CHENNAI: The National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Zone Management (NCSCZM) was launched on Monday at Anna University-Chennai, with the support of a consortium of 11 institutions, to focus on capacity-building and research in coastal zone management.
Minister of Environment and Forests, Jairam Ramesh, in a message read out by Additional Secretary J.M. Mauskar, said the Ministry was investing Rs.166 crore to create the consortium. It would have an outreach component to coastal communities and link up with such institutions around the world.
“We should keep expenditure on buildings to the barest minimum. The linkage with coastal communities is especially important because too often in our country research is divorced from field-level conditions and challenges,” he said.
The Ministry was finalising Coastal Regulation Zone notification, 2010, after “an extensive process of public consultations and feedback,” and three integrated coastal zone management projects were also being launched in West Bengal, Orissa and Gujarat at a total cost of Rs.800, Mr. Ramesh said in his message.
Mr. Mauskar said the NCSCZM was being created to provide scientific and technical inputs to government policies on all issues related to coastal zone management.
Eminent scientist M.S. Swaminathan said the problem of climate change, especially in coastal areas, had to be handled proactively. Along with economic sustainability, ecological and social sustainability were also being recognised as important concerns.
Recalling that the centre had grown out of the recommendations of a committee he had chaired nearly five years ago, Mr. Swaminathan said there should be strengthening of research, extension and training capabilities to handle the problems.
K. Kasturirangan, member of the Planning Commission and former head of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), said a satellite to monitor greenhouse gas emissions would be launched in two or three years and another to study forest cover. Another satellite exclusively for studying the coastal zone was also mooted and the proposal was being studied.
P. Mannar Jawahar, Vice-Chancellor, Anna University-Chennai, said it had a masters programme in Coastal Zone Management and had been working on climate change for the last couple of years. It was the university's vision to make the NCSCZM the leading centre for research and policy issues concerned with the coastal zone.
R. Ramesh, Director, Institute for Ocean Management, Anna University-Chennai, read out the Anna University Declaration for forming the consortium.
Representatives from the participating institutions from each of the coastal States and Union Territories signed the declaration.
