Abstract
Coastal zones provide considerable benefits to society while at the same time human activities exert pressure on coastal ecosystems, therefore threatening those same benefits. To promote the sustainable use of coastal zone resources many countries have introduced Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) as a mechanism to effectively manage the coastal zone and the conflicts of interest arise from competition for coastal space and resources. However the ICZM initiative to be operational, it needs to be formally adopted and supported by the necessary financial resources. In particular, achieving cooperation and integration between different levels of government to engage an ICZM process is always difficult, requiring financial resources. For this reason many ICZM schemes in the developing countries have failed at the implementation stage due to difficulties typically found in most developing countries, such as financial capacity. For instance it has been argued that in the Mediterranean developing countries, financial resources are not sufficient to allow for a thorough implementation of ICZM particularly at the operational stage.
This paper reviews ICZM process in Egypt focussing on discussing the financial resources to plan and implement ICZM based on interviews with key ICZM actors as well as documentary analysis and participant observation in ICZM meetings. It seeks through a critical evaluation to provide some practical recommendations that could help to enhance the implementation of ICZM in Egypt and other developing countries.