the richtersveld cultural and botanical landscape - SAHRA

Richtersveld Cultural and Botanical Landscape World Heritage Site Nomination 113
development and encourages the integration of natural, social and economic
aspects of the environment.
The principles set out in NEMA serve as the framework for environmental
management and the formulation of implementation plans. They serve importantly
as a control measure to which any organ of state must exercise any function when
taking any decision concerning the protection of the environment. They also serve
to inform recommendations for environmental planning and to guide the
interpretation, administration and implementation of NEMA and other laws
concerned with the protection or management of the environment.
There are several important principles outlined in NEMA, which include the
following:
• Environmental management must place people and their needs at the
forefront of its concern, and serve their physical, psychological,
developmental, cultural and social interests equitably.
• Development must be socially, environmentally and economically
sustainable.
• Decision making must be open and transparent and there must be free
access to information.
• The environment is held in trust by the state for the benefit of all South
Africans.
• The environment must be protected as the people’s common heritage.
• Sensitive, vulnerable, highly dynamic or stressed ecosystems, such as
coastal shores, estuaries, wetlands, and similar systems require specific
attention in management and planning procedures, especially where they
are subject to significant human resource usage and development pressure.
Significant in regards to this nomination is the specification of the following
principles:
“That the disturbance of ecosystems and loss of biological diversity are avoided, or,
where they cannot be altogether avoided, are minimised and remedied” and