Why did we undertake this study?
Adaptive management is considered integral to Integrated Coastal Management (ICM). Yet, adaptive management practice has faced many challenges. In this study we examined the legal factors influencing adaptive management.
How was it done?
In Byron Shire, New South Wales, Australia, we investigated juridical constraints to adaptive coastal management. Belongil Beach, a coastal erosion hotspot in Byron Shire, was the focus of our case study. We analysed documents (i.e. legislation, case law, management documents, and academic publications) and interviewed 23 key informants, including government, non-government organisations, legal experts, and technical experts, to gain their perspectives on the legal barriers to adaptive coastal management.
What did we find?
Byron Shire has struggled with a legal storm which has produced three waves so far, each associated with an unsuccessful attempt by the local council to deliver a coastal management plan that adopts an adaptive management framework. Main juridical constraints to adaptive coastal management are:
- existing use rights attached to pre-1988 lawful coastal development, which have prevented the implementation of a coordinated and adaptive planned retreat policy. Enforcement of such a policy could only occur if coastal landowners are compensated on the basis of the current property market value; and
- court agreements entered into between the state and local governments and coastal landowners, which have created a layer of protection on existing ad hoc Settlements were likely motivated by coastal landowners allegations that coastal protection works carried out by the local council in the 1960s aggravated erosion along Belongil Beach.
Current legal barriers have resulted in a reactive (rather than adaptive) approach to coastal management in Byron Shire.
Implications
Our case study illustrates how an emphasis on legal certainty can create legacies and path dependencies that hinder adaptive coastal management. This research calls attention to the need for legal reform to better accommodate adaptive management in coastal management legislation.
Learn more
The full paper is available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2019.104909
Citation: Frohlich, MF, Smith, TF, Jacobson, C, Fidelman, P, Carter, RWB, Baldwin, C, 2019. Towards adaptive coastal management: lessons from a “legal storm” in Byron Shire, Australia. Ocean and Coastal Management 179, 104909.
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Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council Discovery Projects Funding Scheme (Project FT180100652) and a Research Training Program (RTP) scholarship. This work contributes to Future Earth Coasts, a Global Research Project of Future Earth. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Australian Government, Australian Research Council or Future Earth Coasts.