The Rediscovery of the Trusteeship Doctrine in South African Environmental Law and Its Significance in Conserving Biodiversity in South Africa
Andrew Blackmore (2018) The Rediscovery of the Trusteeship Doctrine in South African Environmental Law and its Significance in Conserving Biodiversity in South Africa. PhD Thesis University of Tilburg University. The Netherlands, pp305
304 Pages Posted: 5 Jun 2019
Date Written: March 27, 2018
Abstract
The conservation of biodiversity, as experienced globally, faces many challenges. The efforts of South African conservation agencies mandated with this duty are questioned against the backdrop of accelerated land transformation and the extinction of natural habitats and species.
South Africa’s transition to democracy in 1994 ushered in a greater legislative awareness of the inextricable dependence of the health and wellbeing of people on a healthy and flourishing natural environment. This realisation is embodied in the Bill of Rights within the country’s 1996 Constitution, which requires, amongst other things, that the environment be protected for the benefit of present and future generations. This right, aptly termed South Africa’s Environmental Right, corresponds in many respects with the common law public trust doctrine. Subsequently, this notion has been incorporated into the country’s environmental law, and in particular into legislation that regulates the use and protection of the country’s biodiversity.
Given (a) this prominence of the public trust doctrine in South Africa’s environmental law, (b) the doctrine’s reputation as a powerful legal tool to safeguard the natural environment from unsustainable use, and (c) the growing concern that South Africa’s natural resources, and in particular its biodiversity, are under significant unsustainable pressure from exploitation or land transformation,
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