Biophysical environment
The UN General Assembly has made a unanimous decision to start negotiations to
A UNEP/GPA meeting in collaboration with the Secretariat of the Nairobi Convention and Governments in the region agreed on three main priority areas: Coastal tourism; Mangrove Destruction; and Ports and Land reclamation to address problems through the development of projects associated with those activities.
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.
Tanzania has a coastline of 800 km stretching from latitude 4o 49’S at the border with Kenya to the border with Mozambique at latitude 10o 28’S. The continental shelf is narrow with the 200km contour depth about 4 km offshore, except at the Zanzibar and Mafia Channels where the shelf extends for up to 80 km. The islands within the continental shelf include Unguja and Mafia, as well as a number of small islets and reefs. Pemba lies beyond the continental shelf and is therefore oceanic.
This report is the result of an exercise that was undertaken in Mauritius as part of the GEFMSP project on Coastal Zone in the Sub-Saharan countries. The project consisted of three parts (i) Identification of sites and prioritisation of issues; (ii) Environment and socio-economic Impact analysis; and (iii) Causal chain analysis.
The ecosystems in Mozambique are relatively well preserved compared to other countries in the region, probably due to the fact that the country is less developed. On the other hand the potential for degradation of those sites is higher and would increase in the future in the view of the current development. There was not a clear-cut separation between Hot spot and sensitive areas.
The Republic of Mauritius consists of a main island, Mauritius (20º17’ S, 57º33 E), and a group of small islands in the South West Indian Ocean namely Rodrigues, the Cargados Carajos, Agalega, Tromelin and the Chagos Archipelago. The total land area amounts to 2040 km2 whilst the marine exclusive economic zone covers an area of about 1.9 M km2 extending from 100 S to 200 S and from longitude 550 E to 750 E.
Major tourism impact in the physical alteration and destruction of habitats is mostly due to the tourism operation, rather than building of tourism infrastructures. The major degrading tourism activities are building in sand dunes and in mangrove swamps, and driving in coastal dunes. The major areas affected by tourism are the southern part of Mozambique, in the parabolic dune environment. Mangrove destruction is mostly due to urban expansion.
The United Nations Environment Programme as the Secretariat of the Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities (GPA) established the GPA Coordination Office in The Hague, The Netherlands after the adoption of the GPA in Washington D.C. in 1995.
Tanzania has over 800 km of coastline, characterised by a mixture of beautiful sandy beaches, rocky outcrops, extensive coral reefs, and dense mangrove stands, especially around river deltas. Among the more famous of these natural resources are the beaches of Bagamoyo, the Jozani Forest Reserve, the coral reefs of Mafia, Zanzibar and Pemba, and the Amboni Caves. These coastal ecosystems support a wide variety of marine life.
