National Strategic Environmental Assessment for aquaculture development in South Africa: GIS analysis for identifying optimal areas for marine and freshwater aquaculture development

Abstract

The Department of Environmental Affairs and the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries commissioned the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research to conduct a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) for Aquaculture Development in South Africa. The SEA seeks to ultimately produce a Decision Support Framework (DSF) that will provide guidance for site- and activity specific assessment processes, and supply Government with the necessary tools it needs to enable responsible, integrated and streamlined decision-making on aquaculture development. This report provides the approach and results of a strategic areas identification process (Phase 2 of the SEA). The strategic aquaculture areas serve as study areas for specialist investigation and assessment during the Assessment Phase (Phase 3) of the SEA which creates an evidentiary basis for the DSF. The identification of the strategic aquaculture areas for the purposes of the SEA constituted three main stages: 1) variable and threshold identification; 2) a multi-criteria analysis using Geographic Information Systems; and 3) area selection and refinement. Iterative stakeholder engagement formed an integral part of identifying the strategic aquaculture areas. Nine final strategic areas were identified and selected for freshwater aquaculture, whilst eight strategic areas were identified and selected for marine aquaculture (or mariculture). The areas are representative of all the South African provinces.