The United States Experience in Decentralized Coastal Management: Lessons for Indonesia
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5.0 Conclusions and Programmatic Recommendations
5.1 Summary of Findings
With the political and administrative changes of the last four years, Indonesia is well on the way to embark- ing on a new road to coastal and marine management. Because of the timing of the International Study Tour,
the lessons learned are particularly ripe for harvesting and follow up by the Indonesian participants. With thirty years of integrated coastal and marine management experience, not all successful, the United States
presents an excellent living laboratory for Indonesia to observe and from which to learn.
Despite differences of scale and level of development, this observation tour has illustrated the many key elements that, although not individually sufficient, are all together required for effective and integrated
coastal and marine management programs. The selection of sites for the IST matched Proyek Pesisir’s two- track approach to developing coastal management in Indonesia: a meetings focused on best practices in
various geographic and thematic areas, and b meetings focused on the development of a national policy.
Perhaps surprisingly, the United States experience shares much in common with Indonesia in terms of the development of coastal management programs, although these similarities are separated by time. The 1950s
and 1960s in the United States saw a radical change in information access by common people and the political empowerment of people. Non-governmental organizations with environmental political agendas
proliferated and environmental issues were directly connected to human rights and local determination of coastal resource uses. The role of the national government also evolved to a heightened sense of responsibil-
ity for protection of the commons, that is those public resources owned by all United States citizens, to meet not only the needs of the current generation but also future generations. New agencies were created to
address the new needs resulting from this social and political evolution.
The parallels to Indonesia are obvious. With the end of the New Order Government, information access in Indonesia perhaps is, in a relative sense, expanding even faster than it did in the United States through the
use of Internet and other mass media. New agencies such as the Ministry for Marine Affairs and Fisheries are being created at the same time that Regional and Fiscal Autonomy is changing the decision making
process for natural resource utilization and management. Indonesian non-government organizations, not to mention political parties, are proliferating.
However, these events are not unlike the foment that occurred in the United States around environmental and social issues in the United States thirty to forty years ago. As a result, the institutional, organizational,
legal and public empowerment events in the United States experience represent a target, if not a model, for Indonesian development of integrated coastal and marine management. This is evident in Attachment F that
includes participant evaluations, observations and plans resulting from the tour.
There are three immediate and significant outcomes or products of the IST. The first includes the actual materials and documents acquired. Five boxes of books, brochures, guidance documents, laws, and other
information were shipped back to Indonesia and provides a written legacy of the United States and IST experience. The second includes the professional connections that were made between IST participants and
marine and coastal management professionals in the United States. These channels are open conduits through which two-way communication and information can flow and cooperation between the two countries can be
enhanced. The third, and perhaps most important outcome on an individual basis, is the knowledge and vision that is now embedded in minds of the IST participants in terms of integrated coastal and marine
management. “Integrated” here refers to vertical and horizontal government organizational integration, in-
The United States Experience in Decentralized Coastal Management: Lessons for Indonesia
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tegrated information technology and sharing, and integration and empowerment of the public and non- governmental organizations that result from the United States’ thirty years of implementing the National
Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972.
5.2 Programmatic Recommendations Resulting from the United States International Study Tour
