Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION

Author: Jay Walmsley

Mzuri Consultants, Pretoria

CONTENTS

The Environment and Sustainable Development

South Africa's environmental reporting obligations

State of the Environment reporting and Environmental Indicators of Sustainable Development

The North West Province State of the Environment Report

References

1.1 The Environment and Sustainable Development

1.1.1 Background

The "environment" is a broad term defined in the National Environmental Management Act (Act No. 107 of 1998; NEMA) as "the surroundings within which humans exist … that are made up of the land, water and atmosphere of the earth; micro-organisms, plant and animal life; any … interrelationships among and between them and the physical, chemical aesthetic and cultural properties and conditions that influence human health and well-being".

The last century has seen continuous deterioration of the biophysical environment on a global scale to the extent that human well-being is becoming threatened. Human populations have risen from an estimated 1,65 million in 1900 to over 6 billion in 2000, and development activities, intended to improve the quality of life, have exacted a high cost from the environment (Walmsley & Pretorius 1996). Consumption of the world's resources has increased considerably, with people today using approximately 12 000 times as much energy as they did 400 generations ago. In general development activities have made use of the Earth's natural resources without adequate replenishment or cognisance of their capacity to absorb waste (Harrison 1992).

Since the first United Nations Conference on the Environment, held in Stockholm in 1972, there has been a growing awareness of these impacts of social and economic development on the environment. This culminated in June 1992, with the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development in Rio (UNCED). UNCED acknowledged that there was a need for countries to find a balance between the economic and social demands on the world's ecosystems and the need to conserve the natural resources on which the economic and social systems depend. This balance has been termed sustainable development, which is defined as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" (WCED 1987).

Sustainable development refers to a kind of development that aims for equity within and between generations, and adopts an approach where the economic, social and environmental aspects of development are considered in a holistic fashion (Figure 1.1.1). The definition of sustainable development in South Africa's National Environmental Management Act (Act No. 107 of 1998) emphasises this requirement: "Sustainable development means the integration of social, economic and environmental factors into planning, implementation and decision-making so as to ensure that development serves present and future generations."

Figure 1.1.1: Three components of sustainable development. Sustainable development aims for equity within and between generations, where the economic, social and the biophysical aspects of the environment are integrated into development in a balanced fashion.

According to Walmsley & Pretorius (1996), the vision of sustainable development has several requirements in order for it to be achieved:

The elimination of poverty and deprivation and attendant inequality;
The conservation and enhancement of the resource base;
A broadening of the concept of development so that it not only covers economic growth,
but also social and cultural development; and
The integration of economics and environment in decision-making at all levels.

Agenda 21, which resulted from UNCED, is a non-binding global blueprint of action to achieve sustainable development. It has been put forward as the framework upon which all member nations of the international community should develop Local Agenda 21 programmes. South Africa became a global partner to sustainable development initiatives by signing Agenda 21 in 1992. In accordance with South Africa's commitment to Agenda 21, the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT) is developing a National Strategy for Sustainable Development for South Africa (NSSD; DEAT 2001). Through this, four key initiatives for achieving sustainable development in South Africa were identified. These include (DEAT 2001):

Strengthening capacity for integrated and sustainable local development, by:

Enhancing and strengthening ongoing processes for capacity building of local government that have been set in place by Department of Provincial and Local Government (DPLG) and DEAT. Capacity building initiatives should be extended to other stakeholders at the local level too;
Providing local government with adequate financial resources to implement integrated and sustainable development, that is its Constitutional mandate;
Exploring ways to extend the skills of existing service providers at the local level (such as the environmental health officers, agricultural extension officers) to understanding of sustainable development issues and key skills such as monitoring required at the local level;
Expanding existing environmental and sustainable development awareness raising to improve literacy and capacity and to support implementation of the progressive policy and legislative framework.

Promoting access to land and other key resources, by:

Exploring steps that can be taken to enable better access on the part of the poor to fisheries and biodiversity resources, building on advances that have been made;
Increasing resources to the land reform programme in general, within an integrated joint planning approach with the Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP);
Developing a strategy for providing for secure land tenure in both rural and urban areas.

