Coastal management in Mexico: Improvements after the marine and coastal policy publication

Abstract

Despite the extent of the coastal line and the important heritage of Mexico, it was not until 2006 that the "National Environmental Policy for the Sustainable Development of Oceans and Coasts of Mexico” (NPOCM) was presented, and a formal revision was approved in 2011. After three years of its approval, it is convenient to identify the coastal problematic advancement and the progress of Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) to address them. A combination of three methodologies was used: (i) the “Global Environmental Outlook” methodology to identify driving forces and pressures, and to establish the coastal environmental state and the impacts in coastal populations; (ii) an exploratory survey to experts in coastal management was distributed by e-mail among the members of the "Mexican Network of Coastal-Marine Management" as well as key people and NGOs members; and (iii) the Decalogue methodology to analyze the government responses as the key issues in the State Public Administration. Far from being included and incorporated into the political agenda, the ICZM is still in an early stage of execution. The main problems identified are the lack of political will; poor cooperation between different government institutions; absence of monitoring programs; and the lack of allocation of financial resources in ICZM.