The Emerging Draft Overall Policy on Environmental Offsetting in South Africa. Introductory presentation, October 2017

Transcription

1 The Emerging Draft Overall Policy on Environmental Offsetting in South Africa Introductory presentation, October 2017

2 Presentation Overview Background and Context The Problem Cause and Effect Addressing the Problem The Draft Policy in a nutshell

3 Background and Context

4 Direction from the NDP 2030 Market and policy failures have resulted in the global economy entering a period of "ecological deficit", as natural capital (ground water, marine life, terrestrial biodiversity, crop land and grazing) is being degraded, destroyed, or depleted faster than it can be replenished. Waste and carbon-equivalent emissions per capita are climbing faster every year in an ecosystem with finite limits.

5 Direction from the NDP 2030 (Cont.) The country needs to protect the natural environment in all respects, leaving subsequent generations with at least an endowment of at least equal value.

6 Direction from the NDP 2030 (Cont.) the National Planning Commission propose three measures to protect the country s natural resources: (i) An environmental management framework. Developments that have serious environmental or social effects need to be offset by support for improvements in related areas; (ii) A target for the amount of land and oceans under protection (presently about 7.9 million hectares of land, 848km of coastline and 4 172km2 of ocean are protected); and (iii) A set of indicators for natural resources, accompanied by publication of annual reports on the health of identified resources to inform policy.

7 RISK Offsetting is a component of the mitigation hierarchy The environmental impact mitigation hierarchy is the principal framework for informing effective environmental management for sustainable development. The framework has been in use for many years from the introduction of EIAs in the 1990s The framework requires various mitigation options to be taken into account sequentially in a hierarchy of increasing risk

8 Offset guidance but no national policy 2007: Western Cape 2013: Provincial KZN Wildlife biodiversity 2014: Draft Wetlands Offsets 26 June best 2015: Draft Air Quality 31 March 2017: Draft National Guideline on Biodiversity Offsets offset guidelines practise guideline Offsets Guideline Biodiversity Offset Policy

9 The Problem Cause and Effect

10 The Problem As the last step in the mitigation hierarchy, offsetting requires the consideration of measures to counterbalance the residual negative effects on the environment after every effort has been made to avoid, prevent, reduce, moderate, minimise and then rehabilitate impacts. However the offset option in the mitigation hierarchy has often been ignored or misused resulting in unmitigated residual impacts which are accumulating and contributing to South Africa s growing ecological deficit. Of the thousands of environmental authorisations issued every year, there are less than 100 documented offsets. Thus, it would appear that we are more comfortable with accepting residual impacts than attempting to counterbalance such impacts.

11 Barriers to offsetting Through the development of a discussion document on environmental offsetting, 3 discernible types of barriers were identified: Theory-related barriers philosophical and ethical argument, theoretical debate, perceptions, misconceptions, misunderstandings or differing understanding, and suspicion and distrust of the intent of offsetting. Governance barriers the practical implementation of offsetting and especially the capacity to efficiently and effectively implement the environmental governance cycle. Environmental improvement barriers does not relate to the offsetting concept specifically, but rather to the interventions resulting from offsetting requirements, namely, barriers associated with the efficacy and sustainability of ecological infrastructure restoration, rehabilitation, and creation interventions.

12 Addressing the Problem

13 Overcoming the barriers Policy interventions to address the theory-related barriers Capacity building and maintenance interventions to address the governance barriers Up-scaled research to address the environmental improvement barriers

14 Policy interventions to address the theory-related barriers Theory-related barriers are unlikely to be removed through interventions that hope to build consensus. Hence the failure of the offset discussion document development process in this regard. Indeed, Maron et al. (2016) consider many of these issues to be fundamentally intractable. However, the suspicion, distrust and general discomfort with offsetting that result from these barriers could be greatly reduced through clear and unambiguous government policy that specifically references these issues.