Integrating sustainable development objectives with economic planning at all levels, by:

Expanding natural resource accounting initiatives at the macroeconomic level and their integration into macroeconomic policy making;
Extending the efficient natural resource pricing adopted in the water sector to other key natural resources sectors such as energy and fisheries;
Implementing economic instruments for resource protection at the micro level, such as full cost pricing for solid waste disposal; the introduction of user charges for environmental resources (such as air pollution charges); and the introduction of tradable permit schemes for pollution and natural resources;
Integrating materials management strategies within industry development programmes and to include the specific promotion of materials and energy efficiency measures within the Department of Trade and Industry's industrial development strategy;
Incorporating natural resource accounting, full cost accounting of environmental damage, and cost-benefit analysis into decision-making at all levels.

Expanding the use of natural resource management as a tool of economic development and welfare provision, by:

Expanding in community-based natural resource management programmes and associated income generating options such as tourism, sustainable harvesting, mariculture and others;
Supporting 'fair trade' and 'sustainable trade' initiatives that use sustainable production approaches as a means to access specific international markets and to gain a competitive advantage;
Increasing protection of the country's genetic resources and indigenous knowledge and better programmes for ensuring that poor communities gain benefits from the commercialisation of successful products;
Using Clean Development Mechanism projects to secure environmental sound inward investment and local environmental benefits. In this regard the DEAT needs to remove institutional and other barriers to the implementation of such projects;
The greater use of community-based systems and employment intensive approaches for solid waste collection.

1.1.2 The environment and sustainable development in the North West Province

Environment and Sustainable Development in North West Province is envisaged to depend upon responding to the development and capacity building needs of the government of the North West Province, and the district and local municipalities in the province and improving the sustainability of development efforts in the province. Environmental sustainability in conjunction with economic and social sustainability within an Integrated Development Planning framework is considered to be essential to achieving sustainable development in the Province (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland, 2001). This is dependent upon the development of:

Provincial law which regulates sustainable development decision making processes and guides the districts and local municipalities;
Spatial zonation plan covering provincial, district and local municipal levels;
Operational capacity of the integrated environment-related service delivery systems in place at provincial, district and local municipal levels;
Increased implementation capacity of integrated sustainable development at district, local municipal and grassroots levels in selected pilot districts and municipalities.

1.2 South Africa's Environmental Reporting Obligations

The UNCED emphasised that the gaps in our understanding of the Earth's ecological processes were hindering our ability to act in the interests of, and take decisions regarding, sustainable development at a global level (United Nations, 1992). Therefore, because of the multi-faceted nature of sustainable development, access to reliable and up-to-date information for environmental managers, governments, and community organisations is critical. Agenda 21 called for improved availability of environmental information, specifically for (United Nations 1992):

Strengthening existing mechanisms for information processing and exchange to ensure effective and equitable availability of information generated at the local, provincial, national and international levels;
Strengthening national capacities (Governments, NGOs, and the private sector) in information handling and communication;
Full participation of developing countries in UN systems of collection, analysis and use of data and information.

The commitment that South Africa has made to Agenda 21 has resulted in major developments in the country's approach to environmental management on the part of government. These have included:

Developing policy and legislation that supports sustainable development. In the entire environment legislation in the country (see Chapter 5) sustainability is the key requisite in environmental management.
Promoting public awareness of environmental issues. Government at all levels in South Africa is aware of the value of public awareness and environmental education.
Public participation in policy development. Throughout the development of the environmental policies and legislation of the country, public participation has been encouraged. This is an ongoing priority within national and provincial environmental departments.
State of the Environment reporting. In South Africa, reporting on the state of the environment is a statutory requirement in terms of the Environment Conservation Act (Act No. 73 of 1989; Section 13(e)) and will be stipulated in the amended National Environmental Management Act (Act No. 107 of 1998).

The National Environmental Management Act (NEMA) states that every person as well as organs of state are entitled to have access to information held by the State on the state of the environment and actual and future threats to the environment (Section 31(1)). Access to environmental information at a national, provincial and local level is essential to upholding these rights. In accordance with this, NEMA specifies that the Minister must initiate an Annual Performance Report. The purpose of this report is to provide an audit of the government's performance in respect of Agenda 21, to review procedures for co-ordinating policies and budgets, and to review progress on a public educational programme to support the objectives of Agenda 21.

