111-26 



THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE INTERESTS 



If the Nation is to achieve a sound balance between the development 

 of its estuarine and coastal resources for all beneficial purposes 

 and their conservation and preservation for future use, it is essen- 

 tial that public and private interests in the nongovernmental sector 

 of our society meet their responsibilities for achievinq that goal. 

 It is also essential that the public and private interests have an 

 ODportunity to exercise their responsibilities against the back-drop 

 of an announced national policy and in terms of announced plans for 

 estuarine and coastal zone management toward which they have made a 

 constructive contribution. 



Many of this Nation's estuarine and coastal resources continue to be 

 endangered because of a failure to achieve in governmental programs a 

 proper balance between the development of these resources for all bene- 

 ficial purposes and their preservation and conservation. The responsi- 

 bility for this dire condition ultimately rests with the public and 

 private forces within American society that thus far have controlled 

 the use and management of these resources. 



This means too that the reversal of short-sighted policies now in force 

 will not occur until there emerqe within our society new conceptions of 

 what constitute the real public and private interest in the use of these 

 resources. Only as these expressions of desirable new goals and values 

 evolve, and receive strong and effective articulation by public and 



