The main goal o f preparing the CZMP in Oman was to safeguard valuable resources and restore the damaged areas are along the coastal areas. Thus, in order to achieve these goals the CZMP included the following objectives (lUCN, 1992):
1) To establish a comprehensive, practical policy to guide development in the coastal zone o f Oman.
2) To promulgate comprehensive binding legislation for the effective control o f developments and activities in the coastal zone o f the sultanate.
3) To safeguard natural and cultural heritage and resources by intensive management o f valuable sites through a system o f conservation areas.
4) To provide, safeguard and restore scenic areas and open space in the coastal zone for enjoyment by present and future generations o f citizens and visitors.
5) To establish unequivocal procedures, authority and accountability for the coordination o f all planning, development, resources management activities in the coastal zone and for implementation o f coastal zone management plan.
6) To improve monitoring, field studies, and enforcement activities in the coastal zone.
7) To acknowledge the sensitivity o f mangrove, coral reefs, sand dunes, beaches, khawr environment and bays to afford them special attention in future development planning and to safeguard the ecological roles and social and economic values o f the these special environment.
8) To review, update and implement coastal zone management plans, to complete these for all sectors o f the coast, and to plan for other contingencies as and where appropriate, such as sea level rise, major oil spills in sensitive areas, tropical storm waves and flooding, and restoration o f degraded environments.
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9) To ensure that valuable resources and existing and potential uses o f the coast are not destroyed by poorly planned development, pollution or existing activities.
However, Coastal Zone Management Plan issues fall into two main classes at the national level:
A) Those relating to the policy, legal and administrative structure for effective management and problem resolution.
B) Those relating to specific resources management actions (lUCN, 1992).
Furthermore, many governmental authorities have been involved in implementing the coastal zone management plan in Oman with different responsibilities o f each.
Despite the fact that, Oman has developed a coastal zone management plans since 1984 (e.g.
natural resources management plans which encompass the various sectors impacting the coastal zones), yet, until recently it is argued that the climate change issues and consequences are not included in such management, therefore, many efforts should be a top priority for the governmental authorities charged with land use planning and natural resource management.
Many o f the studies conducted on Coastal Zone and Climate change in Oman have been primarily only focused on meteorological issues, greatly after the occurrence o f Cyclone Gonu in 2007.
According to Mushtaque (2012), Oman is vulnerable to the potential impacts o f climate change, the most significant o f which are sea level rise, less and more erratic precipitation, increased average temperature and desertification. Consequently, integrating climate change mitigation and adaptation in development strategies and policies is a must for Oman which is at the early stage o f economic and industrial developments.
In addition, it is not clear from existing data that any organized research effort is ongoing in Oman to tackle various climate change related impacts. Although, there are number o f projects undertaken may look impressive, yet, none o f these projects were taken up as a direct response to climate change concerns. In general, a small and scattered number o f researches have been published in the field o f climate change and still there are many gaps need to be filled in the future especially concerning the vulnerability o f coastal areas to climatic change impacts.
As mentioned early, the coastal zone management planning according to IPCC (2007) is considered as an essential tool that should include assessments o f the potential impacts o f climate changes. These plans should also provide a framework to balance resource allocation decisions and the most significant aspects for such planning is the institutionalization o f mechanisms for shared management responsibility between government and communities which will foster stakeholder participation in the decision making processes.
In this regard, a large number o f developments are either already being built or are in the planning stages along the coastline o f Oman. These developments are potentially at risk from coastal inundation and require careful planning to ensure they are not highly vulnerable to future impacts. For that reason, immediate actions should be taken in Oman to strength coping and adaptation capacity and to reduce the vulnerability o f sensitive areas and ecosystems to climate changes. A number o f adaptation options also have to be identified under national developments. Working collaborative between the government ministries require strategic planning to ensure that suitable areas are planned for developments and that climate resilience is considered within the design o f new developments. The ICZM plan should include an assessment o f and responses to climate change impacts.
2.10 Conclusion:
Coastal areas are some o f the most ecologically productive and economically important ecosystems, supporting a variety o f natural resources, including diverse species, and habitat types, as well as recreation and tourism opportunities, and industrial developments. As a result o f these opportunities, coastal areas are highly developed worldwide.
The phenomenon o f climate change has numerous effects on coastal areas; such impacts will affect the human, biodiversity and socio-economic activities on those areas. Due to the important ecosystem, economic and cultural services coastal areas provide, it is essential to incorporate climate change impacts into management strategies and formal planning o f coastal areas, particularly considering the important ecosystem, economic and cultural services they provide. Therefore, it has been argued that ICZM planning is essential mechanism that can deal will all competing pressures on coasts and managing short and long term coastal climate change impacts.
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The coastal areas o f Oman is considered as an important for economical and cultural o f the country and highly populated where about 56% o f the total population occupied the most important coastal areas. However, although the government had been given a great attention to conserve the coastal areas since mid 80's, however, until recently there is no integration o f current CZMP with relative CC issues.
It is clear from this chapter that there are several issues that affect coastal areas and call for change and for important attention for integrating CZMP with CC impacts to protect the highly populated and vulnerable areas from climate change consequences. Before discussing the possibilities for managing change, the next chapter explores the impacts o f climate change on coastal areas in general and in particular on Oman's coast, its impacts, vulnerability, adaptation and existing issues regarding its projections modeling and scenarios.
This research aspires to answers a set o f questions to investigate the current framework o f Coastal Zone Management planning in dealing with climate change in Oman in terms o f potential impacts o f climate change in the short and long term, focusing on an assessment o f coastal vulnerability, resilience and adaptation. The main aim therefore, is to determine how coastal systems and communities would and could respond and adapt to climate change and particular in how these responses may be assessed as a part o f Coastal Zone Management planning at the same time how CZM planning w ill increase the need for a more sophisticated and detailed assessment o f the implications o f climate change.