Browsing by Author "Aljareo, Abdulhakim"

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    Environmental impact assessment performance in an african context: case studies from Southern Africa (South Africa, Namibia, Malawi, and Tanzania)
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Aljareo, Abdulhakim; Schwaibold, Ute; Watson, Ingrid
    The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) system is a worldwide environmental policy tool, which has been introduced and adopted both in developed and developing countries. The EIA system is internationally acknowledged as an essential instrument to support sound decision-making in pursuit of sustainable development. Many countries have established the requirement for EIAs in their respective environmental legislative frameworks. However, considerable concerns are often raised about the inadequate performance of the EIA system in developing countries. The African developing countries have introduced EIA as an environmental policy implementation tool to their environmental policy and legal framework for environmental protection and management, as well as sustainable development promotion. However, the EIA system performance in the African developing country context is regarded as limited. The country context of the developing countries has been perceived to influence the performance of the EIA system. Fundamentally, the assessment of EIA system performance focuses on particular key EIA systemic components and EIA report, having limited consideration of the country context influence on the EIA system performance, and so does not provide a thorough understanding of the real causes of the limited EIA performance in the African context. Focusing on the EIA system performance in the African developing country context, an evaluation approach for EIA system performance and country context was developed. The developed approach was applied to four case studies from the southern African context (South Africa, Namibia, Malawi, and Tanzania). This was to evaluate EIA system components, EIA report, and country context. The research findings indicate that EIA system performance is limited due to the influence of the context of the case study countries. It was found that, despite the presence of the EIA legislative frameworks, EIA competent authorities, EIA procedural steps, and EIA reports in the case studies, different shortcomings have been identified such as misinterpretation of EIA provisions, limited EIA timeframes, incomprehensive EIA guidelines, insufficient provisions for conducting EIA follow-up and auditing. A further finding was the insufficient EIA report legal requirement which mirrored in the inadequate quality of the evaluated EIA reports. The most important v finding of this research is that EIA system performance depends on its country context. There is a clear relationship between country context of the case studies and EIA system development, implementation, and enforcement, thereby influencing EIA system performance. The key country context elements that were found to affect EIA system performance are the country legal, political, and socio-economic context, and the EIA stakeholders’ capacity. The consequences of the limited EIA stakeholders ‘capacity coupled with the inadequate country legal context due to insufficient laws to support justice in the administrative decisions, and access to information, had a significant impact on EIA system implementation and enforcement. The developmental state pressure on the EIA administration due to socio-economic challenges associated with political context issues such as interference and pressure also affected EIA system implementation and enforcement. The EIA system development was also influenced by the development state presented by the demand for economic development due to issues such as poverty and unemployment and the lack of political will and commitment to the EIA system. Based on this, a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between EIA system performance and the country context in Africa is required which can be achieved by using the developed evaluation approach in this study, to identify the possible measures for improving EIA system performance.
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    How is climate change incorporated into environmental impact assessments (EIAs) in South Africa?
    (2015-01-30) Aljareo, Abdulhakim
    Climate change is an issue of global significance resulting in trans-boundary environmental and socio-economic impacts. South Africa is involved in the international efforts to address climate change, has accepted the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Report and developed a National Climate Change Response Policy, listing the impacts of climate change on the sustainable development in South Africa. The main causes of climate change are Greenhouse Gases (GHGs), which have been emitted from different development activities over temporal and spatial scales. In order to reduce the emissions of GHGs and protect proposed development projects from climate change impacts, climate change mitigation and adaptation measures should be incorporated into Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). This research aimed to describe climate change incorporation into the EIA legal regime and practice in South Africa, based on climate change impacts on sustainable development and the role of EIA in considering climate change. The methodology involved reviewing EIA regulations and related legislation, EIA case studies from Gauteng province conducted between 2010 and 2013, key informant interviews with Environmental Assessment Practitioners (EAPs), and discussion on the linkedin group of the International Association for Impact Assessment of South Africa (IAIAsa). The study concluded that climate change is not explicitly incorporated into the EIA regime, but it is implied in the EIA regulations and related legislation. Largely as a result of the lack of climate change incorporation in the EIA legal regime, climate change is not adequately considered in the EIA practice. In order to support the contribution of EIA to sustainable development in South Africa, It is recommended that climate change should be incorporated into EIA regulations in the next amendment of NEMA. This can be done through including listed activities that require climate change incorporation into the EIA based on type of an activity and/or specific receiving environments. It is also suggested that EIA guidelines for climate change consideration be developed. Further recommendations include supporting the role that Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and Environmental Management Framework (EMF) play, in conjunction with the EIA, in considering climate change; increasing the availability of accurate, local climate change data and modelling technology; developing staff capacity and awareness about climate change, and building EAP’s ability to incorporate climate change in the EIA through the support of government related authorities and associations such as IAIAsa and EAPSA. Key words: climate change, EIA, mitigation, adaptation, EIA legal regime, EIA practice.