15 The Draft Policy in a nutshell

16 Policy Overview 1. Preamble 1.1 Link to NDP 2030 s recognition of ecological deficit 1.2 Link to NDP s value of environmental endowment - greater than just natural capital 1.3 The unacceptable impact of ecological deficit 1.4 SA already in deficit in some areas 1.5 Demand outstripping supply 1.6 Offsetting a means of slowing and gradually reversing deficit

17 Policy Overview (Cont.) 2. Problem Statement 2.1 Introduce the mitigation hierarchy as a hierarchy of increasing risk 2.2 Defines the sequence of mitigation considerations 2.3 Not using offsetting is contributing to a cumulative decline and deficit 3. Objective 3.1 Links offsetting to NEMA management principles of: remedy; jeopardised integrity; precaution; international commitments; and polluter pays 3.2 Principal objective is to slow and progressively reverse ecological deficit 3.3 Just one of a range of tools

18 Policy Overview (Cont.) 4. Definitions 4.1 Environmental offsetting means the process 4.2 Environmental offset means the outcome 4.3 Offset intervention means the offsetting activities 4.4 Offset authority means the organ of state that issues the authorisation or certificate 5. Offset sector guidance 5.1 Identifies offset types biodiversity, air quality, carbon, heritage, agricultural, forest, wetland, and water quality. 5.2 Requires/accommodates sectoral policies, guidelines, etc.

19 Policy Overview (Cont.) 6. Offset design 6.1 NEMA Principle 2(4)(f): I&AP participation e.g. offset design within EIA 6.2 NEMA Principle 2(4)(g): I&AP interests, needs and values rejects commodification 6.3 NEMA Principle 2(4)(c): environmental justice e.g. air quality offsets in affected airshed

20 Policy Overview (Cont.) 7. Offset risk reduction 7.1 The risk - offsets exchange certain losses for uncertain gains 7.3 Net Gain needed for reversing decline NDP s replenishment 7.4 Weighting sectoral guidelines to provide loss-gain weighting, multipliers or offset ratios to ensure net gain 7.5 Proactive improvement interventions offset banking

21 Policy Overview (Cont.) 8. Contribution to environmental objectives 8.1 Offsets contributing to national, provincial, local, air-shed and/or catchment-scale goals, objectives and targets 8.2 Offsets contributing to strategies, programmes and plans offset receiving areas 8.3 Fatal flaws - offsetting should not be used as a vain attempt to replace the irreplaceable 8.4 Offsets used to protect and maintain the irreplaceable 8.5 Allowing desirable like-for-better offsets

22 Policy Overview (Cont.) 9. Significant residual impacts 9.1 No offsets for trivial/insignificant impacts cost/benefit 9.2 Sector guidelines to provide thresholds and provide for accumulative impacts in weighting, multipliers and offset ratios 10. Longevity of offset intervention outcomes for practical purposes, outcomes must be maintained for the duration of the residual impact or for at least 99 years from the date of impact Offset liability is as per the Tax Act s 30 years.

23 Policy Overview (Cont.) 11. Offset Register 11.1 All offset authorities must keep a register of all offsets (e.g. few extra fields on NEAS/CIPS system) 11.2 Minimum information to be included in register 11.3 DEA must have aggregated register 12. Compensation 12.1 Compensation is NOT offsetting

24 National Biodiversity Offsets Policy Biodiversity and Business Indaba October 2017 Biodiversity and Conservation

25 Presentation Outline Policy Background and Context Overview of National Policy Way forward

26 Biodiversity Context 3rd most biologically diverse country in the world, after Brazil & Indonesia. 2% of the world's land area, but is home to: 10% of the world's plants 7% of the reptiles, birds and mammals 15% of known coastal marine species Key Facts: Biodiversity underpins ecosystem functioning & provision of ecosystem services for human wellbeing. Biodiversity provides for food, security, human health, clean air & water, contributes to local livelihoods & economic development, & is essential for achievement of SDGs, including poverty reduction

