknowledged intrinsic limits of the project approach, its success in bringing change in the way coastal zones are managed Combiningproject-based and normative approaches to upscale ICZM implementation is far from flattering. Indeed, despite the many initiatives and local and/or occasional successes, problems of pollution and resource overexploitation remain and are even intensifying in many regions.

- The deployment of the project approach corresponds to an intellectual and administrative automatism which is not intended to address the fundamental strategic question: what form of intervention would be most appropriate in a specific context, taking into account objectives, available means and anticipated resistances? In this context, the paper looks for a better balance between traditional project and emerging normative approaches. Based on several examples chosen in different regions, it shows that the project approach gains a serious momentum if it is articulated with a legal framework, be it existing or emerging.