Issued by: Ministry of Environmental Affairs and Tourism
27 January 1998
ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATIONS FOR SENSITIVE COASTAL AREAS (SCAs) TO BE EXTENDED IN THE WESTERN CAPE AND KWA-ZULU NATAL COASTAL AREAS.
Due to the increasing development pressure on our coastline, there is a need for a legal mechanism to protect sensitive coastal areas. The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism believes that an effective means of protection will be afforded by controlling the potentially harmful activities, such as indiscriminate plot clearing and flattening of dunes, which are often undertaken to prepare coastal sites for development.
Given this scenario, regulations - controlling vegetation disturbance, earthworks, dredging and dune stabilisation - were promulgated in terms of sections 21 and 26 of the Environment Conservation Act, 1989 (Act No 73 of 1989) by the previous Minister on 31 May 1996 for the Outeniqua Sensitive Coastal Area (SCA), which extends from Tergniet to Kaaimans River along the "Garden Route" coast of the Western Cape Province.
The SCA regulations must be seen as complementing the regulations I promulgated on 5 September this year which require developments in general to be subject to environmental impact assessments. These general regulations are being implemented in four phases, and will be fully in force by 1 April 1998.
The SCA regulations control activities on a permit system, with most decision-making powers being delegated to local authorities. The regulations not only apply to private land-owners - any permit applications by government agencies have to be evaluated by the next highest level of authority. In order to ensure transparency and accountability, the regulations require decision-making bodies to keep a comprehensive record of decision. The regulations also allow for a fair and equitable appeal procedure. To minimise red tape and avoid duplicating other legislation, activities already controlled by other legal mechanisms will not be subject to these specific regulations.
Given the lack of manpower and expertise that constrain many local authorities, a set of guidelines is currently being developed by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism to assist these authorities to implement, and permit applications to comply with, the SCA regulations. These guidelines will include a background document, definitions of terms used, an explanation of legal procedures involved, and an impact report (in questionnaire format) combined with the permit application form. A computer-based decision-support system is also being developed for the Outeniqua coastline from Tergniet to the Bloukrans River to provide information which would enable permit applications to answer the questions in the impact report, and to assist local authorities in making informed and correct decisions. Completing the guidelines' impact report will, however, not be compulsory, and an impact report can alternatively be compiled, on condition that such a report meets the requirements of the SCA regulations.
Subsequent to the promulgation of the regulations for the Outeniqua SCA, the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism has held public meetings at various centres to canvas opinions on the extension of the regulations to other identified SCAs. The overall response at all the meetings was very supportive, and the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism is therefore proceeding with the SCA initiative in a phased manner.
The first phase will be to implement the regulations (a) for the eastward extension of the Outeniqua SCA to the Bloukrans River, and (b) at Pennington and Umtamvuna on the Kwazulu-Natal south coast. The draft regulations and boundaries for these SCA's will be published shortly for comment in the Government Gazette, and I request interested parties to provide the Department of Environmental Affairs and tourism with comments on the regulations within the next two months.
Local authorities who foresee a need to have the SCA regulations published in their area of jurisdiction are welcome to contact the Department's Coastal Management Office at:
Telephone 021-402 3228 Facsimile 021-418 2582 E-mail czm@sfri.wcape.gov.za