This free 1.5-hour webinar introduced the South Africa “Species Environmental Assessment Guideline” that will be published for implementation during the course of 2020 and will influence the way specialist studies are undertaken for Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) in South Africa going forward. We focused on a new method to identify Site Ecological Importance, a standardized approach that will allow both EAPS (Environmental Assessment Practitioners) and Competent Authorities to rapidly evaluate the ecological importance of the development site, within the context of the proposed development activities. The Guideline also includes taxon-specific guidance for how each different category of specialist needs to undertake their future assessments and present their data. The Guidelines and the species data that has been included in the EIA Screening Tool have implications for the costs and timing of EIA studies going forward. The webinar showed how these new Guidelines both streamline the requirements for specialists and also makes it very clear how future studies need to be undertaken.
This guideline has been produced for the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries by the South African National Biodiversity Institute and BirdLife South Africa, and was drafted by Enviro-Insights. The webinar is organized in cooperation with IAIAsa, IAIA’s South Africa Affiliate.
The link to the Guideline website can be found here: https://bgis.sanbi.org/
Presenter: Domitilla Raimondo, Threatened Species Programme Manager from the South African National Biodiversity Institute