On 9 December 2011, the Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs finally published the national list of ecosystems that are threatened and in need of protection under s.52(1)(a) of the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act (GG 34809, GN 1002, 9 December 2011). You can access the Government Gazette in several parts here. You can also read some of the correspondence to the Minister from the Centre for Environmental Rights on behalf of a number of other NGOs about the delay in the gazetting of this list here.
List of Threatened Ecosystems finally gazetted
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I’ve downloaded this pdf and had a quick scan through here and there. Already I see problems. Point 3.2.3. states that listed ecosystems SHOULD be incorporated into EMF’s. There is no mention of has to or must at all. Knowing the municipality where I stay very well (Ekurhuleni) should in fact means dont bother. Must means that somebody’s got to work out what work must be done and put a budget to it, then somebody else has to explain at a council meeting why these pieces of extensive grassland must be protected when there is such a crucial shortage of land space for housing all the immigrants, then this item will be left to stand over till a next council meeting (maybe the original proposer would be sick next time) and so forth and so on. And from experience I do know that most EAP’s as well as municipal and provincial officials just ignore EMF’s and Conservation Plans and Environmental Policies. Has these tools helped to protect threatened ecosystems in the past? No, definitely not. So is this official list of listed ecosystems going to provide the necessary protection? I doubt it – but lets see if I’m wrong.
Is there any way the list of sites could be published here to save us all trawling through the gazette? It would help a good deal. Thanks so much.
Dear Kate, DEA has advised us that the information will also be available on SANBI’s BGIS website (http://bgis.sanbi.org) soon, presumably in georeferenced maps! You can send them a mail at bgishelp@sanbi.org. Regards, CER