:: Law and Policy Working Group

In addition to providing a financial contribution towards the operational costs of the EWT’s L&PWG, The Tony and Lisette Lewis Foundation has made a significant financial contribution towards the development of the EWT’s Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Toolkit.

INTRODUCTION
The Endangered Wildlife Trust’s (EWT) Law and Policy Working Group (L&PWG) was originally established in 1998 to access parliamentary processes and give the EWT a “voice” in the development of environmental policy and legislation.  In the last two years, as part of ongoing strategic review, the L&PWG’s mandate has been substantially expanded - this has coincided with significant development and change in South Africa’s environmental laws. The mission statement of the L&PWG is as follows: 

Background

The L&PWG is a strategic support unit expanded in order to facilitate constructive legal dialogue amongst policy- and decision-makers, civil society and stakeholders within the broader southern African community and to promote the understanding, development and use of South African environmental law and policy through information sharing, capacity building and institutional involvement. The L&PWG’s mandate therefore currently includes:

Capacity Building

As part of its strategic imperative, the L&PWG is placing significant focus on capacity building. The thematic areas that the L&PWG focus on are related to the promulgation and development of environmental law and policy. During 2007 capacity building was essentially aimed at strengthening capacity within the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), specifically focusing on improving public participation.

A resource intensive development process that commenced in 2005, lead the way for the launch of the first web-based version of the EWT’s EIA Toolkit at the end of November 2006. The Toolkit is currently available on the Internet at www.eiatoolkit.ewt.org.za. In its current form, the EIA Toolkit incorporates process flow charts, answers to frequently asked questions, document templates, general and targeted information, practical tips, as well as sections on how to consider biodiversity and other environmental concerns in the EIA process. In addition, as the Toolkit is intended to be used throughout South Africa, a section on relevant province-specific information, i.e. contact details, guidelines, ecological character and status etc., is also included.

The EIA Toolkit was awarded a merit award for innovation at the Mail & Guardian Greening the Future Awards 2007.



Law and Policy Working Group Coordinator receiving the Mail & Guardian merit award for innovation for the EWT’s EIA Toolkit

During 2008 the L&PWG will focus on the need for continued capacity building within the EIA process as well as an added focus on capacity building within the mining process.

In addition, the L&PWG is in the process of developing the capacity of South African fisheries resource management and compliance officials to monitor the international trade in fish and fish products. TRAFFIC East/Southern Africa has appointed the L&PWG to develop a manual on the collection and analysis of data for fish and fish products in international trade. The manual will provide government officials at the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, South African Revenue Service, Marine and Coastal Management, South African Biodiversity Institute and identified provincial conservation agencies, with the tools to source and analyse data on the international trade in fish and fish products.

Information Sharing and Dissemination

This is achieved through the facilitation of workshops, conferences and tutorials, to interested and affected parties, on relevant environmental law issues and topics.  These focus specifically on recent changes and developments, as well as where a clear need for such information is apparent.

Policy Analysis and Input into Environmental Legislation and Development

The L&PWG continues to place significant focus on advocating for and assisting in the development and implementation of environmental legislation and policy through direct constructive engagement in policy, legal and administrative processes pertaining to biodiversity protection loss. This is undertaken on an ad hoc basis and includes commenting on draft legislation, proposing amendments to current legislation, undertaking specific focused work and facilitating public participation. Specific focused work includes:

UNDP Botswana appointed the KPMG/EWT partnership to develop a policy for the management of endangered species in Botswana. The role of the L&PWG was to extensively review the status quo of all policy and legislation relevant to species (both fauna and flora) protection in Botswana.  The outcome of this review, together with input from other specialists, informed the development of a draft species management policy for Botswana. The L&PWG was also appointed by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism for the project: “Research into Possible Conflict between Draft Regulations of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism and the Provincial Governments”.  The project was aimed at ascertaining whether conflict exists between national legislation and the various provincial Acts and Ordinances. The project entailed research in order to establish whether conflict exists and if so, how such conflict should be dealt with.

Assisting Other Ewt Working Groups With Legal Aspects of Their Work and thereby contributing to achieving further conservation goals.

CONTACT INFORMATION
Anique Greyling
Coordinator: Law and Policy Working Group
Endangered Wildlife Trust
Tel: (011) 486 1102 / 082 822 8393
Fax: (011) 486 1506
aniqueg@ewt.org.za
www.ewt.org.za

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