Learning Unit 7:

Governance and Institutions

04 September 2023

Pages 86 - 103
 This Lecture
Introduction

Governance

Environmental governance

Environmental governance
within the South African context

Institutions and role players

Information Only
Fast Fashion
(consumerism):
Why we need
environmental
governance

Video available on
myUnisa under
“Additional Resources”
Governance
Governance:
Introduction
• Governance is an umbrella term
that refers to the structures,
institutions (i.e., laws, policies,
rules, and norms), and processes
that determine who makes
decisions, how decisions are
made, and how and what actions
are taken and by whom.
Governance: Main
Aspects
• Governance involves the way in which complex societal issues
are managed
• No clear and agreed upon solutions exist to complex issues.
• Complex issues cause high levels of conflict between the
stakeholders involved, because different opinions exist on what
the problem is and how it should be managed to solve the issue.
• The management of complex issues requires collaboration
between all the different stakeholders, including the public
agencies and other public, civil, society and business
organisations (in other words, the management includes
members from the public spheres, the private sector, the civil
society, the local residents, the active local groups and the
community).
• Governments share the decision-making and implementation
(of solutions) process with the other actors concerned.
• Governments are not the only actors involved and, in some
instances, are neither even the most relevant, nor the most
powerful, ones.
Governance: Main
Aspects
• Intervening and influencing human behaviour by means of the use
of regulation is possible. Law provides the parameters, the
justification and the means to manage the activities of people. In
other words, law (in the form of legislation, rules, etc) is used to
change or to adjust human behaviour. Regulation, in this context,
concerns the setting, the interpretation, the application and the
enforcement of rules. Law is, therefore, a key element of
governance.
• Governance is not the same as government, as the former includes
the actions of the state and, in addition, involves actors like
communities, businesses and NGOs.
• Although the concepts of “governance” and “management” are not
the same, they are linked. Management refers to the resources,
plans and actions that result from the functioning of governance.
Environmental Governance
Environmental Governance

• “environmental governance”
consists of “the rules,
practices, policies and
institutions that shape how
humans interact with the
environment”.
 Environmental Governance
• the totality of interactions among societal actors
aimed at coordinating, steering and regulating
human access to, use of, and impacts on the
environment, through collectively binding
decisions. Environmental governance
arrangements may be directed towards a range of
causes – including conservation and
environmental protection, spatial and land use
planning, (sustainable) management of natural
resources, and the protection of human health –
and operate across scales to address local and
global environmental problems.
Environmental
Governance
• … governance is generally defined as
the institutions, structures, and
processes that determine who makes
decisions, how and for whom decisions
are made, whether, how and what
actions are taken and by whom and to
what effect. The aim of environmental
governance, in particular, is to manage
individual behaviours or collective
actions in pursuance of public
environmental goods and related
societal outcomes.
Environmental Governance in South Africa
Environmental Governance
in South Africa
• Everyone has the right―
• (a) to an environment that is not harmful
to their health or well-being; and
• (b) to have the environment protected, for
the benefit of present and future
generations, through reasonable legislative
and other measures that―
• (i) prevent pollution and ecological
degradation;
• (ii) promote conservation; and
• (iii) secure ecologically sustainable
development and use of natural
resources while promoting justifiable
economic and social development.
Environmental Governance in
South Africa
• Environmental Governance and Sustainable Development:
• The collection of legislative, executive and
administrative functions, processes and instruments
used by government to ensure sustainable behaviour
by all as far as governance of environmental activities,
products, services, processes and tools are concerned.
• A management process executed by institutions and
individuals in the public and private sector to
holistically regulate human activities and the effects of
human activities on the total environment (including all
environmental media, and biological, chemical,
aesthetic and socioeconomic processes and conditions)
at international, regional, national and local levels; by
means of formal and informal institutions, processes
and mechanisms embedded in and mandated by law,
so as to promote the present and future interests
human beings hold in the environment.
 Cooperative
environmental
governance
Environmental Governance in South Africa
Cooperative environmental governance
• Governance institutions per Department
• National: The national departments involved are the
Cooperative environmental governance
• Governance institutions per Department
• Provincial: At provincial level, the respective environmental directorates are
located in different directorates in the respective provinces.
Cooperative environmental
governance
• Governance institutions per
Department
• Local: The local authorities (i.e. the
municipalities) administer various
atmospheric emissions licensing,
protected areas and town planning
instruments (such as zoning
schemes) and by-laws
Cooperative environmental
governance
• In the Constitution
• 41. (1) All spheres of government and all organs of
state within each sphere must—
• (h) co-operate with one another in mutual trust
and good faith by—
• (i) fostering friendly relations;
• (ii) assisting and supporting one another;
• (iii) informing one another of, and consulting
one another on, matters of common
interest;
• (iv) co-ordinating their actions and
legislation with one another;
• (v) adhering to agreed procedures; and
• (vi) avoiding legal proceedings against one
another.
Cooperative environmental
governance
• In NEMA
• Horizontal cooperation
• Vertical cooperation
• Through programmes of environmental
management plans
• And implementation plans
• Purpose and objects of the plans
• Coordination and harmonisation
• Principles of cooperative government
• Protection of the environment
• Preventing unreasonable actions
 • In NEMA ( Chapter 5)
• Provision is made for the establishment of a
central point (i.e. a competent authority) in each
province to deal with environmental applications,
authorisations and licences in a coordinated
manner.
• Section 24(4)(a) stipulates that, in every
application for an environmental authorisation,
Cooperative the organs of state must coordinate and
cooperate with one another in considering those
environmental assessments where an activity falls under the
jurisdiction of more than one organ of state.
• Section 24(4)(b) stipulates that every application
governance for an environmental authorisation must include,
where applicable, an investigation and an
assessment of the impact of any proposed listed
or specified activity on certain national estates, in
terms of the National Heritage Resources Act 25
of 1999.
 • In NEMA ( Chapter 5)
• Section 24K provides for consultation between
the competent authorities where authorisation
is required in terms of NEMA and in terms of
other legislation, so as to be able to coordinate
the respective requirements of such legislation,
and so as to avoid duplication of effort.
• Section 24L provides for the alignment of
Cooperative environmental authorisations. If the listed or
specified activity is also regulated in terms of
environmental another law or in terms of a SEMA, the authority
that is thereby empowered to authorise the
governance activity and the competent authority that is
empowered under NEMA in respect of that
activity may exercise their respective powers
jointly. Such joint exercising of power may be
attained by means of issuing either separate
authorisations or an integrated environmental
authorisation.
 • Those public (government or state) institutions
that form part of environmental governance in
South Africa can be found within the following
framework:
• the branches of government (the
executive, the legislature and the
judiciary)
Institutions • the South African government (consisting
of the national, the provincial and the
and role local/municipal government)
• the courts and the judiciary (the
players Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court
of Appeal, the High Court, the
magistrates’ courts and the specialist
courts)
• The Environmental Management
Inspectorate (EMI)
Institutions and role
players: Public institutions
• EMIs
• SAPS
• SANParks
• The National Wildlife Crime Reaction Unit
• The National Biodiversity Investigators Forum
• The Department of Water and Sanitation
• The South African Revenue Service
• Local Government
 NGOS AND OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL
Institutions and role ROLE PLAYERS PRACTITIONERS

