An Examination of the Adequacy of South African Protected Areas Legislation in the Face of Climate Change Presented to the 8 th Colloquium of the IUCN Environmental Law Academy Ghent University 16 September 2010 Sakhile Koketso, MPhil University of Cape Town and Heinrich Boell Foundation 1

Preliminary Remarks → Sincere thanks to IUCN Academy of Environmental Law for selecting me to present my paper at this colloquium 2 → Sincere thanks also to UNEP for providing me with funding to attend the colloquium

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South Africa’s biodiversity and protected areas → SA is one of the world’s top 5 mega-diverse countries – high levels of endemism → It occupies only 2% of world surface but contains 10% of global plant and 7% of global animal species; large variety of ecosystems and habitats → ‘SA has vast, sophisticated and diverse PA system’ → Although extensive, it was developed on ad-hoc basis with no thought to representativeness → SA has long history of conservation; one of the most important tools is protected areas (PAs) 4

Predicted impacts of CC on protected areas → biodiversity is under threat from various factors and CC is an added stressor → CC will have a negative impact on plant diversity particularly in the Cape Floral Kingdom → Impacts on PAs range from catastrophic long term changes, to dramatic changes to habitats and ecosystems, and individual changes to species and communities → Biomes are predicted to shrink by 38 – 55% 5 → Animal species – extinctions + range shifts

SA Protected Area Legislation → several pieces of legislation pertinent to PAs but only 3 most important discussed here → NEMPAA (57 of 2003) and NEMPAA Amendment (31 of 2004) are the principal PA legislation → NEMBA (10 of 2004) is primary legislation for biodiversity conservation and is also relevant for PA since their primary purpose is protection of biodiversity → NEMA (107 of 1998) is framework environmental legislation and provides overall guidance on norms, standards and principles 6 → s 2: Objectives – e.g. provide for declaration of PAs, representative network of PAs → s 10: Definitions – e.g. Nature reserves, national parks, protected environments → s 17: Purposes for which PA may be declared e.g. protect ecologically viable + representative areas → Important flaw of NEMPAA – failure to prescribe national planning framework → s 6: must be read, interpreted and applied in conjunction with NEMBA → Provides for a suite of planning tools – national BD framework, NSBA, bioregional plans etc → provides for the listing of ecosystems which are considered threatened and in need of protection e.g. endangered ecosystems, vulnerable ecosystems + protected ecosystems → framework env. Act so s 2 applies to NEMPAA → provides for geographical areas with special attributes

Challenges to SA Protected Area Legislation → PA legislation is designed to preserve biodiversity → Planning frameworks:  no common approach to planning (NEMBA)  climate change not evident in most planning instruments e.g. NSBA  setting priority areas for conservation: what constitutes representativeness? → Conservation objectives – protection of particular features, species or environmental goods and services, etc; cannot be the only purposes 7 → New alien and invasive species

How PA Legislation can be strengthened → In order to allow ecosystems and species to adapt to CC, PA legislation should not focus only on maintaining status quo – it should recognise that biodiversity evolves and that CC will become a key driver in this process → Need for a paradigm shift towards the protection of whole ecosystems and landscapes. Landscape conservation:  Works on a large scale (more than 1 ecosystem)  Integrates relationships btwn different components of the environment (forests, wetlands, rivers, agriculture, urban areas etc)  Core areas plus surrounding areas for sustainable use 8

PA planning framework should be mandatory and should recognise CC as a threat 9 A. Planning frameworksB. Conservation objectives Act must require that planning framework stipulates measures that ensure: Resilience Coherence Connectivity NEMPAA should clearly recognise that CC is a challenge to conservation + PAs One of the stated purposes of the Act should be to mitigate and adapt to climate change Act should stipulate that conservation objectives of PAs should be reviewed continually and updated