protect catchment man

Protection in the Coastal Zone - Catchment Management


Introduction	Government	Production	Protection	Infrastructure	Contacts

Catchment Management in the Coastal Zone

The community agreed the following objective for catchment management in the coastal zone:

1. Objective:

To implement an integrated catchment management system in the Bantry Bay coastal zone

2. Catchment Management

Catchment Management is where all human activities and wildlife habitat within a catchment area are assessed and managed so that all may flourish. The communities involved encourage business and agriculture while ensuring that water quality remains high. This ensures clean water supplies, healthy rivers, rich wildlife, and high quality inshore habitats which, taken together, support healthy and successful local communities. (A catchment area relates to the area from which water drains either into a single river, a group of rivers, or a whole Bay.)

The community identified the following challenges to achieving the objective:

3. The Bantry Bay coastal zone includes a complex mixture of activities including agricultural,
forestry, industrial, maritime, residential, road building/maintenance, and recreational, all of which
have the potential to impact upon each other and upon the natural environment.

At present there is no effective system which ensures that all these activities are developed in an
integrated way that controls any negative impacts they may have. Many people are not aware of
what catchment management involves and the benefits that it may achieve for everyone. People may
also be reluctant to introduce any additional restrictions or controls beyond those that already exist.

Developing a system for managing the catchment area of the Bay is a challenge because there is no
set model for doing this, and the legal basis for it is unclear.

To be successful any catchment management system relies on the participation, co-operation and
goodwill of all those involved in all the different activities in the catchment area. This includes the
regulatory bodies. All those who take part need to understand the full benefits that will result from
catchment management, for themselves and others.

4. Agreed Approach to Achieving the Objective:

The community agreed the following approach to achieving the objective:

4.a All those who live and work in the Bantry Bay coastal zone (including the regulatory bodies) should be aware of the ways in which they affect water quality. Everyone should recognise their individual responsibility to maintain good water quality water and healthy river systems. (WQ 4.f)	4.c The local community and regulatory bodies should encourage, support, and participate in, local management initiatives that will maintain or improve the quality of the water, ecosystems and biological resources within the Bantry Bay coastal zone.
4.b Increased information should be provided throughout the local community about what catchment management is and how it can work.	4.d Where necessary or appropriate, formal structures to support catchment management programmes should be developed and adopted in the Bantry Bay coastal zone.

5. Agreed Actions:

Specifically, the community has agreed that the following actions should be carried out:

5.a Highlight locally what catchment management involves, through schools, newspapers and radio, local events etc., and outline the benefits of implementing catchment management in the Bantry Bay coastal zone.	5.c Look at other examples of catchment management (for example, the six pilot projects involving the Central Fisheries Board) and explore the legal basis for setting up a catchment management programme for Bantry Bay. Any system that is established should be integrated with the Fishery Board's Catchment Management Plans.
5.b Implement an appropriate Education Programme which would communicate: principles of best practice for people in their day-to-day work and recreation and; how catchment management operates and why this approach, based on local agreement over planning management is a sensible approach to the subject.	5.d Identify potential members (including stakeholders and statutory parties) for catchment management programmes. Those that are willing to participate then discuss the most appropriate scale at which to operate; either for individual rivers, groups of rivers, or for the coastal zone as a whole.


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