Reporting on the State of the Environment: South African Experiences

Abstract

The past few decades have seen an increasing demand for environmental information on which to make more informed decisions, strengthened by several international calls for improving available environmental information. In a democratic South Africa, the involvement of people in policy and decision-making processes has led to an even greater need for accessible information. In response to this demand for information, State of the Environment (SOE) reporting has gained momentum and become highly popular in South Africa. This popularity has grown despite the absence of any legal mandate for reporting in South Africa, as well as the lack of formalised institutional arrangements for reporting. The current situation has resulted in a number of challenges for SOE reporting which need to be addressed. These challenges, and appropriate solutions, are discussed. The paper aims to stimulate discussion in the field of SOE reporting, both within South Africa and internationally.

The effectiveness of state of the environment reporting (SoER) at the local government sphere – a developing country's experience

“…Numerous SoER initiatives have been completed in South Africa at national, provincial, regional and local government spheres and evidence suggests that SoER has grown in popularity since its inception in 1992 (Muller et al 2006). However, despite the increasing popularity and wide introduction of SoER, there are growing concerns about the environmental performance of local government (DEAT 2006, Turton 2008, SACN 2009).…”

“…Although some work has been done to gauge the effectiveness of SoER at the national sphere (Strydom et al 2005, Muller et al 2006, very little research has been conducted at the local sphere in South Africa (Retief 2007c). In order to address this gap in knowledge this paper investigates the effectiveness of SoER for a selected sample of municipalities in the Gauteng Province of South Africa.…”