Abstract
One of the key strategies for achieving sustainable development is the use of the process of evaluating the potential environmental impacts of development activities. The procedure of environmental impact assessment (EIA) implements the principle of integration which lies at the core of the concept of sustainable development by providing a process through which potential social, economic and environmental impacts of activities are scrutinised and planned for. Sustainable development may not be achieved without sustained and legally mandated efforts to ensure that development planning is participatory.
 
 The processes of public participation play a crucial role in ensuring the integration of the socio-economic impacts of a project into the environmental decision-making processes. Public participation is not the only process, nor does the process always ensure the achievement of sustainable development. Nevertheless, decisions that engage the public have the propensity to lead to sustainable development. The public participation provisions in South Africa’s EIA regulations promulgated under the National Environmental Management Act 107 of 1998 show a disjuncture between the idea of public participation and the notion of sustainable development. The provisions do not create a framework for informed participation and leave a wide discretion to environmental assessment practitioners (EAPs) regarding the form which participation should assume. In order for environmental law, specifically EIA laws, to be effective as tools to promote sustainable development the laws must, among other things, provide for effective public participation. The judiciary must also aid in the process by giving content to the legal provisions on public participation in the EIA process.
Highlights
The way in which environmental impact assessment (EIA) have been handled in South Africa has come a long way over the past twenty years
Whilst some argue that strategic environmental assessment (SEA) differs from EIA because the former is a broader process assessing the sustainability of policies, plans and programmes addressing social, economic and environmental outcomes, the South African approach to EIA has fruitfully coordinated the two processes.[7]
I have argued in this article that South Africa is among the few developing countries that have seriously taken to implementing the concept of sustainable development
Summary
The way in which EIAs have been handled in South Africa has come a long way over the past twenty years. Participation must not be a once-off event, but a sustained, iterative process, which commences with problem identification and goes on to project conception or formulation, and approval The aggrieved party will have to appeal under the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act 3 of 2000 (PAJA) against a decision of the MEC or Minister
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
