Legal Aspects of the Coastal Zone Management

“Coastal zone”is an area with interface between the land and the sea, and naturally contains unique character with multi-dimensional values, enjoyed by different users, based on different purposes, and finally led to conflicts among various stakeholders. To promote sustainable management of coastal zone as well as sustainable development, a new mechanism called “Integrated Coastal Zone Management or ICZM”was introduced for maintaining both “ interdependence”between environment and development and “integration”of various measures, policies, processes, institutions and full public participation through coordinating mechanisms at both the local and national levels. ICZM is used by most coastal countries to ensure that all activities relating to the coast will harmoniously function to achieve common goals rather than replacing the traditional single-sector resources management. Thailand is on the process of introducing ICZM to the existing system.