Eric Baran and John Hambrey

Labo. d'Ecologie, Bat. 403 R.de C. Universite, Lyon-1, 69 622 Villeurbanne, Cedex FRANCE

This paper focuses on relationships between estuarine zones and coastal fish resources in the tropics. Starting from general definitions of estuarine zones, we define the notion of the coastal estuary, then focus on mangrove zones as a particular case of a tropical estuarine environment in Southeast Asia. The role of the mangrove on fish resources from an ecological point of view is briefly reviewed, and a synthesis of current knowledge on the quantified relationships between the mangrove zone and the fishery resource is discussed.

Given that an estuarine fish community within a mangrove zone is made up of three main assemblages: continental, strictly estuarine and marine, respectively, we define the main characteristics of these assemblages, and then detail the different impacts of anthropogenic modifications of the estuarine functioning on these diverse assemblages. This systematic and detailed approach provides a rational and scientific foundation for resource economic analysis and coastal management decisions, and allows us to define priorities for further scientific and policy research in these areas.

Hodgson, G

Institute for Environment and Sustainable Development, Research Centre, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clearwater Bay, Kowloon, HONG KONG

Rehabilitation of marine ecosystems is expensive, and this is particularly the case with coral reefs. In cases where rehabilitation has been carried out, there must be some way to assess whether the investment was successful. In 1997, as part of the International Year of the Reef, a survey program called Reef Check was designed specifically to provide a quick view of the health of a cross-section of the world's reefs. Reef Check surveys using a single method were made at over 300 sites in 31 countries around the world that year. By using Reef Check survey methods alone, or in combination with others to monitor rehabilitated reefs, it will be possible to compare a variety of different reef types in most regions of the world. This should also assist in the assessment of rehabilitation efforts.

Peter Riggs

Rockefeller Brothers Fund, 1290 Avenue of the Americas, #3450 New York NY 10104-0233, U.S.A.

Traditionally, coastal communities of SE Asia have managed mangrove forests as a commons. The Regalian Doctrine of state ownership of natural resources has in many cases allowed powerful political actors to override the vernacular tenurial arrangements in these mangrove systems, and to privatise access to coastal mangrove resources, oftentimes by converting mangroves to shrimp ponds. The destruction of the commons and the externalisation of the environmental costs of shrimp aquaculture has left many of these areas over-exploited and derelict. Rehabilitation will be costly, and is unlikely to succeed unless it provides specific economic incentives for adjacent communities to support restoration activities.

Many observers in SE Asia today are calling for greater environmental accountability on the part of the shrimp aquaculture industry. Shrimp aquaculture has been among the most destructive coastal zone activities, but new technological breakthroughs coupled with a greater awareness of the costs imposed by inappropriate pond siting and development suggest that this industry can be put on a more sustainable footing. Interventions to spur change within the industry can come from both supply-side and demand-side initiatives--that is, from a change in productive relations at the pond level and changes in consumer behaviour to demand a product reflecting environmental and social values. One common approach to changing consumer behaviour is through the use of eco-labelling schemes.

This paper examines the interaction between mangrove rehabilitation, coastal resource tenure and community control of resources, and market differentiation of shrimp, based on social and environmental costs. One way to approach restoration is through granting communities secure use-rights to the rehabilitated system so as to ensure support for long-term solutions. Such reconstituted tenurial arrangements can draw upon both traditional common property management systems as well as new property relations grounded in the state's civil code. Tenurial rights would include rights to harvest fish and shrimp out of the regenerating system.

A further set of incentives for ecosystem protection and rehabilitation can come through a demand-side mechanism: the differential pricing of shrimp according to the production system. The paper explores an eco-labelling programme for these rehabilitated areas, in which local governments collaborate with shrimp exporters and independent third-party certifiers to build trust for "eco-friendly" shrimp. This demand-side approach can be coupled with supply-side efforts to raise funds for rehabilitation through preferential export schemes and environmental taxes or levies on industrial producers. Consumer willingness to pay a price premium for a product which reflects social and environmental values will only come about through greater public awareness of the social utility of avoiding the negative impacts often associated with shrimp aquaculture. Restoration activities themselves can be a means of building consumer awareness. The paper concludes by looking at various modes of financing such initiatives based on a sharing of transaction costs at each step along the product chain of custody (producers, processors, exporters, wholesalers, and retail consumers). The potential roles of the multilateral development banks, socially-progressive private investors, and national line agencies are also explored.

