South African National Biodiversity Assessment 2018: Technical Report. Volume 5: Coast

The National Biodiversity Assessment (NBA) is a collaborative effort to synthesise and present the best available science on South Africa’s biodiversity, with the intent of informing policy, planning and decision making in a range of sectors, particularly those that rely on and/or impact biodiversity, e.g., fisheries, water, mining, tourism, transport and human settlements. Information presented in the NBA can help to prioritise efforts and resources for managing and conserving biodiversity towards sustainable development in South Africa. The NBA describes the benefits of and key pressures on biodiversity and, where possible, identifies trends. Most importantly, it reports on two headline indicators – ecosystem threat status and ecosystem protection level – that provide a high-level summary of the current state of biodiversity within South Africa, and that can be included in other national and international monitoring and reporting processes.