Environmental impact management and planning: - Norway

VALUE ADDED THROUGH THE COOPERATIONApart from the projects already described, the value addedby the cooperation agreement can be summarised asfollows:Value to South Africa• The donor funding was utilised for projects suchas amending NEMA and developing the newEIA regulations in terms of NEMA, subsequentlycapacitating the DEA and the nine environmentalprovincial departments to fully implement andenforce these regulations.• Valuable advice was provided on listed activities andthresholds for the EIA regulations, as well as internationalbest practice and integrated environmental planning.• Case examples were checked for practical problemsand compared to Norwegian EIA legislation andexamples.• Comparisons were made of the appeal provisions ofboth countries, as well as the provisions for exemptionsfrom aspects of the legislation. Staff members werealso exposed to the management of development insensitive and protected areas.• The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe(UNECE) Protocol on SEA could be compared withSouth Africa’s SEA guideline (the Coega IndustrialDevelopment Zone was used as a case example).• Capacity-building of a number of officials from all nineprovinces in South Africa.• Advice on possible participation in internationalenvironmental agreements.• Exposure to the challenges of alternative energysources, especially wind energy.Value to Norway• Exposure to working in different institutional and societalsettings.• Exposure to long-term bilateral institutional cooperation,addressing the developmental challenges in adeveloping country with regard to:- developing and operating EIM at departmentallevel;- capacity-building and issues dealt with at provinciallevel; and- the development of a number of subprojects relatedto the EIM strategy, such as the management ofprotected areas and heritage sites, managementchallenges around mineral resource exploitation andthe management of sensitive and protected areas,the proposed co-regulation system and public-privatepartnerships in the management of off-road activities,monitoring issues, including the environmentalauthorisation system (NEAS), the proposed selfregulationsystem for environmental assessmentpractitioners, and the development of EMFs, which is aneffective tool for integrated environmental planning.The 2007 delegation visited the Open Cycle Gas Turbine for electricity generation in Atlantis,Western Cape, South Africa.19