Project goal
To identify focus areas for beach conservation and build local capacity to have ‘beaches for life’ – in terms of biodiversity, human health and wellbeing, and for the long term – in southern and east Africa.
The study region will be used as a test area for developing innovative methods that will be scaled up to continental and global analyses, and the focus areas can be taken up by countries for implementation and further research.
Motivation for the project
Sandy beaches are highly valuable ecosystems that contain a unique biota with high rates of endemism, support the life-history stages of many threatened focal species like shorebirds, turtles, horseshoe crabs, and provide two-thirds of all types of ecosystem services, including food for small-scale fishers, significantly more benefits for mental health than urban parks, and coastal protection against extreme storms and waves.
Unfortunately, high-value sea-facing real estate has been inappropriately developed too close to the shore. Beaches are now lined with seawalls, losing sand to widespread erosion and intense sand mining, and facing rising sea levels and increased storminess that are predicted to accelerate erosion.
This overlooked ecosystem is in a state of largely unnoticed crisis, and urgently needs action for change if we are to achieve the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity goals and targets for beaches, and maintain the benefits we derive from them for current and future generations. But expertise and science in sandy beach conservation to guide decision makers is extremely limited in Africa.
Theory of change
The long-term goal is to have healthy, well-managed sandy beaches throughout the region that are intact, conserve unique biodiversity, contribute substantial ecosystem services to people, and are managed sustainably. This requires expertise in the respective countries in sandy beach ecology and conservation to advise decision-makers, and foundational information on beaches, their threat status, protection level, and where the priorities are for conservation (protection and restoration).
Beaches for Life! will address this by generating foundational knowledge, training a team of scientists per country, establishing a community of practice in beach conservation in southern and east Africa, and bringing those scientists into the global scientific community at the 10th International Sandy Beach Symposium in South Africa in 2027.
Objectives
1. To develop an ecosystem classification and map for southern and east Africa through field sampling and remote mapping methods
2. To undertake ecosystem threat status assessment and protection level analysis
3. To identify focus areas for conservation of beaches
4. To build capacity and future leaders in sandy beach ecology in southern and east Africa
Funding
Support for this project is provided by the Pew Fellows Program in Marine Conservation at The Pew Charitable Trusts.