The Shoreline between Nature and Society, a Changing Heritage - Vulnerability of Coastal Ecosystems and Adaptation - page 209

attributed to this term. It supposes a world of organized responsible
fishing, able to understand the stakes and to help the participants to
accept decisions that are sometimes difficult; this is true for all
professions (the world of ship-owners and ports, of real estate, etc.). It
is administrative as too many sea-related administration bodies (and
the case of France is crystal clear) hold diverging positions that
neglect the viewpoint of the professions of the sector they
administrate. The 17 administrations dealing with marine and coastal
issues in France have to discuss constantly in order for the higher
interest to win over small groups. A General Secretariat of the sea,
with the guidance of the National Council of Coastlines, could have a
very positive impact if its local delegates were responsible, well
informed and endowed with a spirit of innovation. On the spatial
scale, integration should enable considering the totality of the space
qualified as coherent, linking the land to the sea and detaching its
action priorities toward a sustainable form of development, i.e.
respectful of the ecological balance responsible for the given resource,
limiting exploitation (of biological species as well as of the space
itself). Spatial integration means a geographical area of dialogue but
not necessarily, as many people assume, spatial “zonation” or the
reinforcement of the constraints on the limits which at sea are difficult
to determine. Finally, it involves the integration of science in the
stakeholder discussion, and of course integration within the scientific
community, as the latter still too often reflects paralyzing divisions.
Natural and life sciences should have an open dialogue with human
and social sciences in order to go beyond pure science, to propose
solutions to all non-specialists who are sensible and intelligible to
each and everyone involved. This is not the smallest of stakes in the
integrated coastal management; the latter is an iterative and highly
democratic concept in that it implies that each stakeholder should be
the master of its destiny. This new form of governance is only a tool
when considered in isolation, as it is broad and decentralized. It
enables both economic development and the protection/conservation
of the shorelines and seas as heritage in the more common sense of the
term, i.e. what humans inherit and should conserve and strive to
improve. It is a simple and realistic tool, not remotely similar to the
gas factory that some administrations, the French one in particular, put