Peter van Treeck and Helmut Schuhmacher

Universität GH Essen, Institut für Ökologie, Abtlg. Hydrobiologie, D-45117 Essen, GERMANY

Diving has become a booming branch of the tourism business. The economies of many countries with reef-lined coasts depend on high numbers of dive tourists, and the inevitable degradation of reefs by mechanical breakdown and impoverishment of communities is put up with the short term gain from the tourism business. Many activities of recreational diving do not particularly require coral reefs - any varied three-dimensional structure (e.g. a wreck) may be sufficiently attractive. The conflict between the needs of nature conservation and the economic interests of diving tourism can be mitigated by the formation of artificial underwater attractions as reef substitutes. Based on experiments in the northern Red Sea we propose to deposit calcium minerals from the seawater in situ, by electrolysis on a template of any desired shape. After transplantation of living coral fragments, a diverse community will develop - considerably enhanced compared to the successive settlement by larvae. By this method, different modules can be designed and formed on the seabed to serve special applications, such as training, environmental education, recreation or rehabilitation. The implementation of recreational underwater parks has to follow an ecological "seascape" concept which will be outlined.

James Spurgeon

Posford Duvivier Environment, Rightwell House, Bretton, Peterborough, PE3 8DW, U.K.

As the number of coastal restoration initiatives increases, so too does the need and ability to determine their true socio-economic costs and benefits. Habitat restoration and creation is certainly in vogue, but does it represent an efficient use of resources? It is only after such initiatives have been undertaken that their full costs can be determined with any accuracy. Costs occur from the initial scoping stages, through the construction phase and continue in the form of on-going management and operational monitoring costs. "Opportunity costs" (i.e. the benefits foregone from an alternative use) must also be included. Predicting whole life restoration costs is inherently problematic given the complex and dynamic nature of the environment and the many uncertainties involved.

Equally, assessing the true socio-economic benefits of restoration schemes is complex and is only now becoming possible as the outcomes of current schemes begin to unfold. Furthermore, the techniques available to place monetary values on the environment are continuing to improve, enabling more comprehensive and accurate estimates of the value of the accruing benefits. Such benefits include, for example, direct (e.g. products and recreation) and indirect (e.g. physical protection) uses, as well as non-use (e.g. existence) values.

This paper provides an objective overview of the potential socio-economic costs and benefits relating to the restoration and creation of a diverse range of coastal habitats. The habitats examined include coral reefs, mangroves, sea-grasses, salt marshes, sand dunes, mudflats and lagoons. Factors affecting the magnitude of costs and benefits are highlighted, and the potential significance of different components of costs and benefits for each habitat type are identified. The appropriateness and value of using cost-benefit analysis to help assess and improve the effectiveness of coastal habitat restoration and creation is also discussed.

N.J. Stevenson1, P.R. Burbridge1 and J.F.Muir2

1 Centre for Tropical Coastal Management Studies, Department Marine Sciences and Coastal Management, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, U.K.
2 Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling, FK9 4LA, U.K.

The social and environmental problems of uncontrolled development of tropical coastal resources for shrimp aquaculture have been widely documented, and can be compounded by the abandonment of unsuccessful production. There are convincing environmental, social and economic arguments for converting or rehabilitating disused shrimp ponds, and for creating alternative and sustainable livelihoods in affected areas. However, little work has so far been conducted to elucidate the conditions associated with disused ponds, or to identify the implications these may have for future alternative uses or functions.

The percentage of ponds left truly idle is not known, though many pond operators attempt alternative income generating activities in disused ponds. These are often unsustainable, unsuccessful, and may even contribute to further habitat degradation. Examples include the sale of pond top soil for construction projects in parts of Thailand, attempts at blood cockle and mussel mariculture in parts of Thailand (largely unsuccessful due to lack of seed, predation problems, lack of investment credit, and insufficient technology transfer), and seaweed culture in the Philippines (which have failed for unknown reasons).

Where restoration is attempted, efforts to date have focused almost exclusively on mangrove planting in ponds built in previous mangrove forest, though many ponds were created in already degraded lands, fish ponds, rice paddies, sugar cane or coconut plantations. All too frequently these restoration efforts centre on active planting schemes, without site evaluations or assessment of the potential for secondary succession, and yet evidence suggests that in many cases planting may be unnecessary.

Basic information on pond condition and local context should form the starting point for any rehabilitation activity, and efforts should be encouraged to rehabilitating ponds in the full range of land use types. A more rational and rigorous approach should be adopted to assist communities to identify promising livelihood options/income generating activities, and to develop and implement remedial action. This should include: identification of stakeholder objectives, opportunities and constraints through participatory diagnoses; identification of conditions in ponds following disuse; case studies; monitoring of experimental plots and control sites; and community training and awareness programmes. A 'decision support system' based on questions and answers and reasons for rejecting options is presented as a means to evaluate management options in disused shrimp ponds.

