Integrated Coastal Zone Management in the People’s Republic of China – An Assessment of Structural Impacts on Decision-making Processes

Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) forms a generally accepted concept to ensure sustainable development in the coastal zone. The implementation of the ICZM framework as formulated, e.g. by the World Coast Conference, is often constrained by the political system within which it should be applied. This is the case in the People's Republic of China. This study takes a political science perspective based on approaches inherent in neo-institutional and administrative theories. This way the relevant political structures are explained and the impacts that the transformation of the socioeconomic system had on institutions are located. This is extended by the reflection of related political power distribution. This part of the analysis mainly contains existing knowledge on (integrated) CZM in China but evaluates it from a so far neglected point of view. The second part of the paper is taking the successful local ICZM approach of Xiamen and a proposed approach for Shanghai as an example to show that the adaptation of a working approach to other parts of the country is impossible without modifications to the organizational structures of decision-making and implementation. So far the literature emphasizes mostly modifications in content. An important reason for structural elements being comparably important is the choice of ICZM issues and the local power distribution. It furthermore shows that these are also the determining factors obstructing the upscaling of a local approach to the national level, a fact which constrains the formulation of national guidelines in China and leaves only the bottom-up alternative of introducing ICZM to China – a hard task that leaves a disproportional responsibility to the local governmental level. Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) aims to solve worldwide-perceived problems of the coastal zone. Especially population growth and urbanization trends pose a long-term threat to a sustainable development in the region. The People's Republic of China (PRC, China hereafter) currently has a population of 1.3 billion, the world's largest population of a country. Furthermore, for twenty years the country has experienced immense economic development [1]. Both, demographic and economic growth, are the strongest in the coastal provinces. The Chinese continental coastline consists of 18 000 km 1. Since economic reforms initiated by Deng Xiaoping in 1979 five Special Economic Zones (SEZ) were established along the coast. Some national surveys on the ocean's resources and ways of profitable exploitation followed 2. The area still gains in economic importance. Furthermore the coastal zone represents the …