Sri Lanka was the first tropical country with a centrally managed ICZM programme.
Inefficient management is often due to political patrons undermining formal intervention.
Political patrons support unsustainable resource use by protecting short-term economic interests. The villages studied are not bounded entities but interact with regional, national, and global levels through multiple social, political and economic links. Group formation within villages is also complex. Such micro-level complexities may escape categorisation. Patrons need to be acknowledged as primary stakeholders.