Similarly the Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making, and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (the Aarhus Convention, June 1988) recognises that adequate protection of the environment is essential to human well being, and that every person has the right to live in an environment adequate to his or her health and well being. At present South Africa has not signed this convention, but the advantages of signing would include an elevated status of state of the environment reporting and other tools for enhancing access to environmental information. South Africa is also party to several Multilateral Environmental Agreements (such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification) that place monitoring and reporting obligations on the country.

1.3 State of the Environment Reporting and Environmental Indicators of Sustainable Development

1.3.1 State of the environment reporting

State of the environment (SoE) reporting provides information on the current state of the environment, what is causing environmental change and what is being done about it. The aim of SoE reporting is to improve understanding of environmental and sustainable development issues, to elucidate environmental trends and to inform decision-making. According to Rump (1996) there are three fundamental characteristics of SoE reports, namely:

Interpretation, assessment and integration of high-quality data to generate meaningful information;
Development of spatial and temporal trend information; and
Identification of the linkage between biophysical and socio-economic considerations within a sustainable development context.

Under the auspices of DEAT, South Africa has embarked on a programme of SoE reporting at a national, provincial and city level in accordance with its obligations to international agreements and national policy. In October 1999, DEAT launched the first National State of the Environment report on the Internet for South Africa, together with SoE reports for four South African cities, Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg and Pretoria (http://www.environment.gov.za/soer). The city of Midrand also released a report in 2000, and provincial reports are being developed for Gauteng and the North West Province. A State of Estuaries report has been published, as well as the first State of the Rivers report, State of Human Settlements report, and State of Population report. South Africa has also participated in the second State of the Environment report for Southern Africa and has contributed to the Global Environment Outlook (a biennial publication by the United Nations Environment Programme).

1.3.2 Environmental indicators of sustainable development

Recent trends in SoE reporting have included the use of environmental sustainability indicators to provide critical information. Indicators are basically a set of environmental management tools to "keep a finger on the pulse" of long-term environmental trends. They focus and condense information about complex issues using a standardised set of parameters (spatially and temporally comparable) for management, monitoring, reporting, and decision-making. Well known examples of indicators include the Dow-Jones index, the GDP figures to reflect the state of the economy and a canary in a coal mine - the bird's well-being be an "early warning indicator" of oxygen levels underground.

Other uses of environmental indicators include (Walmsley & Pretorius 1996):

Monitor and assess conditions and trends on a national, regional and global scale;
Compare situations;
Assess the effectiveness of policy-making;
Mark progress against a stated benchmark;
Monitor changes in public attitude and behaviour;
Ensure understanding, participation and transparency in information transfer between interested and affected parties;
Forecast and project trends; and
Provide early warning information.

For indicators to be useful, they must meet certain criteria:

The indicator, or the information it is calculated from should be readily available;
An indicator should be easy to understand, and must be about something measurable;
An indicator should measure something believed to be important or significant in its own right;
An indicator should be based on information that can be used to compare different geographical areas, social groups etc, so that a picture of distribution- and not just totals and averages can be build up.

1.4 North West Province State of the Environment Report

1.4.1 Background

As part of South Africa's ongoing environmental reporting programme, the North West Province has developed this Provincial State of the Environment Report (SoER). This follows on from the preliminary SoER compiled by the Province in 1995 (the first ever in South Africa) and is supported through the national reporting initiative of DEAT. The compilation of the North West SoER comes under the auspices of the North West Province Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Environment (NW DACE), whose mission is "to provide services towards sustainable natural resource management in support of a better life for all in the North West Province" (NW DACE 2000). The strategic goals of the Department are to:

Provide natural resource management direction;
Mobilise the provision of resources for sustainable development; promote and integrated equitable natural resource management system; foster community sensitivity to sustainable natural resource use, and
Achieve service excellence.

