Dr Aidan Wood of Rhodes University’s Enviro-Fish Africa (EFA) is spearheading a groundbreaking R400 000 initiative aimed at increasing environmental protection along the Southern Cape coastline.
With much of the natural resources of the coastline being wasted and coastal ecosystems being degraded as a result of environmentally insensitive development and poor decision making, the initiative is sorely needed.
Partnering with a wide range of stakeholders including the Eden District Municipality, South Africa National Parks (SANParks), Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (WESSA), local government officials, provincial environmental groups, the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs, Petro SA, Rhodes University’s Enviro-Fish Africa (EFA) has been tasked with developing a Municipal Coastal Management Programme (CMP) in accordance with requirements (Chapter 6, Part 3, Sections 48 and 49) of the Integrated Coastal Management (ICM) Act (Act 24 of 2008).
“Unlike previous legislation we have powerful legislation backing this programme. Once an MEC signs off on this legislation it becomes the blueprint for coastal management and has to be implemented,” explains Dr Wood.
The Act mandates municipalities to define the coastal zone, demarcate official access points, identify illegal structures, identify pollution points and ultimately demarcate development set-back lines in the wake of climate change, rising sea levels and other growing pressures on the fragile coastline. The Eden District Municipality recently received a R15 000 contribution towards the plan from each coastal B-municipality along the 370km Southern Coastline, amounting to R400 000.
According to Dr Wood the range of parties involved is indicative of the programme’s emphasis on an interdisciplinary approach, avoiding the tendency for various groups to work in isolation.
“Different departments can often try and do their own thing without knowing what other people are doing. We are trying to create a sustainable coordinated approach where everybody knows what everybody else is doing,” says Dr Wood.
The plan encompasses all aspects of coastal management and will prescribe particular solutions for specific areas’ priorities. “There will be some similarities between the different areas in Eden District and we will suggest specific solutions for these. In general there are a lot of crossovers too,” says Dr Wood.
The initiative stemmed from the EFA’s successful involvement in developing a coastal management programme for the Garden Route coastline.
Story and photo by Sarah-Jane Bradfield
Photo: Dr Aidan Wood