Tenshi Ayukai1, Hiromi Nakano2, and Makoto Ogawa3

1 Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), Townsville, AUSTRALIA

2 Kansai Electric Power Co., Inc. (KEPCO), Osaka, JAPAN

3 Kansai Environmental Engineering Center Co. Ltd. (KEEC), Osaka, JAPAN

Annual net photosynthetic production rates in mangrove forests are as high as those reported for tropical rainforests. Mangrove ecosystems as a whole also act as an efficient trap for organic carbon and other materials. These findings have led to the realisation that mangrove ecosystems play an important role in the fixation and storage of atmospheric carbon dioxide and added a new rationale for the conservation and restoration of mangrove ecosystems (Twilley et al., 1992; Ong, 1993).

KEPCO, KEEC and AIMS have agreed to further the understanding of carbon dynamics in mangrove ecosystems and develop carbon mass balance models to be used as a tool for the development of cost-effective measures for the conservation and restoration of these ecosystems. Japanese and Australian scientists are now working in 6,000 ha of relatively pristine mangrove forests in NE Australia and, in the next few years, will enter a new phase of their collaborative work in SE Asia, where mangrove ecosystems have been heavily exploited for various economic activities, including charcoal production, mariculture and urban development. This paper outlines the basic principle of our "mass balance" approach and reports the current status of the KEPCO-KEEC-AIMS joint project.

Patricia Carvalho, Nick Harvey and Bev Clarke

Mawson Graduate Centre for Environmental Studies, University of Adelaide, SA 5005, AUSTRALIA

In 1996, a major survey was conducted in order to identify the training needs of various target groups of coastal managers in South Australia. The survey was the first phase of a larger national project focusing on the development of training programmes for Australian coastal managers. These training programmes are an important aspect of a broader capacity-building approach sponsored by the Commonwealth Department of Environment, Sport and Territories.

The study included a questionnaire, which was distributed to all South Australian coastal councils and relevant community groups. A survey of existing tertiary training courses in South Australia related to coastal management was also conducted. Results showed that Coastal Planning, Coastal Ecology, Habitat Protection and Tourism and Recreation were the four main issues identified by both local government and community groups for further training. The research results have been used in the design of regional workshops, which are currently being delivered by the Local Government Training Authority of South Australia.

MANAGEMENT OF MARINE HABITATS IN TROPICAL NORTH-EASTERN AUSTRALIA

Anne Clarke and Robert Coles

Department of Primary Industries, Northern Fisheries Centre, Cairns, Queensland, AUSTRALIA

New legislation in the Queensland Fisheries Act of 1994 provides for the protection of all marine plants except where a permit under the Act has been issued. The Act also allows for habitat reserves, and for a restoration order to be made if works in tidal areas are considered likely to damage a habitats that supports fisheries.

Queensland has some 34 species of mangroves and 14 species of seagrass. While it has a relatively low population of approximately 3.5 million people, this is likely to double in the next 50 years. About 90% of the population live in the coastal strip and there is considerable pressure to develop coastal areas for agriculture, urban expansion, tourist development and aquaculture.

The Department of Primary Industries in Queensland has developed an operational policy which provides a set of protocols to enable decisions to be made on the clearing of mangroves, and any work conducted below the high tide. These decisions are made on a basis that is fair to all applicants, while ensuring the best protection for the habitat. The protocols include requirements for restoration and mitigation. This paper examines two restoration cases: one involving an aquaculture development, and another, a tourist property development. We examine the problems associated with the application of policy in a fair manner, and of the restoration of valuable fishery habitats.

S. Morris

Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, PO Box 1379, Townsville 4810, AUSTRALIA

There is comprehensive and unambiguous evidence that terrestrial inputs of nutrient and sediment to the coastal waters of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area (GBRWHA) have increased significantly . However to date, there is limited scientific evidence to demonstrate that these increased inputs have led to a direct decline of inshore reefs of the Great Barrier Reef. Despite this, factors such as declining fisheries and the rapid draining and clearing of the coastal floodplain has led the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority to target nutrients, sediments and pesticides at the source. To this end GBRMPA's principal strategy is an active and open liaison with State and Local governments, agricultural and urban peak groups, and the general community. This enables the development of workable environmental strategies, from the river catchment to the reef. Issues associated with riverine and coastal decline are relatively straight-forward to identify. Although management strategies are readily developed through industry, government and community consultation, the implementation and compliance to these strategies is however, difficult to achieve. Education and the extension of improved farm management and urban waste control techniques are the current tools for change. Stakeholder awareness of the potential impacts of some management strategies has increased significantly, yet the degradation of the coastal floodplain still occurs at an alarming rate.