Evaluation of Coastal Management in Brazil: Union, States and Municipalities

Abstract

One of the steps of an Integrated Coastal Management (ICM) is the evaluation of the whole process. This work assessed the Brazilian Coastal Zone Management Program based on publications exploring the structure of this management at the federal level, in the state of Santa Catarina and local level in the city of Florianópolis /SC. These publications considered the 10 descriptors of the Decalogue for ICM and their results were standardized for the analysis. Each descriptor was evaluated in relation to Existence, Implementation and Frequent Evaluation, assigning a value from one (irrelevant progress) to five (relevant progress). The results indicate a better implementation at Federal level, when compared to States and Municipalities. The establishment of the National Plan for Coastal Management and the definition of the management mechanisms in legal norms explain the high score of the indicators for Existence in the three levels of government. However, the Implementation of the same descriptors often do not occur, as it should. It stands out positively the Existence of the descriptors Competences, Institutions, Instruments and Knowledge of the coastal zone, mainly at Federal level. However, the descriptors Training, Capacity Building and Resources have been negatively assessed, obtaining low scores in the three levels of government. All the descriptors had a low score when evaluated for municipality. At local level, where conflicts emerge and impacts are evident, the current structure and strategies for coastal management are not fulfilling their roles. It is also pointed out that all descriptors evaluated, presented a low score in the analysis of their Frequent Evaluation. This result shows a failure in the coastal management cycle, as it is not possible to improve in a process that is not monitored and evaluated. Thus, this work points out some of the deficiencies in the structure and strategies of ICM in Brazil, contributing to its evaluation.