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Integrated environmental management : where is South Africa headed given recent developments relating to NEMA and the Infrastructure Development Act?

Integrated Environmental Management (IEM) was formulated during the 1980s by the Council for the Environment in response to a dual need in South Africa to effectively manage the country's natural resource base whilst stimulating economic growth and development. The IEM principles were translated int...

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Main Author: Day, Kirsten Dea
Other Authors: Paterson, Alexander
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Institute of Marine and Environmental Law 2015
Subjects:
Environmental Law
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access_status_str Open Access
author Day, Kirsten Dea
author2 Paterson, Alexander
author_browse Day, Kirsten Dea
Paterson, Alexander
author_facet Paterson, Alexander
Day, Kirsten Dea
author_sort Day, Kirsten Dea
collection Thesis
description Integrated Environmental Management (IEM) was formulated during the 1980s by the Council for the Environment in response to a dual need in South Africa to effectively manage the country's natural resource base whilst stimulating economic growth and development. The IEM principles were translated into the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA) in 1998, and IEM also became the title of Chapter 5, the purpose of which is to promote the application of appropriate environmental management tools to ensure the integrated environmental management of activities. Over the years a single tool, namely, environmental impact assessment (EIA) has come dominate the environmental management regime in South Africa, and many of the innovative attributes of IEM have been diluted with a more conventional and conservative approach to impact assessment. EIA has consequently been blamed for causing delays and undermining the national government's infrastructural development ambitions for the country. In 2014 the Department of Economic Development introduced the Infrastructure Development Act (IDA) which is aimed at prioritising public infrastructure projects seen to be of significant economic or social importance. This dissertation focuses on those factors that compel a comparison between NEMA and the IDA, not least of which is the provision for lists of projects and activities subject to legislated requirements. Whereas NEMA aims to ensure that such activities are planned, assessed and monitored in accordance with principles of sustainable development, the IDA seeks to expedite development in the face of lack of employment opportunities, an energy crises and falling GDP growth rates. The outcome of a comparison between NEMA and the IDA suggests that overly complex and arduous environmental procedures and legislative requirements have precipitated an extreme response. However, the steam-roller type approach advocated by the IDA is likely to create more problems than solutions as it ignores government's concurrent commitments to co-operative governance and sustainability. The original principles and procedures of IEM provide a potential alternative to ensuring a balance between environmental protection and economic growth.
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:33:21.255Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2015
publishDateRange 2015
publishDateSort 2015
publisher Institute of Marine and Environmental Law
publisherStr Institute of Marine and Environmental Law
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/15165 Integrated environmental management : where is South Africa headed given recent developments relating to NEMA and the Infrastructure Development Act? Day, Kirsten Dea Paterson, Alexander Environmental Law Integrated Environmental Management (IEM) was formulated during the 1980s by the Council for the Environment in response to a dual need in South Africa to effectively manage the country's natural resource base whilst stimulating economic growth and development. The IEM principles were translated into the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA) in 1998, and IEM also became the title of Chapter 5, the purpose of which is to promote the application of appropriate environmental management tools to ensure the integrated environmental management of activities. Over the years a single tool, namely, environmental impact assessment (EIA) has come dominate the environmental management regime in South Africa, and many of the innovative attributes of IEM have been diluted with a more conventional and conservative approach to impact assessment. EIA has consequently been blamed for causing delays and undermining the national government's infrastructural development ambitions for the country. In 2014 the Department of Economic Development introduced the Infrastructure Development Act (IDA) which is aimed at prioritising public infrastructure projects seen to be of significant economic or social importance. This dissertation focuses on those factors that compel a comparison between NEMA and the IDA, not least of which is the provision for lists of projects and activities subject to legislated requirements. Whereas NEMA aims to ensure that such activities are planned, assessed and monitored in accordance with principles of sustainable development, the IDA seeks to expedite development in the face of lack of employment opportunities, an energy crises and falling GDP growth rates. The outcome of a comparison between NEMA and the IDA suggests that overly complex and arduous environmental procedures and legislative requirements have precipitated an extreme response. However, the steam-roller type approach advocated by the IDA is likely to create more problems than solutions as it ignores government's concurrent commitments to co-operative governance and sustainability. The original principles and procedures of IEM provide a potential alternative to ensuring a balance between environmental protection and economic growth. 2015-11-21T09:36:14Z 2015-11-21T09:36:14Z 2015 Master Thesis Masters MPhil http://hdl.handle.net/11427/15165 eng application/pdf Institute of Marine and Environmental Law Faculty of Law University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Environmental Law
Day, Kirsten Dea
Integrated environmental management : where is South Africa headed given recent developments relating to NEMA and the Infrastructure Development Act?
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Integrated environmental management : where is South Africa headed given recent developments relating to NEMA and the Infrastructure Development Act?
title_full Integrated environmental management : where is South Africa headed given recent developments relating to NEMA and the Infrastructure Development Act?
title_fullStr Integrated environmental management : where is South Africa headed given recent developments relating to NEMA and the Infrastructure Development Act?
title_full_unstemmed Integrated environmental management : where is South Africa headed given recent developments relating to NEMA and the Infrastructure Development Act?
title_short Integrated environmental management : where is South Africa headed given recent developments relating to NEMA and the Infrastructure Development Act?
title_sort integrated environmental management where is south africa headed given recent developments relating to nema and the infrastructure development act
topic Environmental Law
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/15165
work_keys_str_mv AT daykirstendea integratedenvironmentalmanagementwhereissouthafricaheadedgivenrecentdevelopmentsrelatingtonemaandtheinfrastructuredevelopmentact

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