INNOVATION IN COASTAL ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE: AN ANALYSIS

Environmental governance is the adjudicative procedure which contains the effective regulation along with the management of the environment as well as natural resources. Coastal environmental governance includes the control and administration of coastal areas, which has the ecosystem that strengthens the biodiversity, cultural heritage of indigenous fishermen and economy. The coastal environment is dynamic in nature. The emergence of liberalisation, globalisation and privatisation impacted the coastal environment also. The advent of the blue economy has more significance on countries’ economies, though it has impacted in other ways over the environment and in the lives of the indigenous coastal community people. The anthropological activities which include construction of beach resorts, buildings, coastal infrastructure, ship building, mining of beach sand also has a greater consequence in the coastal environment viz., biodiversity loss, pollution and climate change. Marginalised and vulnerable coastal community people suffer consistently because of this. The coastal environment is governed by United Nations Law of Sea 1982, MARPOL 1973, Ramsar Convention on Wetlands 1971, Paris agreement on climate change 2015, Convention on biological diversity 1992 and in national level the laws are Coastal Regulation Zone Notification 2019, Indian Fisheries Act 1897, Environmental protection Act 1986, Wildlife protection Act, 1972, Marine Fishing Regulation Act 1978, Water Act 1974, National Biodiversity Act 2002, Blue Economy Policy 2021. In spite of numerous legal frameworks, still the coastal environmental governance has its own insufficiencies. Inadequacy of involving the indigenous coastal community people in the decision-making process is the major drawback of coastal environment governance in many countries. The use of technologically advanced AI models to predict coastal hazards, fisheries management and enhancing the warning system for storms and floods, for debris tracking and coastal surveillance will enhance the governance system. The researcher in this paper will analyse the existing legal frameworks in detail and suggest plausible suggestions by which the same can be amended with the adaptation of innovative practices to have an effective coastal environmental governance.
* Assistant Professor at Vels Institute of Science, Technology & Advanced Studies (VISTAS),