Why Are International Coastal Areas so Important?

I have pulled out a few comments from the United Nations COMMISSION ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT (UNCSD), 18 April-3 May 1996.

The UN Commission on Economic Development said "The marine environment - including the oceans and all seas and adjacent coastal areas - forms an integrated whole that is an essential component of the global life-support system and a positive asset that presents opportunities for sustainable development". Coastal areas are home to 60 per cent of the world's population. Oceans, which cover 71 per cent of the Earth's surface, contain a vast proportion of the world's biodiversity. They are a major sink for atmospheric carbon and for the toxins and chemical substances (whether natural or man-made) carried by continental effluents and through the atmosphere, as well as a powerful regulator of the world's climate. The importance attached to oceans is further related to four significant factors:

(a) The high density of human population in the coastal zone, often within a narrow band of about 60 km, which creates pressure on a potentially fragile environment and its ecosystems and resources, both coastal and marine;

(b) The progressive degradation of marine and coastal natural resources under the combined effect of excessive rates of use and pollution;

(c) An ever-increasing awareness that the ocean is a basic governing force for life on this planet, particularly for small island countries, and that better understanding of its physical and biological mechanisms, including their interaction with atmospheric processes, is essential to decision-making aiming at sustainable development;

(d) The recognition that a precautionary approach to ocean development and management is necessary to take into account current uncertainties regarding ocean (and related atmospheric) processes and to protect the options for development available to future generations."

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