Governance in Transnational Marine -Coastal Zones. The Gulf of Fonseca

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to give a thought to Middle American coasts as spaces of cross-border important interactions in the natural, economic and social aspect. In that sense, the big challenge for governability in marine-coastal areas with cross-border conditions is how to face the paradox produced by the existence of a political system highly fragmented coexisting with cross-border biophysical units. Hence, the article discusses that the implementation of mechanisms guaranteeing a good governability copes with obstacles, mainly political, as it is the case of spaces that were or are part in the bordering disputes, and of economic order, due to natural and environmental resources extraction, as a result of pollution received by coastlines in continental areas. The above is reflected in the Fonseca’s Gulf, where countries have many problems to work together. This caused by, among other things, the weakness of institutions or the absence of mechanisms to foster the cooperative action in the negotiation of cross-border resources.