SEA, strategic environmental assessment — English

Concern for the environment has become one of the prime drivers of decision-making at international, national and local scale in our modern world (see “greening mainstream politics”). Therefore, the environment has to be taken into consideration in all policies and large-scale developments, plans and programmes (PPPs). (Note: Do not confuse the abbreviation PPP used for policies, plans and programmes with PPP when it is used for public-private partnerships. [See “public-private partnerships”.]) In fact, concern for the environment should form the very basis of all PPPs. Just as economical and socio-cultural considerations have to be taken into account in developmental policies and programmes, the environment has to be considered. This is what is called “triple bottomlining” and it means that a development policy should be economically, socioculturally as well as environmentally sustainable, and it is today an unavoidable imperative for all developmental planning and official permission to execute the policies, plans and programmes. SEA is very wide in scope and it does not deal with the finer details of any development project (such as the waste management in an international heritage site), but it safe-guards the interests of the environment when national economic strategies (such as the NEPAD strategy in South Africa) are designed. SEA belongs to what is called “second generation” environmental management and it has not yet attained universal usage even in the developed countires, while it is hardly considered in the developing countries, including South Africa. National and regional economic strategies and policies in South Africa should provide for heritage sites, and such sites should be a basic component in all development programmes. Planning for north-western Gauteng should be constructed around the Cradle of Humankind world heritage site, and development strategies and programmes in the northern part of Limpopo should be planned around the Mapungubwe world heritage site. At the time of writing a large mining project is threathening the very essence of the Mapungubwe site, and since South Africa still does not have a tradition of SEA, some of these mining activities have been permitted under the NEMA legislation (see “environmental management”) and environmentalist as well as NGOs are experiencing a tough battle on behalf of the human and natural heritage conserved in the region. It is an ironic situation, because South Africa was the very first country in the world to enshrine environmental concerns in its Act of Constitution, no 108 0f 1996, which implies that SEA would form the basis of economic development of every kind. Perhaps environmental management has now finally matured to a stage where SEA might come to its right. The controversial coal mining north of the Soutpansberg Mountain in the Limpopo valley has now become a very serious threat to agriculture, the Vhembe biosphere, certain traditional communities, a number of nature reserves and resorts, and the water supplies in the region. A number of governmental departments, local environmental conservation bodies, community-based organisations, stakeholder groups, organised agriculture, traditional communities and one coal-mining company are embroiled in an emotional dispute over mining rights and activities in the region. It seems that only a comprehensive strategic environmental assessment would be able to break to stalemate and a formal request for such an assessment for the entire region has been submitted. This SEA would be the first for South Africa. It is ironic that an SEA is being used to solve a thorny issue, instead of having been done before the awarding of the mining rigths and thereby all the ensuing events could have been prevented.

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