Ensuring public access to the coast in South Pacific cities:

the case of Auckland, Noumea and Port Vila

Olivier HofferCentre des Nouvelles Etudes sur le Pacifique University of New Caledonia

PhD in geography and urban planning (2010-2013)

“When the shore is closing What governance of access and uses of the coastal interface in

three South Pacific agglomerations (Auckland, Noumea and Port Vila)?”

Access to the coast: a critical concept for urban sustainability

• In fast growing oceanian cities, urban coasts are under increasing pressures : residential development, resorts, port infrastructures…

• Closure of the foreshore in South Pacific cities: a paradoxical and unsustainable scenario

• «Ocean’s ubiquity»: site (isthmus, peninsulas, indented coastline), landscape/ambiance, uses/way of life

Anse Vata

Baie des Citrons

Baie de l’Orphelinat

Petite rade

Grande radeDucos peninsula

Baie de Koutio

Doniambo factory

Photograph: O.HOFFER, 2013

Access to the coast: a critical concept for urban sustainability

• Few geographical researches on this issue

• Spatial justice issue: « The right to the shore » part of « the right to the city » (Lefebvre, Harvey, Mitchell) ?

• Urban coast under increasing pressures in fast growing oceanian cities: residential development, resorts, port infrastructures…

• Closure of the foreshore in South Pacific cities: a paradoxical and unsustainable scenario

• «Ocean’s ubiquity»: site (isthmus, peninsula, indented coastline), landscape/ambiance, uses/way of life

Measuring public access to the coast

• Access to the coast is not access to the sea• Scarcity of relevant methods for measuring access: Clark

& Hilton (2003), Millward (1991, access to countryside)

• Evaluating the coast’s degree of publicity: field experience, specificities of oceanian cities (customary lands…), perceptions (feeling of access)

Open Semi-open

Semi-closed Closed

Photographs: O.HOFFER

Does urban space close the coast ?

• Commonly accepted idea about privatization of urban space: « The end of public space » (Sennett, Harvey, Davis, Sorkin, Mitchell)

• According to this idea, urban coasts should be more closed than peri-urban coasts

• According to the results of fieldwork, it doesn’t apply in Auckland, Noumea nor Port Vila…

Does urban space close the coast ?

• Commonly accepted idea about privatization of urban space: « The end of public space » (Sennett, Harvey, Davis, Sorkin, Mitchell)

• According to this idea, urban coasts should be more closed than peri-urban coasts

• According to the results of fieldwork, it doesn’t apply to the coast in Auckland, Noumea nor Port Vila

• Link between urban density/centrality and publicity of the coast

• Urban governance is not incompatible with the preservation or creation of public spaces along the shore

A complex governance of access due to the diversity of actors’ strategies

• Preconceptions on actors’ strategies: public actors: regulation bodies, defence of public interest private actors: privatization, individual interest customary actors: taboo spaces, sanctuarisation, immobilism

• Customary actors: can manage public beaches (Okahu Bay), regulate the access (Mele Beach, Honey Moon Beach), be involved in gated communities subdivisions (Mele, Pango, Naniouni), or prevent access on claimed land (N’Dé)

• Public actors are not always regulating bodies: non- implementation of laws or planning, promote or run coastal property development (Kawenu Cove, Parc des 5 îles…)

• Private actors can as well ensure the opening that the closing of the coast: NIMBY/LULU movements