EIS-AFRICA

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EIS ARCHIVED NEWSLETTERS

July 2001

Developing indicators for monitoring and reporting on the state of the environment in South Africa

By Anna Ballance (CSIR, Pretoria, South Africa)

 The CSIR’s Division of Water, Environment & Forestry Technology (also known as Environmentek), in consortium with the Human Sciences Research Council and Mzuri Consultants cc, is assisting South Africa’s Department of Environmental Affairs & Tourism (DEA&T) in a project to establish a core set of environmental indicators to monitor and report on the state of the environment.

The need for improved environmental information for decision-making was raised as an important issue at the United Nations Conference on Environment & Development in 1992 in Rio, and principles for improving access to environmental information were incorporated into Agenda 21.  As a first step in presenting information on environmental conditions and trends in South Africa, the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism developed an integrated state of the environment reporting system by releasing the National State of the Environment Report (NSoER) in October 1999 on the web at http://www.environment.gov.za/soer/index.htm.

Environmental indicators played a key role in the NSoER as an aid in quantifying changes in the environment, and as a means of identifying and giving priority to important environmental issues. However, the report also highlighted several gaps in data availability, and made recommendations for further research and monitoring.  The current initiative is in response to this, and aims to establish a core set of environmental indicators to be used in subsequent national, provincial and local level State of the Environment Reports, as well as feeding into regional (southern Africa and Africa-wide) and global environmental reporting processes.  Without such indicators, the ability to track, assess and communicate progress towards sustainable development effectively, and report to international bodies is compromised.  The core set of indicators is to be introduced in South Africa by the end of 2001.

Indicators of environmental performance have been used effectively in many other countries to support SOE reporting (such as Norway, Finland, the UK, Canada, and Australia and New Zealand). The processes used by these countries have been reviewed and lessons learned will assist in the South African project.  A stakeholder workshop was held recently to obtain comments on the project aims and proposed approach, and to ensure that stakeholders know how to get involved at the various stages of the project. The indicator website address is http://www.environment.gov.za/soer/indicator/index.htm .

If you would like further information, please contact Liza Grobler telephonically at +27 12 310 3776 or by e-mail at  lgrobler@csir.co.za .

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