South Africa
This report identifies the main issues affecting coastal and marine resources in South Africa, their immediate and direct causes, underlying pressures and root causes of these impacts and provides guidelines as to the best means for intervention to alleviate these problems. The work was undertaken in three phases modelled closely on the methodology developed for the Global International Waters Assessment project.
The following country report begins with an overview of coastal livelihoods in Comoros, which provides a concise overview of the seven sector reports and the findings of the in-country and regional consultants. This overview ends with a conclusion which summarizes the collected information as it relates to the coastal zone in Comoros in general.
South Africa has an extensive coastline in the southern section of Agulhas and Somali Current Large Marine Ecosystem (ASCLME) region, with the coastal provinces of KwaZulu Natal (KZN), Eastern Cape and Western Cape forming the seaboard. The southeast coastline is remarkably linear, with a narrow continental shelf descending to an abyss (deeper than 4,500 m) in the southern Transkei Basin.
The purpose and overall objective of this project is to calculate the total economic value of the marine and coastal resources in both Mozambique and South Africa and to assess the impacts of implementing a sustainable use policy for the region. These individual country reports on the value of the coastal and marine resources will be collated with the various other country assessments of the same nature to create a single ASCLME regional report.
The objective of this report is to assess and make recommendations on the sustainable management of South Africa’s marine and coastal resources in the context of other countries in the West Indian Ocean (WIO) region.
More specifically the report seeks to outline and assess the application of an Ecosystem Based Approach (EBA) and Living Marine Ecosystem (LME) approach for the sustainable management of such resources with a view to benefitting the people and alleviating poverty in the region. More specifically the terms of reference are to:
The Nairobi Convention together with the Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment (DFFE), within the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) Large Marine Ecosystems (LME) are implementing a demonstration project regarding Land - Sea Interaction (LSI) for a coordinated and sustainable Ocean and Coastal Ecosystem Management approach in South Africa.