South Africa Ocean Accounts

2021 - 2024

Table Bay, South Africa

The GOAP Africa Community of Practice (ACoP) coordinates the development of ocean accounts pilot studies across Africa. ACoP's objectives for all its pilots are to:

• Help build awareness of the importance and effectiveness of ocean accounting.
• Promote national capacity development, including facilitating training workshops, coordinating bursaries and establishing contracts with local institutions and personnel.
• Facilitate long-term implementation, expansion, and maintenance of initiated and existing ocean accounts.

• Marine ecosystem accounts
• Natural capital accounts (including ecosystem service and abiotic service accounts)
• Ocean economy satellite accounts
• Novel social, risk and governance accounts
• Marine protected area thematic accounts

• Define and identify the focus, scope, and relevant accounting systems (from the Ocean Accounts Framework)
• Data collection and compilation
• Spatial resolution and scales

• Challenge: A lack of awareness of ocean accounting: it is an entirely new concept for many. Solution: Engagement, targeted communication and knowledge sharing.
• Challenge: Stakeholder engagement. Solution: Start engagement and communication with a smaller network.
• Challenge: A lack of local expertise and limited capacity to develop and implement accounts. Solution: Approach international partnerships such as GOAP and arrange capacity building events and intensive consultation with external experts.
• Challenge: Misalignment on the understanding of technical concepts and misuse of methodology. Solution: Invest in targeted capacity building activities.

• Centre for Sustainable Oceans, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town, South Africa,
• GOAP Global Community of Practice

• Prof. Ken Findlay, Program Lead, GOAP Africa CoP & Research Chair: Oceans Economies, Centre for Sustainable Oceans, CPUT, South Africa
• Dr. Tai Loureiro, Research Associate and Program Coordinator​, GOAP Africa CoP & Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for Sustainable Oceans, CPUT, South Africa