Culturally Significant Entities (CSEs) are animals, plants, and ecological communities that hold importance for Indigenous cultural identity, knowledge systems, and the ongoing care of Country. In coastal environments, CSEs are closely connected to Indigenous culture and reflect enduring relationships between people, land, and sea that remain active today.

Understanding CSEs means recognising that many species and ecological communities have cultural roles beyond their ecological or conservation status. CSEs may be part of creation stories and songlines, recognised as totems, used for food, medicine, or materials, or essential to ceremony and customary practice.

CSEs can also function as indicators of ecosystem health, aligning Indigenous knowledge with coastal monitoring, management, and adaptation to environmental change. For instance, changes in CSEs may provide important insights for coastal adaptation; they can offer early signals of climate impacts such as sea-level rise, habitat change, and shifting species distributions. In this way, they support adaptation responses that sustain both cultural practices and ecosystem resilience.

Cultural significance is not limited to threatened or native species. A CSE may be common, rare or native – it can even be non‑native. It may be valued as a cultural food or economic resource, or identified as a threat to cultural values and practices. As place‑based cultural assets, CSEs carry both tangible and intangible values that are specific to location and community.

Despite their importance, CSEs are not yet recognised or managed as systematically as threatened species under existing legislation. Researchers in this area are working towards a shift in governance – from engaging Indigenous Australians as stakeholders to recognising them as rightsholders with cultural authority, responsibilities, and decision‑making roles in Caring for Country.

Coastal practitioners can strengthen adaptation planning by actively incorporating CSEs into the planning process. CSEs can be incorporated into risk assessments and adaptation priorities through their recognition as indicators of environmental change and values that require protection, alongside infrastructure and biodiversity.

This begins with culturally safe and early engagement with Traditional Owners to identify locally important species and ecological communities in the coastal context. Monitoring should include Indigenous-led 'Monitoring Country' approaches to ensure that changes to CSEs inform adaptive management over time.

Effective integration requires processes for respectful collaboration and shared decision-making that enables Traditional Owners to guide how Indigenous knowledge is used and can help to shape coastal futures.

Considering CSE values requires considering cross-cutting priorities of:

• climate change – integrating CSEs into climate change modelling, mitigation and adaptation strategies, recognising that climate impacts can threaten both cultural and ecological values
• data and knowledge management – investing in secure data systems, national case-study repositories and culturally appropriate management of CSE knowledge, including the role of Elders as Knowledge-holders and intergenerational transfer
• self-determination and Treaty – recognising that Indigenous self-determination, Treaty rights and sovereignty need to be considered in policy and legislative development.