players: Non-Public

MEMBERS OF THE THE MEDIA

SCIENTIFIC
COMMUNITY
 Institutions and role players: NGOs
• NGOs have the necessary legal standing (locus standi) to bring
environmental issues to court They can do so when acting in the
public interest and/or when acting in the interest of the
environment itself.
• As NGOs usually work with and have strong links with the local
communities, they tend to have access to sources of information
and to knowledge on environmental matters (like pollution, etc),
specifically within a certain community or area. They are, therefore,
well placed to promote awareness regarding, and to rally opinion
on, environmental governance issues.
• NGOs have human capital, in the form of skilled and expert
personnel, to undertake research and to publish reports, articles and
briefings, as well as similar material, on environmental matters. Their
research findings and their expert knowledge on environmental
governance matters are a source of information not only to the
general public, but also to the government authorities concerned. In
many instances, their government partners provide support and
training within the ambit of NGO projects and initiatives. In such a
way, cooperation occurs between NGOs and the government.
• An NGO like the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
(SPCA) is mandated to enforce the Animals Protection Act 71 of
1962 and related legislation. In other words, it plays an enforcement
role in terms of environmental governance.
Institutions and role players: NGOs
• Examples
Institutions and role players: Practitioners
• environmental managers
• environmental auditors
• environmental lawyers
• Knowledge to educate and assist their clients on
• prescribed legal requirements and standards
• how to comply with such requirements and standards
• the taking of action against those who fail to comply with the set requirements
and standards
• alternative compliance and enforcement measures
• voluntary compliance measures and
• incentive- based measures
• Such measures include corporate social responsibility programmes, environmental
labelling schemes and environmental management systems and agreements.
Institutions and role players: Scientific
community

• Academics and independent researchers form part of the scientific community that also
plays an important role in environmental governance by
• furthering academic debate on environmental compliance and enforcement issues
• undertaking research on general and specific environmental compliance and
enforcement issues
• making research available to the public and private sector, which enables research
findings to be taken up in environmental policy and in the legislative process (taking
such findings from idea to formally adopted legislation)
• assisting the government with legislative reform on environmental issues (in terms of
compliance and enforcement)
• training both public and private role players involved in environmental compliance and
governance, by way of conducting discussions, workshops and seminars, among other
forms of instructional sessions
Institutions and role players: the Media

• As the media gather and communicate information to the general

public, it is an important influencer on multiple general and
environmental matters.
• Reporting by the media should be based on sound, objective (neutral)
and accurate information.
• Although the dangers of inaccurate and subjective reporting, or the
creation of “fake news”, cannot be overstated.
Institutions and role players: the Media

• Reporting on non-compliance and environmental crimes negatively impacts

on the reputation and legitimacy of the offender. Accordingly, it drives future
compliance. (Negative press and consumer attitudes, as well as naming and
shaming, are linked to share price, and, therefore, to a company’s profitability.)
• Reporting on “good” environmental compliance (in terms of promoting
favourable press) promotes the reputation and legitimacy of the bodies and
organisations concerned (particularly in the commercial sector). In turn, such
favourable reportage leads to further compliance (again, particularly in the
commercial sector, where favourable press leads to an increase in consumer
demand, and, therefore, to increased profitability).
Questions