Until recently, many assessments and management plans in South Africa considered the land-based and marine components of the coast as separate systems, missing the land-estuary-sea interactions. CoastWise supports South Africa’s mandatory NBA that serves as the basis for planning and management of biodiversity in the country, having produced the first integrated, cross-realm assessment of the state of coastal biodiversity in South Africa. The report includes a chapter on the key findings of the NBA Coast Assessment, priority actions, knowledge gaps and research priorities for scientists, stakeholders and decision makers. The data layers being produced in the various aspects of CoastWise – for example maps of ecological infrastructure, culturally significant areas as well as fluvial fans and plumes – are being incorporated into the spatial planning component that will identify cross-realm biodiversity priorities across the land-estuary-sea interface.

The products developed in CoastWise are being directly taken up in the national biodiversity assessment and planning processes in South Africa for implementation through land-use planning, estuary management, and marine spatial planning. By working together with the coastal provincial planners, it ensures alignment and uptake in the land-based coastal provincial spatial biodiversity plans, with the prospect of coastal biodiversity priorities to be included in the next iteration of the National Coastal and Marine Spatial Biodiversity Plan. Some of the data layers (including initial versions) developed as part of CoastWise have already included in the latter plan, which is forming the basis of the biodiversity sector’s input into the National Marine Spatial Planning process in South Africa. Priorities for improving future versions of the cross-realm coastal biodiversity assessment NBA have also been identified.