An evaluation of the effectiveness of area-based conservation interventions in avoiding biodiversity loss in South Africa
- Authors: Von Staden, Lize
- Date: 2023-04
- Subjects: Environmental policy , Conservation of natural resources -- Government policy -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/61115 , vital:69762
- Description: Counterfactual impact evaluation studies form an important evidence base for the effectiveness of conservation projects, programs, and policies (collectively referred to as conservation interventions). In South Africa, counterfactual impact evaluation methods have rarely been applied to local conservation interventions, and therefore evidence for the effectiveness of key strategic national conservation approaches is lacking. This study evaluated three area-based interventions that together aim to avoid the loss of areas most important for the persistence of biodiversity in the terrestrial realm as evidence towards the effectiveness of South Africa’s landscape approach to biodiversity conservation. The first intervention, South Africa’s National Protected Area Expansion Strategy (NPAES), set ambitious targets to double the extent of South Africa’s protected area network while ensuring that the expansion preferentially occurs in areas of under-represented biodiversity. The strategy was evaluated in terms of its effectiveness in guiding protected area expansion towards more equitable representation of South Africa’s biodiversity through an assessment of changes in indicators of protected area expansion decision-making before and after the implementation of the strategy. The second intervention is the use of maps of biodiversity priorities to guide land use change decisions outside protected areas. Impact was evaluated as avoided loss of Critical Biodiversity Areas (CBAs), which need to remain in a natural condition to meet in situ conservation targets for species, ecosystems, and ecological processes. Avoided loss in CBAs was benchmarked against avoided loss in protected areas, to contextualize the effectiveness of land use planning as a conservation intervention. Lastly, the effectiveness of stricter land use regulations for threatened ecosystems to reduce land conversion pressure on these ecosystems was evaluated. Key findings were that protected areas are highly effective conservation interventions where they can be implemented, but their capacity for conservation impact is limited by severe constraints on strategic expansion. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Science, School of Environmental Sciences, 2023
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- Date Issued: 2023-04
Going green: the impact of integrated sustainability reporting within JSE companies
- Authors: Nkosi, Jabulani Elias
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Sustainable development , Environmental policy
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DBA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/9129 , vital:26467
- Description: The world is threatened by the possibility of an irreversible catastrophe that many would blame on the environmental impact of the present lifestyle, the results of which are climate change or global warming. This is clearly unacceptable to both present and future generations. If going green really means changing the way we live and pursuing knowledge and practices that can lead to more environmentally friendly and socio-ecologically responsible decisions, it is time to protect the environment and sustain its natural resources for current and future generations. Integrated sustainability reporting should be viewed as a vehicle to accomplish this global agenda of going green beyond mere legal requirements. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of integrated sustainability reporting (ISR) on achieving green business status within JSE listed companies. To achieve the purpose, an in-depth literature study and empirical research were undertaken using a triangulation method. After a detailed descriptive and content analysis of the collected primary and secondary data, the study found the following: Most of the JSE listed corporations’ integrated reports are not utilising the CSR, GRI guidelines and voluntary standards as effective tools to drive the process of green sustainable business. Some of the JSE listed organisations are treating financial and non-financial matters as separate issues in their integrated reports; The ISR has no impact in terms of using the NEMA framework in driving the process of green sustainable business in the JSE listed organisations; Most of the JSE listed organisations were fully aware of ecological sustainability as a pillar to drive the process of green sustainable business. They treat this pillar of sustainable development as a separate entity from socio-economic developmental issues. Most of the JSE listed corporations adhere to all the bylaws and regulations of ecological sustainability within their required certification of ISO 14001 standards in order to remain effectively certified by the auditing authority. Some integrated reports indicated much support for staff in terms of health, educational activities, labour laws and programmes that advance the socio-economic aspects of human beings; The study has found that the social pillar of sustainability is mostly supported by JSE listed organisations in South Africa - to the level of the requirements of labour relations legislation. It is not integrated with sustainability policies beyond the statutory requirements; It was further noticed in this study that integrated sustainability reports, based on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) principles and the King III reporting guidelines, disclose outcomes and results regarding the JSE listed organisations’ obligations, strategy and management approach which occurred within the reporting period. To address the above-listed findings, the researcher recommended that the JSE listed organisations integrate the NEMA, EMS, CSR, GRI and King III guidelines in their integrated sustainability reporting, in order to produce an effective sustainable green business in South Africa that is ecologically accountable and socio-economically supportive to all multi-stakeholders. The government and non-governmental organisations are the key players to drive the process of going green using the ISR. The government needs more structured policies and regulations that will support the National Development Plan in the pursuit of green economy in the form of grants and incentives that are beyond the present status quo.
