ABSTRACT
Coastal planning and management activities are generally so strongly linked that in successful coastal programs they are almost indistinguishable. Coastal programs have become a melting pot for various planning and management techniques which have crossed over from other disciplines. Consensual planning processes have become the most widely used approach for integrated coastal plans at the regional and local levels. Increased community empowerment and the problems caused by more directive planning styles have lead to different community-based, collaborative and co-management methods of coastal management planning. Governments are increasingly realising the long-term benefits of engaging all stakeholders on the coast in coastal program development. Coastal program managers are increasingly required to include monitoring and evaluation measures into program design at the outset – a difficult task without a set of commonly accepted coastal management performance measures.
