Municipal Coastal Management and National Policy for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of the Brazilian Marine Biome: A Critical Analysis

The Coastal Zone (CZ), declared as National Heritage by the 1988 Federal Constitution, is endowed as an area of strategic importance. Coastal economic activities are responsible for the majority portion of the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP), linked to ports, fishing, mining (i.e., oil), and tourism. Thus, the intense degradation of natural resources puts both socio-economic sustainability and local populations’ environmental quality at risk. This study presents actors and public policies relevant to Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM). It seeks to resolve existing conflicts while respecting the compatibility of coastal uses sustainably, considering that the interrelationships of economic, environmental and social phenomena resulting from the overlapping of the different uses of the Brazilian coast generate different impacts. The study aims to assess municipal coastal management in line with Marine Spatial Plans (MSP), with relevance to the provisions of Bill nº 6969/2013. Such legislation “institutes the National Policy for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of the Marine Biome and associated coastal ecosystems (PNCMar)” and analyses municipal public power, between integral and participant of the integrated coastal management, together with union and state governments, responsible for elaborating, implementing, executing and monitoring their respective Coastal Management Plans. The methodology consists of collecting bibliographic and documentary data and reviewing articles, laws, bills, federal decrees and classic texts that addressed ICZM and MSP. For an integrated, sustainable coastal management, Bill nº 6969/2013 requires adjustments, with coastal municipalities remaining in management in a decentralised, participatory manner to make their local spatial planning instruments compatible.