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- Date Issued: 2015
An assessment of the formulation of permit conditions associated with environmental authorisations and implications for compliance monitoring
- Authors: Jennings, Patricia Jean
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Environmental impact analysis , Environmental management , Economic development projects , Licenses , Environmental monitoring , Compliance -- Environmental aspects , Environmental policy
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MPhil (Environmental Studies)
- Identifier: vital:11873 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/437 , Environmental impact analysis , Environmental management , Economic development projects , Licenses , Environmental monitoring , Compliance -- Environmental aspects , Environmental policy
- Description: Environmental impact assessment is a widely accepted planning tool used in environmental management. Internationally it has been adopted as a formal permitting requirement for development projects in many jurisdictions. Historically the focus has been on the pre-decision making stages of environmental impact assessment. It has, however, been widely acknowledged that post-decision environmental impact assessment follow-up is an important component in confirming initial predictions, enabling responsible adaptive management of environmental impacts and ensuring compliance with permit conditions. It is this last function which is the focus of this study. Specifically, the role of permit conditions in enabling compliance and facilitating compliance monitoring is addressed. Permit conditions of twenty-one environmental authorisations were examined and tested for conformance with legislated requirements, and practicality of monitoring for compliance (monitorability). It was found that there are many contributors to achieving monitorable permit conditions. Amongst the most significant of these are conformity in interpretation of the regulations specifying permit content by officials, gaps in guidance on the part of the regulations themselves, and a tendency to focus on construction related impacts. The lack of clarity regarding the roles and functions of environmental control officer and environmental auditor further contribute to poor monitorability of permit conditions. Specific areas of shortcoming and best practice in the permit conditions analysed were identified and discussed. Finally, recommendations are made for the improvement of permit condition monitorability.
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- Date Issued: 2011
A foucaultian critique of the conception of individual subjectivity within contemporary environmental discourse
- Authors: Konik, Inge
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: Environmentalism , Environmental policy , Environmental management -- Social aspects
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MPhil
- Identifier: vital:8422 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1016201
- Description: Certain prominent environmental theorists have accounted for and/or addressed our unmitigated environmentally damaging behavior in cognitive terms, related to a common (misplaced) belief that economic development and technological advancement, among other contemporary processes, will solve our environmental problems. However, I argue that they have not given due consideration to the complex (predominantly non-cognitive/non-conscious) discursive constitution of the individual, and thus seem to adhere to a Kantian notion of autonomy that overlooks such non-cognitive factors. Focusing on this non-cognitive aspect of discursive constitution, I ascribe our ecological apathy mainly to the fact that we have been discursively constituted as docile bodies and prostrate subjects. Further, I argue that, because this process of discursive constitution is primarily non-cognitive, any attempts to remedy our ecological apathy at a cognitive level alone will not be completely effective. Consequently, I propose that a more effective way of fostering pro-environmental dispositions may be for individuals to engage in an ethic/culture of the self that is not exclusively conceptual in orientation, and which is centered on the practice of a counter-discourse that does not constitute the individual as docile and prostrate nor negate the individual’s dependence on the environment. Alternatively, in order to engender pro-environmental civilizational change, it may be necessary to operate within the discursive parameters of dominant/popular institutions, in order to incrementally alter the discourses employed within, and disseminated through, these institutions, in a manner that would lead to the problematization, rather than the endorsement, of the ecologically deleterious technological, political and economic trajectories of our time.
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- Date Issued: 2009