South Africa shows to Atlantic Ocean as to Indic Ocean and has the longest coast in all continent. The country consists of an enormous inner plateau, with peaky of until 3.000m of height, and flat coastal regions, but also has steep mounts formed by horizontal layers. South Africa has varied botanical world and great wealth of animal species, many of which, nevertheless, they are in extinction danger. The social lives still are marked by apartheid’s history. South Africa presents a great variety of cultures and traditions, but it coexists with unemployment and the AIDS. The economy bets fundamentally by the exploitation of natural resources. South Africa is an important producer of energy; the more important items of export are mining and agriculture. The economic growth in 2002 - just as in both previous years- was of 3% approx.

Coastal Zone
The warm current of Agulhas marks the East Coast, next to Indic Ocean. The subtropical climate is taken advantage of so much by the important agrarian sector (sugar cane production, wood and tropical fruits) like by the tourism. The tourism is in height and creates new jobs. In the coast west it is the cold and nutritious current of Benguela, of the Antarctic land, that provides great wealth of fish. Intensive Fishing, realized by the international fleets of fishing, has reduced drastically the contingents of fish - the amount of capture, at the present, is more or less 1/3 of the of 60’s ended. The ' Coastal Policy Document', of year 2000, focuses attention for the development of the coasts in the terrestrial side. The extension of the port economy and traffic, as well as of the mining (of diamonds) near the coast, is terrestrial explotaition that threaten specially the ecologically sensible zones of transition, with their estuaries, lagoons and beaches.