Protecting the environment for development: Linking ecosystem structure & function and development outcomes

Abstract

According to SANBI, South Africa’s ecosystem diversity is a kind of infrastructure which, just like roads and railway lines, is critical to the wellbeing of the economy, communities and individual people. The National Development Plan calls for the sustainable management of our natural endowments. One of the principles of spatial planning is spatial sustainability, which requires sustainable patterns of consumption and production, and ways of living that do not damage the natural environment. The second edition of National Water Resource Strategy sets out to ensure that South Africa's aquatic ecosystems are protected effectively at different levels in accordance with the classification system, and that decisions concerning levels of protection take transparent and just account of environmental, social and economic well-being.