Conflict Management and Consensus Building for Integrated Coastal Management in Latin America and the Caribbean

FOREWORD On June 17, 1998 the Bank's Board of Directors favorably considered a new Strategy for Coastal and Marine Resources Management. The Strategy provides new directions for Bank activities in coastal and marine areas in Latin America and the Caribbean, a region endowed with a unique and valuable maritime heritage. The strategy calls for a renewed, more integrated approach to investments and non-lending services aimed at improving the quality of life of communities dependent on coastal resources and helping coastal states attain sustainable development from the headwaters of coastal watersheds to the outer limits of their exclusive economic zone. One of the strategy's fundamental elements is the promotion of processes for avoiding and resolving conflicts in the coastal zone. Coastal management often calls for reconciling divergent objectives among competing sectors. The capacity to resolve resource conflicts is one of the key elements of coastal governance. Although the strategy paper gives appropriate attention to conflict resolution techniques available to resource managers, it also recognizes the need to disseminate more specific good practices and lessons learned in the region. This paper, financed with resources from the Netherlands Environment Technical Cooperation Trust Fund, aims to partly fill that void. It provides an impressive summary of conflict management issues and options in the challenging cultural, ecological, economic and social context of Latin America and the Caribbean. It does so with three case studies in Central America where the effects of Hurricane Mitch in 1998 have had a major impact on communities living in coastal areas. This report's lessons and recommendations to the Bank will be of great use to practitioners in the field and to the Bank. Hopefully, it will assist in the promotion of the application of consensus building and dispute resolution processes for achieving sustainable development. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This paper was commissioned by the Bank's Environment Division with resources from the Netherlands Environment Technical Cooperation Trust Fund and prepared by Resource Analysis, a consulting firm based in Delft, the Netherlands. Frank Rijsberman was project leader and edited the report. Danielle Hirsch was coordinator of the three case studies in Central America. She was the liaison between the consultants in Central America and the rest of the team, and worked on the case study material provided by the consultants in Honduras and Nicaragua. She also carried out a review visit to the IDB. Saskia Werners was responsible for the literature review and provided part …