Consistent with these goals and their national reporting requirements, NW DACE has undertaken to produce this SoER. The main objective of the North West State of the Environment Report is to provide valuable environmental information to underpin sustainable development in the Province. Other objectives of this report are to:

Inform the MEC of the NW DACE and other politicians and decision-makers of the current state of our knowledge of the North West Province's environment;
Establish the provincial information base with regard to current and future environmental trends;
Indicate trends in environmental conditions in North West Province (including transboundary issues);
Identify gaps in knowledge of the North West Province's environment and what needs to be done to address these;
Underpin informed management decisions for environmental protection and sustainability;
Serve as a baseline for future environmental management decisions;
Complement and provide information for the next edition of the national SoER;
Benchmark the Province's environmental management practices against international trends; and
Provide information for environmental education and training for decision-makers and the general public.

One of the main objectives of the North West Province State of the Environment Report is to provide valuable environmental information to underpin sustainable development in the Province.
It is envisaged that this report will provide valuable information on the North West Province's environment for a wide range of stakeholders, including (Mangold 2001):

National, Provincial and Local Government decision- and policy-makers, for strategic purposes;
Environmental advisory groups and environmental consultants, for practical information on the current situation in the province;
Environmental managers, and developers, for on-the-ground situation analyses;
Educational institutions (schools, universities, technikons and colleges), for general education purposes;
Non-governmental organisations (NGO's), for information pertaining to their particular mandate; and
General public who have an interest in the environment.

1.4.2 North West Province State of the Environment reporting framework

To address the many issues and areas that pertain to sustainable development, a reporting framework is required. Reporting frameworks, which arrange or organise environmental information in a coherent manner, have several uses:

Guide the data and information collecting processes;
Are useful communication tools to decision makers that summarise key information derived from many different sources and sectors;
Suggest logical groupings of related sets of information and, therefore, promote their interpretation and integration;
Can also help identify data collection needs and data gaps, and
Can help to spread reporting burdens, by structuring the information collection, analysis and reporting process across the many issues and areas that pertain to sustainable development (DEAT 1999).

Several frameworks for presenting environmental information have been developed (such as the Pressure-State-Response framework), but the DPSIR (Driving Forces-Pressures-State-Impact-Response) framework has been chosen as the basis of this provincial SoER. The DPSIR framework is currently being used by many countries, including South Africa for our national SoER (DEAT 1999), and is the preferred framework of the European Environmental Agency (EEA 2000).

Figure 1.4.1: The interrelationships between the components of the Driving-forces-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) reporting framework.

The DPSIR framework is viewed as providing a systems-analysis view of the relations between the environmental system and the human system. According to this view, social and economic developments (driving forces) exert pressure on the environment and, as a consequence, the state of the environment changes (e.g. provision of adequate conditions for health, resources availability and biodiversity). This leads to impacts on human health, ecosystems and materials that may elicit societal responses that feed back on all the other elements (Figure 1.4.1). Although the DPSIR framework was developed as an extended cause-effect-response model, the framework is most useful in describing the origins and consequences of environmental problems. In developing linkages between the various categories, the dynamic relationships within a system can be analysed. See Table 1.4.1. for further explanation of the components of the DPSIR model.

Table 1.4.1: An explanation of the categories of the DPSIR Framework.

Category	Description
Driving forces	These are the human influences and activities which, when combined with environmental conditions, underpin environmental change (positively or negatively). Using air quality as an example, the driving forces behind air quality change include increased burning of fossil fuels for transport, and industrial and domestic consumption of energy.
Pressures	These are the direct or indirect pressures on the functionality and quality of the system or resource, resulting from the driving forces mentioned above on the resource in question. For example, increased emissions of SO2, NOX, CO2, and CH4 constitute pressures on the natural atmospheric system.
State	This refers to the current status of the system or resource, in terms of quality of the environment, and quantity and quality of natural resources. For example, current gaseous and particulate concentrations measured at particular points may be used to describe the state of air quality.
Impacts	Impacts are environmental effects/responses to pressures on the current state. Key environmental indicators of these impacts should also be discussed. Impacts of air quality, for example, include human health impacts (increased incidence of respiratory disease) and higher incidence of corrosion of infrastructure.
Responses	This refers to responses to the pressures on the states and resultant impacts. Responses include actions (a) to mitigate, adapt to, or protect human induced negative impacts on the environment, (b) to halt or reverse environmental damage already inflicted, and (c) to preserve and conserve natural resources. Responses to air quality changes include: the drafting and implementation of air quality standards, monitoring of air quality and installation of clean-air technology by polluting industries.

