LOUIS TRICHARDT – It would seem as if Council will have to re-think its plans to have the Indigenous Tree Sanctuary (Tree Park) rezoned as a business property, following a somewhat condemning report by the independent environmental consultant appointed to handle the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process.

The report revealed major environmental aspects related to the proposed development and shortcomings on the municipality's side. This includes the site being characterised by a diversity of tree species that have been introduced into the area over a number of years. The Tree Park can therefore be classified as an area with a high level of sensitivity in terms of biological diversity. It is also stated that sensitive archaeological finds exist in the area that will be impacted through any development activity. Most importantly, the report mentioned that the public participation process revealed a negative socio-economic impact that the proposed rezoning may have on the local business community. Public participation is the most important aspect of the EIA process. It is said that the business community was not consulted regarding the economic viability of the project prior to initiating the EIA and the rezoning process. According to the report, the socio-economic impact of the development will therefore be determined by project options or alternatives and the environmental impact will be determined by site options or alternatives.

The National Environmental Management Act (NEMA), as well as the Environment Conservation Act (ECA) makes provision for the assessment of projects of this nature at two different levels, namely the strategic level and project level.

On the strategic level, NEMA makes provision for the integration of Environmental Management Plans (EMP's), as well as Environmental Implementation Plans (EIP's) as part of the municipality's Integrated Development Plan process and town planning scheme. In short, these plans must as a minimum ensure that the municipality investigates the environment likely to be significantly affected and investigate the potential impact the proposed activity would have on the environment, socio-economics and cultural heritage. The municipality should also investigate mitigation measures to keep adverse impact to a minimum, as well as the option of not implementing the activity. It is, however, stated in the report that due to the municipality's lack of EMP's or EIP's, there exists no tool to either provide a measure for the identification of project and site alternatives or the prohibition of projects with an unacceptable high level of environmental and socio-economic sensitivity.

At project level, ECA makes provision for addressing the impact of development activities at project level. Due to the sensitivity of the project under consideration, the EIA process should therefore aim at identifying inefficiencies at the strategic level and address these issues at the project level as far as possible. An environmental impact report should therefore be submitted and should include a description of the environmental impact of the activity in question and should also provide project and site alternatives. In the report it becomes clear that the municipality failed to submit both project and site alternatives. They are also instructed by the independent consultant to provide such alternatives to fulfil the mentioned requirements if they want the EIA process to proceed.

Mr Alan McMurtrie from the local Department of Environmental Affairs on Wednesday added to this by stating that prior to the independent consultant's report and the EIA meeting in February, the Department also requested additional information regarding alternatives. They also requested more background information, which was grossly lacking in the background documentation. He said that only the business value of the proposed activity is addressed in the documentation and no mention is made of the environmental value. To date, Mr McMurtrie said, he has not received nor seen any additional documentation of this nature. It is also pointed out in the independent consultant's report that preliminary consultation with officials from the provincial Department of Environmental Affairs indicated that the mentioned legislative requirements would be used as reference in order to evaluate and authorize the proposed development.