I have to admit that when I look back over the past 10 years I find it hard not to be proud of our achievements. We may not always realise it, but despite being a new democracy in a developing country, our environmental reconstruction and transformation is unsurpassed anywhere in the world.
The past 10 years of environmentalism have been radical and profound. A whole suite of legislation, policies and institutions have been created to turn a constitutional right to a healthy environment into law and practice. The state, interestingly, was the main driver of change.
We are also privileged to have a plethora of enthusiastic civic institutions in labour, business and the non-profit sector that have made change possible. The combination of state and civic activities has raised the political profile of environmental issues.
There is not a day without one or other newspaper giving coverage to environmental issues. Politicians and companies are taken to task if they are seen to be harming the environment.
How was such a gigantic feat possible in such a short space of time? South Africa’s quasi-federalist system allowed for a more decentralised and wider deployment of resources to address environmental problems. Generally there are high levels of openness to public debates and toleration of criticism.
The internationalisation of South African environmentalism – assisted by hosting the World Summit for Sustainable Development and the World Parks Congress – facilitated the profiling of our achievements. At these events South Africans were able to punch above their weight, and in some circumstances fundamentally transformed a pure environmentalism into a more socially adept environmentalism.
Environmental discourse has placed a strong emphasis on a rights-based approach, which has served to support the work of those fighting for environmental justice. Supported largely by left-leaning liberation movement activists and sympathisers, environmental justice focuses on the need to rectify the ills of apartheid: cleaning the neighbourhoods of polluting industries and defending the rights of communities prejudiced by toxic dumps and irresponsible waste disposal.
This group of environmental activists shaped the ruling party’s vision of environmental reconstruction. However, the battles for better living conditions and healthier environments are far from over.
We have also witnessed a sometimes reluctant u-turn in the ideology of conservation NGOs that used to be guardians of the environmental interests of the apartheid minority. People-centred conservation and development have entered the vocabulary of this fraternity.
Government conservation agencies reinforced this change by making sure funding for conservation was aligned to the new government’s economic and social priorities. The old guard within the conservation fraternity has had no option but to behave.
However, environmentalism has yet to be embraced by the majority of black South Africans. Progressive environmentalism – that does not make idols of environmental rights – stands to be undermined by fundamentalist tendencies among some environmentalists.
Eco-fascism looks progressive from the outside, until one examines its intent and consequences; then one discovers how it has managed to usurp a privilege by turning a right into dogma. Taking a rights-based approach to the environment has led to the unintended consequence that this right is seen as absolute and of a higher order than other rights.
The myriad of rights we enjoy are bound to come into conflict with each other when developers and environmentalists clash over which rights should take precedence. There is no easy fix to these complex and often heated issues. Rather our democracy must develop prudence and the dexterity to find pragmatic solutions to these ongoing tensions. In fact, the manner in which we are able to deal with these skirmishes will reflect on the health and endurance of our young democracy.
The past 10 years of transformation in the environmental sector will hold sway, ironically, not by insisting on stronger environmentalism but by ensuring that our democracy across the entire public realm maintains its vitality. This is only possible through a pact between government, civil society and business.
The pact is not about agreement, but about nurturing respect for the holders of different rights and interests, and hence creating the conditions for vigilance. We are destined to build on the foundations that have already been laid. We can only build optimistically, for after 10 years there is nobody who can say that what we have now is not better than what we had before.
— Saliem Fakir is director of IUCN-SA (The World Conservation Union)