Progress on coastal management in Ecuador (2007-2017)

Abstract

The disaster caused by shrimp acuaculture in the mangrove forests of Ecuador was the driving force for internationally approved state action. For more than two decades Ecuador had been implementing a program of management of coastal resources (1986–2008). Furthermore, political changes in Ecuador between 2007 and 2017 also affected coastal management. These changes have been observed by analysing five key aspects related to ICZM: politics, strategies, regulation, institutions and instruments. The results obtained indicate that the management of marine areas and resources were not well situated within the political agenda. Additionally the model employed for coastal management over the past decade was not the result of a specific policy of ICZM. On the contrary, the coast was governed by more general unconnected policies, namely environmental, spatial planning and social and economic policies. Additionally Ecuador does not currently have the primary regulations in place to facilitate ICZM. Part of the previous regulation related to coastal management was repealed, meaning that the most relevant instruments of ICZM are struggling to move forward due to weak institutional capacity. It follows from the above that the coastal management model is at best confusing; implementation is slow and it returns poor results. With direct participation of coastal resource users and a leading role being played by local public administration, interesting efforts can be observed in relation to guiding coastal management in protected coastal zones.