Draft Guidelines for Drafters and Negotiators of the Protocol on Integrated Coastal Zone Management to the Nairobi Convention

Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) has grown conceptually and operationally mainly in the last four decades since its inception in the United States of America in the early 1970s. The concept and practice of ICZM is not yet well understood, although it has gained widespread acceptance as a management system and vehicle for rational and sustainable utilization of coastal zone resources and uses. ICZM may be described generally as the management of human activities for sustainable use of coastal resources through proper policy management and technological interventions. It is deemed to be a useful management system that provides the essential approaches, methodologies, and a management framework for the attainment of sustainable development.

This Guidelines document is expected to offer guiding principles and explanations to guide both the drafters and the negotiators of the ICZM Protocol, by seeking to provide more clarity, understanding and rationale of the articles on ICZM concepts and issues as they appear in the 7th Draft ICZM Protocol.

The guiding principles and explanations are not justifications for the articles on ICZM concepts and issues in the draft ICZM Protocol, but an attempt to offer explanations that may help the drafters to better understand the core issue in each article, around which to craft well defined articles.