Western Cape gets serious about its estuaries

The Western Cape Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning has released 29 estuary management plans (EMPs) for public comment. Of these, the department is responsible for 15, while the remaining 14 fall under CapeNature.

Marlene Laros, the department’s director of biodiversity and coastal management, said the EMPs were in line with the National Estuarine Management Protocol, with different plans being developed to address the unique biophysical and socio-economical differences of each.

The plans set out the coordination and management of the activities and their impacts within each estuarine functional zone. For prioritised estuaries, this could ultimately lead to declaring them protected or special management areas, she said.

“Estuaries are dynamic systems that need space to work. We need to accommodate floods and tidal influences, and plan for disaster resilience, which ultimately means leaving an adequate setback from the edges of the estuaries.

“The plans are therefore dynamic and will be updated every five years to accommodate changes due to factors such as climate change and social dynamics.”

Laros added that the EMPs set out various management objectives, and farmers and landowners played a critical role in enabling the objectives to be met. The aim was to ensure sustainable agricultural practices; prevent bank erosion; avoid transforming natural areas in the estuarine functional zones; manage invasive alien plants; manage water abstraction to ensure enough water for ecosystem functioning; and avoid agricultural fertilisers, pesticides and waste from affecting the water quality of these sensitive systems.

Where needed, estuary advisory forums would be established to provide critical links between local communities and the relevant management authorities and other government spheres that had key responsibilities in the estuarine functional zones.

Laros said plans such as these were often thought to limit the rights of stakeholders, but the crucial role of the EMPs was to enable the coordination of efforts towards the implementation of priority objectives and actions.

“Ecosystem services provided by these estuaries will be maintained or improved through the implementation of these plans, to the benefit of society. Investing in estuary management is also an excellent resilience strategy for landowners, as estuaries are major ecotourism attractions that provide related value chains with sustainable land management,” she explained.

Anton Bredell, Western Cape MEC of local government, environmental affairs and development planning, said it was essential to balance the protection of these natural ecosystems with the economic potential that could be derived from them. “Estuaries can be of value to us if we value them.” – Glenneis Kriel

FW ARCHIVE New estuary management plans for the Western Cape aim to regulate the various activities that occur within each estuarine functional zone, and the impacts thereof.