The Coastal Zone Offers Many Essay, Research Paper

Due to the coast offering an abundance of resources to humans and thus several different users, compete for the same section of coast, which leads to conflict between various Residential Conflicts such as people feuding over who is the rightful owner of the land and how it should be used. Corporate Conflicts may also eventuate from the coast offering many resources, like developers and City Councils/near-by shops and even residents oh how the land should be properly used and taken care of, State Governments may also become involved in these conflicts as they may become so large that the only way they can be resolved is if the State Government becomes involved. In extreme cases there may be conflicts between State Governments, as one state could be doing something which will ruin a particular piece of coastline, the other one may intervene and put there views forward on how it should be taken care of.

Over recent years, conflicts between residents have been increasing greatly along the coastline, due to its increasing value and popularity amongst tourists.

Residential Conflicts are the most common type of conflict, which is associated with Coastal Zones. The main type of conflict involves Residents who own property along the coast feuding amongst each other over which Resident owns that particular part of the beachfront, this type of conflict can separate the friendship of neighbours and leave them in constant feuding. Another type of feuding that may involve Residents in one s that involve coastal views, one resident may erect as structure or puts in a tender to renovate their house, which may cause their neighbours views to be interrupted.

Corporate Conflicts are very common in the development industry. These can also lead to State government intervention due to the great debate it can cause. One of the main Types of Corporate Conflicts is when a development company buys a property on the foreshore and are planning to build a hotel or residential apartment block, the local council, surrounding business s and/or Residents may object to this as it may cause them to lose views and business. Another reason to which Residents or Local Council may object to a Development Company building on land which is vital to keep the coast natural, by natural I mean keeping it in the same way in which it is now.

An example of this type of feuding is what happened on Fraser Island. Fraser Island was a haven for logging companies because of it s natural dense forestry area s, in the mid 1970 s a sand-mining company acquired a lease to mine mineral sand on the island, thus escalating the conflict. John Sinclair, a conservationist and resident of near-by Maryborough, formed an organisation, which is called the Fraser Island Defenders Organisation (FIDO). The Queensland Government supported the Maryborough Chamber of Commerce who was contesting high unemployment in the local area; they wanted sand mining to go ahead. They argued that it was essential for the economy that more jobs be created and that the mining of the sand on Fraser Island would do that.

The Queensland Government continued to support the mining but the export licenses needed to export the products had to be granted by Federal Government. FIDO appealed to the Federal Government and eventually the export licence was refused. Without the market, the mining company abandoned the project on Fraser Island and Fraser Island was saved.

This is a good example of how the Residents of a small country town can form a group and rally against the big multi-national companies, to save their last bit of paradise.

A more recent conflict involves the Hinchinbrook Channel, which is part of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area. It was between a developer named Keith Williams who proposes to dredge the channel and build a 1500 bed resort and a 250-berth marina at Oyster Point.