Prioritizing the culture metric for transformative ocean management in South Africa

The Ecosystems Services (ES) approach to ocean management forms part of global initiatives to achieve sustainability. In a time of climate change and ocean depletion, ES is critical to an inclusive global ocean accounting and marine spatial planning (MSP). The ES approach proposes that nature offers a range of services to human populations which can be measured for integrated ocean management. The services identified in ES are thought to be usefully integrated into systems’ models for both retrospective analysis and future modelling. Recently, culture is identified as an important ecosystem service in ocean management. The System of Environmental Economic Accounting (SEEA) adopted and applied by the United Nations Statistical Commission Several scholars calls for the inclusion of culture in environmental economic accounting. However, and as argued in this article, for various reasons, culture is not easily circumscribed, and it offers its own epistemological foundation that may frame ocean ‘accounting’. The research presented in the article uses anthropological research methods to investigate, document and analyse the form and substance of coastal culture in South Africa. It is concluded that the transmaterial, temporal and processual nature of culture means that for South Africa and potentially Africa, a radical transformation of ecological discourse is necessary for a sufficiently dynamic ES approach that can apprehend the complexity of culture in Africa and the world.