A number of international donors, including Sida, are promoting an approach
to coastal management that is based on learning. The assumption is that co
astal management initiatives are public policy experiments and should be fr
amed and evaluated as such. This paper explores this approach by reconstruc
ting as hypotheses the fundamental ideas that shaped coastal management in
the United States in the 1970s and early 1980s, These hypotheses were appli
ed to three pilot projects sponsored by the United States Agency for Intern
ational Development (USAID) that were initiated in 1985, This led to nation
al initiatives that featured a participatory, issue-driven approach to coas
tal management and a commitment to institution building at both the nationa
l and local levels. All three pilots succeeded in making the transition fro
m activities devoted to training and planning to programs that are today a
formal element of the national governance structure and are adequately fund
ed for an ongoing period of implementation. Lessons learned on implementing
a teaming-based approach to coastal management are offered.