Basic HTML Version
International Journal of Marine Science 2013, Vol.3, No.46, 389-401
http://ijms.sophiapublisher.com
395
Authority (SPA) without coordinating with any other
actor in coastal management and focusing only on the
construction of coastal protection structures, has
prepard a shoreline management plan for many parts
of the Mediterranean Sea (SPA, 2008). In this regard,
one of the interviewees highlighted that
“The SPA
implements many projects on the Mediterranean coast
to protect the shore from erosion without any
coordination with the EEAA or any other agency”
. In
the same way, another interviewee who is working in
one of the EEAA Regional Branch Offices RBOs
commented that “
we have no idea about the SPA plans
for coastal protection, we have not been invited to
participate in preparing these plans and we have not
been informed about the proposed plans regarding our
coastal zone
”
.
The Port Said project illustrates another example of
lack of horizontal integration in Egypt. According to
the project documents and interviews with its key
actors; although both of the Central Directorate of
Irrigation Advisory Service (IAS) and the SPA are
affiliated to the same ministry of Water Resources and
Irrigation, the former was one of the main partners of
the project and the latter had no idea about the project.
Nevertheless the SPA started to prepare a shoreline
management plan for the Port Said coastal
zoneindependently from this ICZM project (Tahoun,
2007; IAS, 2008).
Moreover, Egypt also lacks integration between the
disciplines of coastal management. This can be
illustrated through the gap in cooperation between
decision makers and environmentalists regarding the
government efforts to further expand and develop
tourism in Egypt (Ibrahim, 2009). In particular, the
government offers tourism business activities a 5-year
tax exemption on all profits accrued during that period.
This can potentially contradict efforts to control
existing coastal damage, considering that hotel and
resort construction is a significant contributor to
coastal and coral degradation (Sherbiny et al., 2006).
In other words, the financial incentives used to
promote tourism growth and development contradicts
the less successful command-and-control methods
used to address environmental sustainability.
Further to this, the ICZM in Egypt also lacks policy
integration. For example, by reviewing the Port Said
project documents it was clear that the project had not
integrated any other policies or plans, as it was
concentrating on irrigation and agriculture. To be
more specific, although Port Said offers considerable
potentials and capabilities for tourism development in
terms of physical, environmental, natural, historical
and cultural resources, the project has not dealt with
these potentials at all and has concentrated on
irrigation management and agriculture (AbdelWahab,
2009). In fact, the General Organization for Physical
Planning (GOPP) prepared a strategy for the same
area concentrating on tourism development in Port
Said and aimed to utilize its capabilities and potentials
in supporting and accelerating tourism development
for Port Said. However, this has not even been
acknowledged by the Port Said ICZM project neither
has the GOPP been involved in the ICZM project
(GOPP, 2008). Moreover, a number of decisions were
taken by the central government to change the
character of Port Said from a mere commercial avenue
to a comprehensive development region, e.g. by
allocating an industrial zone on the outskirts of the
city of Port Said and making use of the unique
location of Port Said in promoting a new port for
container traffic through the project of Sharq El Tafria
(Elshinnawy, 2009). However, Port Said ICZM project
has neither recognized these projects nor their effects
on the ICZM plan (El-Quosy, 2009). The project has
emphasized the development of water irrigation and
agricultural sectors due to the partners limited
experience in other sectors and a lack of integration
with other stakeholders. Above all, the project has not
acknowledged the potential impacts of climate
change, especially sea level rise, in the project area,
although the most optimistic scenario expected that
rises in sea level in the Port Said area will affect
210km
2
(15% of the governorate area) (Elshinnawy,
2009, El-Raey, 2004).
Furthermore, vertical integration is also completely
lacking in coastal management. For instance, one of
the interviewees asserted:
“there is neither
communication nor integration between the
Environmental Management Unit (EMU) and the RBO
as each of them is affiliated to a different ministry”
. In
the same way, another interviewee stressed:
“there is a
great overlap between the EMU and RBO mandates
and there is lack of coordination between both of them”
.
More emphasis and further details were given by