Abstract
Sandy beaches harbour a unique biota, and provide invaluable ecosystem goods and services. Yet in spite of their exceptional ecological value, beaches are generally overlooked as functional systems, and their natural processes have been largely misunderstood in the past. For this reason, management of beaches has historically been to their detriment ecologically, and may even have compromised their resilience to contemporary stressors, on which global change-related pressures are superimposed. Given the tremendous social, economic and environmental values associated with sandy shores (derived from the associated ecosystem goods and services), it is imperative that proactive management strategies are implemented in order for the biodiversity, processes and services to continue in perpetuity. Notwithstanding this moral obligation, most countries have commitments to meeting specific conservation targets for all ecosystems contained within their national borders because they are signatories to international treaties, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity. We present novel and adapted methodologies for digital mapping of beach habitats, biodiversity, ecosystem services and threats, which we have applied to the South African shores. Systematic conservation planning techniques serve to identify ecologically important beaches, and a cumulative threat assessment highlights particularly impacted beaches. We present a conservation strategy for beaches as an alternative to marine protected areas, which aims to build resilience into the ecologically important beaches by proclaiming generous set-back lines (mainly for conservation-related goals); and mitigate threats at particularly impacted beaches by disaggregating synergistic stressors either spatially or temporally (mainly for management-related goals). Our novel mix of geospatial conservation tools could also be applied to adjacent habitats, in a step towards achieving integrated, ecosystem-based management of the whole coastal zone.