Institutional factors in natural resource management in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa - Institutional Constraints to Small Farmer Development in Southern Africa - page 225

reviewed in 1989. The Act became the Environmental Conservation Act of 1989. There
were improvements observed in this new Act, which included, inter alia , circulation of
regulations and policies for environmental conservation by the Minister of Environmental
Affairs (Brauteseth, 2000).
The aim of the Environment Conservation Act of 1989 of South Africa was to establish,
maintain and improve the environment, which would in turn contribute to the welfare of
people, promotion of natural resources as well as improving literacy in the communities
through environmental education. All of these were to be achieved through the
implementation and co-ordination of integrated environmental monitoring programmes
(Swatuk, 1996). During this time, the Department of Environmental Affairs was introduced
for co-ordination of environmental policies and decisions among ministries. In this policy,
owners of land were compensated for restrictions forced on them and this was done to
monitor progress in the management of the environment (De Bruyn et al. , 2000).
In addition, the aim of this Act was to prohibit littering and identify any action, which might
have an impact on the environment. This Act was responsible for regulating all activities
on the environment to protect it from any disturbances, deteriorations or destruction from
activities by people (Breedlove, 2002). Only policies concerning the waste management and
environmental impact assessment were circulated and this led to yet another criticism of the
policy. This resulted in a new policy called the National Environmental Management Act
of 1998, the aim of which was to promote the sustainable use of resources and co-operative
governance in the management of environment and equitable access to natural resources.
This was carried out through the creation of ethics for decision making on issues related
to the environment. In this Act, cultural norm as an institution was taken into account for
sustainable development (ELAW, 1999).
The Common Property Association Act of 1996
The Communal Property Association Act (CPA) was introduced in 1996 to ensure security
of tenure for all, even within common property resources (CPRs) (Makhanya, 1999). It
was found that, although many of the CPRs had potential to improve the livelihoods of
the beneficiaries, there was a general lack of equity in the rights of ownership, access and
usage among the beneficiaries, which threatened the sustainability of many CPRs. The Act
guarantees certain rights and protections to individual members and gives associations the
right to enforce rules and regulations and to impose and implement them. This Act also
enables communities to join and be known as communal property associations in order
to acquire, hold and manage property on a basis agreed to by members of a community in
terms of a written structure.