15.6.2 Pathways of Transnational Technology Transfer
The five stages of technology transfer (Section 15.5.2)
are also applicable to international pathways of coastal-adaptation technology
transfer. Similar to in-country transfer, advancing from R&D to repetition
is not a linear process. However, the complexity of technology transfer increases
not only as the process proceeds, but also within stages as differences in the
economic, institutional, legal and socio-cultural contexts of the technology
transfer broaden. In the case of CoreLoc, for example, cooperative agreements
with companies in the host countries were delayed because of the home-government
researchers' inexperience in obtaining international patents (see Case
Study 21).
As mentioned earlier, the use and transfer of most coastal-adaptation technologies
has been the result of societal intervention, rather than market forces. Therefore,
official development assistance (ODA; see also Chapter 5)
will remain crucial for vulnerable developing countries to obtain access to
appropriate technologies. Currently, the majority of ODA-funded coastal projects
are carried out for economic purposes, such as fisheries, tourism and port development.
In this context, technology is often equated with hardware, transferable in
single, point-in-time transactions. Such technology implementation has proven
maladaptive in many occasions (WCC'93, 1994). Successful coastal adaptation
to sea-level rise also requires the transfer of soft technologies, which enhance
human skills and capacity needed to adopt and adjust new approaches to coastal
management. Long-term relationships involving technical assistance and in-situ
training are important elements of effective pathways.
|