The Severn Estuary Strategy: a consensus approach to estuary management

Many organisations and government agencies regulate and manage the British Coastal Zone. This framework is often criticised as inefficient because of its fragmented approach. A need exists to prevent duplication of work and inconsitencies between coastal initiatives and plans that the current statutory process does not address. Consequently, both statutory and non-statutory authorities increasingly rely on a non-statutory approach to compliment the statutory process and address co-ordination, integration and consensus-building issues in coastal zone and estuary management. The Severn Estuary Strategy (SES) is an independent organisation following international integrated coastal management principles in a large, multi-use estuary with complex management and planning arrangements. This case study considers the main consensus-building techniques used by the SES, including the Stakeholder Decision Analysis process. These techniques involve stakeholders from the public, private and voluntary sectors. We have investigated the performance of the SESʹs consensus approach to estuary management by means of telephone interviews with founding members of the management group and representatives of commerce and industry. Findings suggest that the process has helped to instil more confidence between the various stakeholders, reduce tension, promote trust and co-operation, create a willingness to understand Estuary issues and become involved in the estuary management process.