Utility of Spatial Planning as a Tool for Regulating Tourism Activities in Kenya’s Land-sea Interface for Sustainable Blue Economy

Abstract

Coastal tourism is one of the main driving sectors of the blue economy followed by oil and gas, minerals, blue carbon and fisheries. In Kenya, it constitutes a vital developmental aspect characterized by leisure and recreationally oriented activities that occur on the land-sea interface and in the offshore coastal waters. However, poorly planned and regulated tourism activities within land and sea interface have led to degradation of environmentally sensitive marine areas, encroachment of public beaches, erosion of the shoreline, blockage of public access points to the beaches and discharge of effluent into the sea. These impacts transcend the land and ocean continuum necessitating the need for regulation. To regulate these impacts, Kenya has put in place various policy and statutory frameworks including the Constitution of Kenya 2010. One of the tools captured in these frameworks is spatial planning. Despite its promise, spatial planning has not been effective in overcoming conflicting or incompatible touristic activities, controlling pollution from these activities and eventually realizing a sustainable blue economy. This study sought to assess how physical and land use planning frameworks and processes can be better utilized in the regulation of tourism activities within the land-sea interface in Kenya so as to ensure sustainable blue economy. Using a mixed research design, data was collected on tourism activities polluting the landsea interface in Malindi, legal framework regulating these tourism activities through spatial and land use planning procedures, challenges to integrated implementation of planning and innovative strategies for integrated spatial planning. A semistructured questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data from 46 managers/owners of tourism accommodation facilities, while qualitative data was collected from 5 key informants, observations and 3 focus group discussions with fishermen, beach management unit, and boat operators. The findings demonstrate that the current planning framework is inadequate due to the focus on regulating physical facilities such as hotels and holiday homes located on terrestrial land which, the law refers to as ‘material change in use”. It ignores other activities such as swimming, leisure walks, sport fishing, souvenir collection, and snorkeling. This is in spite of the environmental degradation that results from all these activities and the impacts that transcend the land-sea continuum. The study recommends the application of integrated spatial planning that addresses itself to the interdependence of land and ocean where tourism activities occur. Such spatial planning should be undertaken using the Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) approach that incorporates the systems theory. This would require a reconceptualization of the current physical planning approach that considers tourism as disparate and unconnected physical activities to one that looks at tourism as a sector. The integrated spatial planning proposed for the land-sea interface in Malindi should involve geographical, functional and policy integration to promote sustainability. This would be realized by the preparation of integrated marine spatial plans for terrestrial and marine spaces impacted by tourism in Malindi. These plans should be anchored through an amendment to the current planning regulatory framework.