Some Institutional Constraints to Coastal Zone Management: A Case Study of Hawaii Revisited

The coastal zone plays a strategic role in Hawaii´s economy. The pressures of different uses on the state´s coastal zone have been escalating rapidly in recent years, causing an increasing variety of management problems. Gopalakrishnan and Rutka identified and critically examined in 1974 the institutional constraints to the effective management of Hawaii´s vital shoreline: the oligopoly in shoreline ownership; conflicts and controversies among an array of shoreline interests; jurisdictional overlapping and the lack of interagency coordination; and the absence of effective institutional mechanisms to incorporate public interest in coastal zone legislation. The study developed a strong case for drastically revamping Hawaii´s archaic institutional infrastructure. The period 1972-86 has seen a number of developments in institutionalizing coastal land use decision making, the most important of which was the establishment of the Hawaii Coastal Zone Management Program in 1978. However, this elaborate system has not been able to effectively address the major constraints to coastal zone management in Hawaii and, in general, the four conclusions of the 1974 study remain valid today.