The DPSIR model has, for the North West Province SoER, been extended to include outcomes, linkages of the components of the report, and data issues pertaining to each of the issues. Conclusions on the current state of sustainability of each issue are presented as well as recommendations for improved environmental management for each section under discussion.

1.4.3 Structure of the North West Province State of the Environment Report

The structure of the NWPSoER is based on the DPSIR framework (Figure 1.4.2), and divided into four parts accordingly, with an additional part outlining the major conclusions and recommendations.

Figure 1.4.2: North West Province State of the Environment Report structure, showing the linkages between the chapters.

Part 1: Background to state of the environment reporting and sustainable development
Part 1 consists of this introductory chapter only.

Part 2: The environment of the North West Province Part 2 consists of Chapters 2 to 5. The intention is to provide background information on the Province with regard to its biophysical, social, economic and legislative characteristics.

Biophysical Environment ( Chapter 2). Provides a description of the biophysical environment of the of the North West Province, in terms of its geographical location and size, climate, rainfall, hydrological characteristics, geology, soil types and vegetation.
Social Environment ( Chapter 3). Provides a description of the social characteristics of the North West Province, including demographics, education, employment, health, safety and security, welfare and general quality of life.
Economic Environment ( Chapter 4). Provides a description of the economic characteristics of the North West Province. The chapter covers the structure of the provincial economy, economic growth and investment and future economic developments (such as SDI's) for the Province.
Policy and Legislative Environment ( Chapter 5). Provides a description of the relevant international conventions and key principles in environmental management for South Africa and the Province, national to provincial policy and legislative frameworks and roles and responsibilities of the North West Province.

Part 3: Pressures on the environment of the North West Province

Pressures on the environment of the Province are largely as a result of population growth and demography, an economic development. These issues are discussed in detail in this section, under the following headings:

Settlement and Land Use Patterns ( Chapter 6). One of the major problems in the province is migration of rural populations to urban areas, resulting in a need for infrastructure development to meet basic needs. This also results in a decline in the quality of life for the rural communities. Despite a change in government priorities, the land use patterns have not changed much for both the former Republic of South Africa and Bophuthatswana areas since 1994. The land uses with the highest potential environmental impacts are mining and agriculture.
Agricultural activities ( Chapter 7). Agriculture is an important component of the Province's economy. However, the pressure for greater food production for a growing population has led to agricultural practices that are unsustainable in the long run. This included the use of marginal land for crops and intense overgrazing, particularly in communal areas. The agricultural sector is faced with the challenges of the broader process of restructuring and land reform, as well as the environmental challenges of land and soil degradation.
Mining activities ( Chapter 7). Mining has been the economic backbone of the North West Province during much of the 20th Century. However, by its very nature mining of non-renewable resources is unsustainable. In addition to the economic losses as mines close, the environmental impacts can be far-reaching. Pollution of air soils and water from mining activities, as well as the negative social impacts of mining, affect the sustainability of the environment.
Other Industrial and Economic activities ( Chapter 7), which include other industries and manufacturing, tourism and leisure, retail and wholesale distribution, infrastructure development and energy, all have an impact on the environment, because of increased consumption patterns and waste generation.

Part 4: Key environmental issues in the North West Province

Key environmental issues of the province were identified through stakeholder involvement (e.g. CONNEPP and stakeholder workshops), previous studies and the preliminary NWPSoER of 1995. Part 4 provides descriptions of these issues of the Province, using the DPSIR framework. The issues that have been identified are:

