With 118 islands spread across an area larger than continental Europe and located at the heart of the Pacific, French Polynesia hosts a natural and cultural heritage acknowledged worldwide as outstanding. Use of coastal areas and the nearshore provides considerable economic leverage. Human activity encroachment in these areas is increasing and causing major disruptions including damage to natural environments, biodiversity erosion, and climate change, etc. French Polynesians, who love their islands and wish to preserve their heritage, are now seeking to strike a balance between improving economic development and protecting their natural and cultural assets.

Integrated coastal management is about using the coast sustainably by reconciling social and economic development with biological, environmental and cultural conservation for the good of current and future generations. 

Within French Polynesia, INTEGRE is strengthening participatory integrated management efforts made by the Department of the Environment (DIREN) and development stakeholders to better protect their natural environments. 

INTEGRE is involved in three pilot sites, i.e. on Raiatea and Taha’a Islands, Tahiti Peninsula and Opunohu Valley, with various activities implemented by local stakeholders aimed at :

• Strengthening participatory management
• Helping reduce human impact
• Contributing to the sustainable integrated management of natural and cultural resources
• Providing support to sustainable economic development, particularly through sustainable tourism
• Showcasing the natural heritage; and
• Drawing on lessons learnt and disseminating the knowledge acquired during the project

Other activities are being specifically conducted at the territorial level in organic farming, climate change, and environmental management capacity building.

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In French Polynesia, the Department of the Environment (DIREN), a government agency, is responsible for preserving and developing French Polynesia’s natural resources as best as possible. It seeks to implement a genuine environmental management and protection policy for all the island groups. It is against this backdrop that INTEGRE provides support to DIREN’s initiatives and those of all the stakeholders in the field.

Specific objectives :

INTEGRE was presented to DIREN and local partners in February 2014. Once the issues had been defined, local site committees set up, and activities approved, the action plan was adopted.

Local component

Three pilot sites :

• Raiatea and Taha’a Islands
• Tahiti Peninsula (Taiarapu)
• Opunohu Bay and Valley

On pilot sites, INTEGRE is working towards the following objectives :

• Assisting with sustainable economic development, particularly in tourism
• Helping control man-made threats.
• Boosting the participatory management process and involving local stakeholders more effectively
• Contributing to sustainable integrated natural and cultural resource management 

Territorial and cross-sector component

In French Polynesia, INTEGRE aims to :

• Improve networking and capacity among all stakeholders involved in environmental management
• Assess the way EEZ monitoring is organised and managed and the costs of managing climate-change-effect mitigation and adaptation
• Strengthen organic farming so as to help develop more environmentally-sound and less input-heavy agriculture

INTEGRE supports existing resources such as management committees, government departments and cultural and environmental associations. A geographically defined three tier (region, territory and pilot site) governance system has been set up in French Polynesia. The Department of the Environment is one of the project’s key partners.

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