Coastal management – working towards the UN’s Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030)

Abstract

The UN declared 2021-2030 as the Decade of Ocean Science and identified research and technology priority areas to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. We reviewed the current status of scientific support for coastal management in South Africa within the context of these priorities and found promising development. However, challenges for the next decade remain, such as rolling out pilot projects into sustainable, national-scale programmes, facilitating greater collaboration and coordination among scientific role players, and achieving long-term commitment and political will for dedicated financial support. Through our lens as natural scientists we focused on the ecological system and coupling with the social system; however scientific support on better characterisation and understanding of the dynamics within the social system is also critical as sustainable development relies heavily on the willingness of the social system to embrace and execute related policies.

Significance:

• The UN Decade of Ocean Science (2021–2030) sets research and technology priority areas to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
• We found promising development in scientific support for coastal management in South Africa.
• Future challenges include greater collaboration and coordination among scientific role players and long-term commitment and political will for dedicated financial support.