The Patagonian Coast is one of the longest and relatively pristine shorelines of the world. It stretches along 3,400 km from the Colorado River to the Beagle Channel. The Patagonian marine ecosystem is highly productive and economically relevant but it has been exposed to fifteen years of accelerated demographic and industrial growth. This development of Patagonia though desirable in terms of the economy, is not being carried out in order and occurs with a serious lack of infrastructure and coordinate management capability. The effects of the mentioned problems in the productive activities may threaten biodiversity in the long term and the sustainable use of renewable natural resources may fail.

The Patagonian Coastal Zone Management Plan (PCZMP) started within this context. The objectives programmed for the implementation phase of this project were developed between July 1993 to June 1996 in the provinces of Rio Negro, Chubut and Santa Cruz.
A management plan created to use renewable natural resources is one of the technical solutions to a better use of biodiversity without affecting its conservation in the mean and long term. The basis of this integrated

management is the fact that biodiversity considered as an economic resource is limited.

The plan focused on four global areas of work, closely related to the principal economic activities of the region and to the resources that support them. These areas are: tourism, fisheries, pollution and coastal wildlife. The project activities were carried out simultaneously and in an integrated way.

We offer at the end of this issue a summary of data surveyed during the PCZMP preparation phase and relevant characteristics of its implementation.

Herein, a model of a plan organized to consider biodiversity protection as a whole is presented together with useful data related to published material and principal coastal activities.