Natural treasures: Western Cape estuary management plans take shape

Estuaries are the most threatened and vulnerable ecosystems in SA along with wetlands — critically needing protection — and the Western Cape’s draft estuarine management plans are starting to take shape.

The Western Cape has the highest number of estuaries in SA, with 54 estuaries and 38 micro-estuaries, but the Eastern Cape has more big estuaries. SA’s largest is the Orange River estuary in the Northern Cape, which drains more than half a million kilometres.

Wouter Kriel, spokesperson for Anton Bredell, the Western Cape minister of local government, environmental affairs and development planning, said more than 100 parties had responded to the draft plans after they invited public participation in February.

The Garden Route, West Coast, Overberg and the City of Cape Town were among the regions that responded to the draft, he told Sunday Times Daily, in response to queries about the draft plans for estuaries. The Goukou, Gouritz and Rooi Els estuaries attracted the most comments.

“The protection of our estuaries is not only important for conserving the many fish, bird and animal species that call it their home but also from mitigating the effects of climate change,” explained Marlene Ramos, Western Cape director for biodiversity and coastal management.

“They are also of immense economic and social value, being essential to fisheries, recreation and eco-tourism.”

The Western Cape is responsible for 15 of the draft plans and CapeNature the other 14 in the province. They aim to manage the activities and affects within “estuarine functional zones”.

Proposed developments should take place out of the estuarine functional zones so that they can flourish.

—  Western Cape minister of environmental affairs Anton Bredell

In SA, more than a quarter of 66 estuarine species are threatened with extinction, according to the 2018 National Biodiversity Assessment.

The loss of waterbirds from SA’s estuaries over the past four decades exceeds 265,000.

Caroline Gelderblom, WWF manager of water source financing and institutional frameworks, said estuaries indicate the health of freshwater systems and landscapes.

“You cannot have a healthy estuary without a healthy catchment — so we all have an impact on and are dependent on estuaries,” she said.

“In addition, estuaries provide diverse services not only in terms of acting as nurseries sustaining our fisheries, but also as important natural ecosystems which people relate strongly to. They have an important influence on local property values and economies,” she said.

The Western Cape, in partnership with CapeNature, has been reviewing comments received on the province’s 29 published draft environmental management plans and is preparing its responses, Kriel said.

Conservationist and Namaqua West Coast tourist adviser Suzanne du Plessis submitted a comment, appealing to them to protect the Olifants River estuary, which has SA’s largest floodplain salt marshes and is the least developed of SA’s large, permanently open estuaries.

She commended the draft Olifants River estuary management plan and the estuary’s “high priority status”, attaching a map of rampant mining and exploration permits threatening its biodiversity.

“May this be an eye-opener as to what a devastating effect this shall have on our critical biodiversity areas, socioeconomic systems, fisheries, tourism and so on,” she wrote. “If no action is taken, we are sitting with a crisis in and around the most pristine river mouth and estuary on the West Coast.”

The Western Cape minister has proposed that some of the “prioritised estuaries” may need to be declared protected areas or special management zones to protect their specific habitats.

The draft plan for the Olifants River estuary highlights that it is one of the top estuaries for birds, plants and invertebrates and CapeNature has recommended that it be declared a provincial nature reserve.

Riparian landowners, estuary users and environmentally concerned citizens were among those who responded to the draft estuarine plans in the Western Cape. Key issues included requests for clarification, more public involvement through estuary advisory forums, among other things, and an extension of time frames.

Some of the estuarine plans are advanced enough to finalise and be approved by the provincial minister, but for others the team have seen the need for “additional stakeholder engagement to address critical concerns”, Kriel reported.

Bredell noted that estuaries and wetlands provided the “ecological infrastructure functioning that are important in delivering ecosystem services”. Proposed developments should take place out of the “estuarine functional zones” so that they can flourish, he said.

Estuary habitats include wetlands, salt marshes and peatland and are “blue carbon” habitats which absorb harmful carbon emissions, and plans to manage them are being guided by the National Estuarine Management Protocol.

“Estuaries can only be of value to us if we value them appropriately,” said the Western Cape minister. “It is essential to balance the protection of these natural ecosystems with the economic potential we can derive from them.”