Event Details

ONLINE WEBINAR


Consultation on the intention to publish the National Biodiversity Offset Guideline



The Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment is consulting on her intention to publish a draft biodiversity offset guideline (Draft Guideline) under section 24J of the National Environmental Management Act, 1998 (Act No. 107 of 1998) (NEMA). The purpose of the Draft Guideline is to give guidance on implementing biodiversity offsets in the environmental impact assessment context.


Biodiversity offsetting is one of the required measures for mitigating the impact of development on biodiversity. It takes the form of an intervention aimed at improved protection for, and appropriate management of, biodiversity. If done correctly, the biodiversity outcome as a result of the intervention counterbalances the negative impact of an activity on biodiversity. Biodiversity offsetting is only required if, after all other efforts have been made to avoid and minimise negative impacts on biodiversity, and to rehabilitate the area impacted by the activity, there is still a significant residual biodiversity impact.


The Draft Guideline sets out the fundamental principles for biodiversity offsetting in South Africa. It also gives some guidance on when biodiversity offsets are required, how to determine the requirements for biodiversity offsets and how to ensure that the biodiversity offset requirements are binding on the person liable for implementing the biodiversity offset.


If published, the Draft Guideline would not be legally binding, but NEMA competent authorities would be required to consider the Draft Guideline when when taking decisions regarding environmental authorisation applications.


Members of the public are invited to submit written comments or inputs within 30 days after the publication of the Notice in the Government Gazette. The comments can be submitted by post to the Director-General of the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment for the attention of Ms P Kershaw, at Private Bag X447, Pretoria, 0001, or by e-mail to pkershaw@dffe.gov.za. Please note that comments or inputs received after the specified timeframe may not be considered.


Any inquiries in connection with the notice can be directed to Ms Pamela Kershaw at the following email address: pkershaw@dffe.gov.za.


A copy of the Government Notice can be found on the Department's website through the following link: https://www.dffe.gov.za/sites/default/files/gazetted_notices

Agenda

09:00 - 09:05
Welcome and Announcements
09:05 - 09:10
Introduction of Speakers
09:10 - 10:10
DFFE & SANBI - Insights into the National Biodiversity Offset Guideline
10:10 - 10:55
Questions & Answers
10:55 - 11:00
Thanks and Close

Speakers

  • Pamela Kershaw (Deputy Director : Biodiversity Planning and Stewardship of Department of Environment Forestry and Fisheries)

    Pamela Kershaw

    Deputy Director : Biodiversity Planning and Stewardship of Department of Environment Forestry and Fisheries

    Pamela Kershaw is the Deputy Director for Biodiversity Planning and Stewardship at the National Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment. Pamela holds a B.Tech Degree in Nature Conservation. She is currently responsible for the development and implementation of relevant national policies, legislation and related tools, strategies, programmes for conservation and management of ecosystems for South Africa including implementation of relevant international conventions. During her years at DFFE, Pamela has gained significant experience in environmental impact assessments, particularly relating to impacts to biodiversity and has in the last 6 years been facilitating the development of a national policy and guidelines on Biodiversity Offsets.

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  • Jeffrey Manuel (Director: Biodiversity Information and Planning of SANBI)

    Jeffrey Manuel

    Director: Biodiversity Information and Planning of SANBI

    Jeff Manuel has been responsible for Biodiversity Information Management and Biodiversity Planning at the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) since 2014. Prior to this, he spent a decade mainstreaming biodiversity into environmental management and land-use planning in South Africa. During that time, he interned at an environmental consultancy, an NGO, worked in provincial government and SANBI, which provided him with a broad perspective of user needs and behavior with respect to biodiversity data and information. Through mainstreaming biodiversity he developed a passion for piloting new concepts and then scaling these to drive systemic change in environmental governance. This led him to becoming a policy advisor with SANBI in 2010 and he has worked at the Data-Science-Policy interface ever since. He has developed particular expertise and interests in Biodiversity Offsets, Systematic Conservation Planning, Spatial Analysis- and Prioritisation. He has also developed a reasonably good understanding of Enterprise Information Management. He is passionate about building more effective institutions and teams, through Culture Transformation and Change Leadership.

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  • Marthán Theart (Legal Specialist at Department Forestry, Fisheries & Environment (DFFE))

    Marthán Theart

    Legal Specialist at Department Forestry, Fisheries & Environment (DFFE)

    Marthán holds a BA LLB from the University of Cape Town and an LLM in Environmental Law from the University of Cape Town. Before joining the law reform directorate at Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment, he was a legal specialist (biodiversity and ecological infrastructure) at SANBI. He is particularly interested in biodiversity law and policy.

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  • Mthobisi Nzimande (AD: Biodiversity Planning and Implementation at SANBI)

    Mthobisi Nzimande

    AD: Biodiversity Planning and Implementation at SANBI

    https://www.sanbi.org/

    Mthobisi Nzimande is the Assistant Director: Biodiversity Planning and Implementation within the South African National Biodiversity Institute. He has 9 years of environmental management experience, as a EIA reviewer, environmental planning & municipal support at provincial scale and now biodiversity mainstreaming into environmental management processes at a national scale.

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