Air Quality ( Chapter 8). The air quality of the North West Province is not only affected by local influences, but is dependent on global and national air quality. Of particular concern to the province are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous and nitric oxide, chlorofluorocarbons (CFC's), and sulphur dioxide emissions from mining and industrial activities (especially in the eastern region of the Province).
Land Transformation and Soil Quality ( Chapter 9). Mainly population growth, economic development, land tenure and the development of communal lands, population mobility, poverty, climate change, and natural resource exploitation cause this. These factors have lead to soil and veld degradation, desertification, bush encroachment, invasion of alien species and deforestation.
Water Resources ( Chapter 10), which are considered to be the key limiting factor to development in South Africa. Water resources are scarce, particularly in the semi-arid western portion of the Province, and in some cases even basic needs (sanitation and water for cooking and drinking) are not being met. As a result the North West Province relies heavily on ground water resources to meet its needs. The scarcity of water is exacerbated by pollution of water resources from mining and industrial activities, agriculture and domestic use.
Biodiversity and Conservation ( Chapter 11). With land transformation, pollution and human-encroachment on the natural environment, biodiversity and ecosystem processes are increasingly stressed. As habitats change and environmental degradation occurs within the Province, biological diversity will be negatively affected. There will be a greater reliance on protected areas to conserve the Province's biological and habitat diversity. While trade in biological resources can lead to lucrative industries, this may have devastating impacts on wild populations of plants and animals. Fishing and fishery resources are predominantly based in dams and impoundments in the Province.
Heritage Resources ( Chapter 12). The North West Province is richly endowed with a wide variety of cultural and natural heritage resources. These are under threat because of general ignorance as well as the lack of resources (financial and human) to ensure that they are adequately conserved.
Human Health and Well-being ( Chapter 13). The essence of sustainable development is the well being of humans for both present and future generations. The North West Province is facing challenges in the areas of housing, nutrition and food security, waste management, water supply and sanitation and toxicity (including radioactivity) in the environment.

Part 5: Environmental management responses

The purpose of this section of the report is to describe the managerial and institutional responses to environmental challenges identified in the previous sections. These include:

Environmental Education and Capacity Building ( Chapter 14). An important component essential to the wise use of natural resources by the people of the province is to inform and educate people through environmental empowerment, education and awareness and environmental management capacity initiatives.
Integrated Environmental Management ( Chapter 15), which covers planning frameworks (e.g. EIP's, IDP's), integrating environmental considerations in decision-making through the EIA and SEA processes and environmental management systems such as ISO 14 000.
Environmental Monitoring, Auditing and Rehabilitation ( Chapter16), including ambient environmental monitoring, compliance monitoring, auditing and enforcement, are all important components for the monitoring of environmental trends to assess the efficacy of environmental management interventions. Rehabilitation of mine dumps and tailings dams, landfills and degraded landscapes and watercourses are important environmental management responses.
Environmental Information Management and Reporting ( Chapter 17), which deals with aspects of environmental decision support and information management systems and environmental reporting as required by NEMA to support decision making and to meet the Province's reporting obligations.

Part 6: Environmental management recommendations

Part 6 comprises Chapter 18: Overall Recommendations for Environmental Implementation and Management, which summarises of all salient conclusions and recommendations proposed in this SoER. This section is intended to guide future environmental management strategies and underpin sustainable development within the Province.

References

Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT). 1999a. National State of the Environment Report on the Internet for South Africa. www.grida.no/soesa/.
Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT). 2001. Sustaining Development in South Africa: An analytical review of progress towards sustainable development in South Africa. DEAT, Pretoria. 107 pp.
European Environment Agency (EEA). 2000. Environmental Signals 2000. EEA, Copenhagen. 109pp.
Harrison, P. 1992. The Third Revolution. IB Taurus/Penguin Books, London. 359 pp.
Mangold, S. 2001. The North West State of the Environment Report 2001: Structure and Progress. Presentation at Environment Workshop 13-14 September 2001. Mmabatho.
Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, North West Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism & Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism. 2001. Support to Environment and Sustainable Development in North West Province: Project Document. NW DACE, Mmabatho. 40 pp.
Monro D. & M. Holdgate (eds). 1991. Caring for the Earth - A Strategy for Sustainable Living. IUCN, UNEP, WWF, Gland, Switzerland.
North West Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Environment (NW DACE). 2000. Strategic Planning Workshop, Safari Karos Hotel, Rustenburg, 18-19 March 2000. 9pp. United Nations. 1992. Agenda 21: The United Nations Programme of Action from Rio. United Nations, New York.
Walmsley R.D. & J.P.R. Pretorius. 1996. Environmental Indicators. Report No.1. State of the Environment Series. Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Pretoria. 76pp.
World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED). 1987. Our Common Future. Oxford University Press, New York. 383 pp.

North West at a Glance | Contents | Biophysical Environment