27 Policy Background Need for a Biodiversity Offsets Policy: Despite enabling factors use of offsets frequently inadequate to achieve intended biodiversity outcomes Main challenges consist of: Absence of national policy Insufficient capacity to evaluate, design and implement offsets Inconsistent decision-making Difficulties in establishing sustainable financing mechanisms Inadequate enforcement and monitoring, coupled with often poorly draft authorization conditions

28 Policy Background (Cont.) The first attempt to provide direction for the implementation of offsets in South Africa was a Draft National Framework for Biodiversity Offsets, which was completed in 2012 by SANBI The Framework briefly discussed: legal context, definitions, objectives and desired outcomes, principles, designing and implementation, the EIA process and roles and responsibilities In 2015/2016: draft policy was consequently submitted to the intergovernmental approval process, i.e MinMEC and Working Groups The draft Policy was subsequently approved by MinMEC for publication for public comment early 2017.

29 Policy Background (Cont.) 2016/2017: Draft National Biodiversity Offsets Policy was published on March for a 60 public comment period 22 separate organizations from public and private sector submitted comments (850 separate comments) Final National Biodiversity Offsets Policy developed

30 Biodiversity Offsets Policy Summary

31 Policy Overview Amendments made: Speaks to Policy imperatives and the overall Environmental Offsetting Policy Implementation guideline text removed (Section 9 Procedures, approaches and guidelines of the published draft Policy) Objectives clearly defined Revised definitions Clearly set out Policy Principles Focus remains on offsetting for terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity

32 Policy Overview cont. 6. Offset design principles (1) The final option in the mitigation hierarchy (2) As a new action (additionality) (3) Consider quality and quantity of residual impact (4) Must embody the ecosystem approach - integrated management of land, water and living resources which promotes conservation and sustainable use in an equitable way (5) Improved ecosystem protection (6) Offsets must be located in the landscape (7) Offsets must avoid a patchwork of interventions (8) Offset design must be defensible based on best available biodiversity information and sound science (9) Must follow a precautionary approach (10) Must be fair and equitable (11) Offset intervention before residual impact (12) Must be measurable and auditable

33 Policy Overview cont. 9. Offset limitations 9.1 Fatal flaws Certain landscapes, ecosystems or elements of ecological infrastructure are irreplaceable and must be protected and maintained and biodiversity offsetting cannot be used as a vain attempt to replace the irreplaceable 9.2 Offsets cannot counterbalance residual social impacts

34 Policy Overview cont. 10. Offset intervention priority Biodiversity offsets should be used to protect and maintain the irreplaceable elements of our environment and heritage 10.2 Offset interventions should be prioritised as follows: In any protected area expansion strategy or plan: Critically endangered, natural or near-natural Critical Biodiversity Areas Natural or near-natural Ecological Support Areas related to critically endangered Critical Biodiversity Areas In areas outside of any PA expansion strategy or plan- Critically endangered, natural or near-natural Critical Biodiversity Areas Critically endangered, natural or near-natural Ecological Support Areas Species that are regarded as critically endangered, endangered or vulnerable

35 Policy Overview cont. 11.Offset thresholds Residual negative impact on the following will require an offset Critical Biodiversity Areas; Ecological Support Areas; Critically endangered, endangered or vulnerable species; Vulnerable or Least Threatened ecosystems that are special habitats; Vulnerable or Least Threatened ecosystems that are important ecological corridors or areas important to ecological functioning.

36 Policy Overview cont. 12. Securing the offset outcomes Land donation by the applicant to an appropriate statutory conservation authority or a Public Benefit Organisation (PBO) approved by the Competent Authority and willing to receive such land; Conservation servitudes (e.g. stewardship agreements, or the purchase and retirement of development rights) entered into between the applicant, landowner and the state conservation authority; and Purchase or other acquisition of land or rights to land by the applicant for either of the above purposes;

37 Policy Overview cont. 16. Offset implementation guidance Offset authorities may compile and publish: - best-practise guidelines, implementation manuals, standard operating procedures, maps and information on desired offset receiving areas, offset requirement thresholds, and localised offset ratios or adopt or adapt appropriate local, national or international guidance that is aligned with this policy

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