Decentralization and participation in integrated coastal management: Policy lessons from Brazil and Indonesia

Indonesia and Brazil, two large countries with long coastlines, have seen dramatic political changes over past decades. The New Constitution of 1988 in Brazil and the reform movement of 1998 in Indonesia both marked the beginning of a new political era in the respective countries. An important pillar of this was the decentralization of authority. At the same time, the notion of integrated coastal management found its way into national legislation and policies. Key terms during these new eras in both Brazil and Indonesia are decentralization, participation, democratization and, in the context of coastal management, integration. Despite the enactment of promising new laws and policies, and despite local examples of success, implementation still faces a number of challenges in both countries. Inefficiencies and weaknesses of the institutional and legal frameworks have resulted in local mismanagement and misappropriation, a high degree of non-compliance, conflicts between resource users and tension and mistrust between different levels and sections of government. Moreover, the disempowered situation of poorer local ecosystem users largely continues. We argue here that for coastal management to become socially more just and environmentally more benign, local communities need to be better informed, capacitated and officially supported in their quest to protect the ecosystems which their livelihoods depend on. Local ecosystem usersʹ social energies and capacities may be essential to respond to ecosystem stakeholders which do not share local ecosystem usersʹ sustainability agendas.