The National Biodiversity Assessment (NBA) 2025 webinar series continues with its fifth session, focusing on South Africa’s coastal ecosystems. This webinar will provide an overview of the pressures impacting the coastal zone, as well as the threat status and protection levels of different coastal ecosystem types and (selected) species.
South Africa’s coast is a unique and dynamic zone where land meets sea, and it provides vital ecosystem services, including fisheries, coastal protection, recreation, and carbon storage. Yet this cross-realm zone is often overused and increasingly threatened by human activities such as mining, coastal development, pollution, and unsustainable harvesting, on which the impacts of climate change are superimposed. These pressures put both biodiversity and the services it provides at risk.
Pic: Landscape overlooking Jeffrey’s Bay from Thornhill-Longmore area, Linda Harris.
The NBA 2025 highlights concerning trends: the South African coast is losing habitat twice as fast, is in worse ecological condition, and is proportionately more threatened than the rest of the country (entire non-coastal territory combined). Further, South Africa has become the first country in the world to add sandy beach invertebrates to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, with one third of the species assessed being taxa of conservation concern.
The session will also examine protection levels across South Africa’s coastal ecosystem types. While some areas are safeguarded through protected areas or other statutory measures, significant gaps remain, leaving many critical habitats under-protected and at risk. Understanding the intersection of threat status and protection levels helps identify priority areas for conservation action and informs strategies to strengthen the resilience of coastal ecosystems.
Pic: Gamtoos, Lind Harris.
Join this webinar to learn more about the pressures facing South Africa’s coasts, the importance of conserving these ecosystems, and what is being done to protect and restore them. Healthy coastal ecosystems are not only biodiversity hotspots—they are essential for sustaining livelihoods, supporting tourism, and mitigating the impacts of climate change.
Webinar details
Date: 15 May 2026
Time: 13:00–13:45
Join the webinar: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/349840131484361?p=OV1JeXMCSh2fHNEYPW
Learn more about the NBA at SANBI’s NBA portal.