Environmental Affairs and Tourism at the designation ceremony for Table
Mountain National Park Environmental Management Inspectors (EMIs)
16 August 2007
Two years - 858 Green Scorpions
In June 2005, Minister van Schalkwyk announced the designation of the first
Environmental Management Inspectors in the country. These EMIs (also known as
the Green Scorpions) were designated to monitor compliance with and enforce
national environmental legislation.
"As I stand here today, there are 858 Environmental Management Inspectors
across all nine provinces. In fact, the Inspectorate is now an established unit
with Inspectors in South African National Parks (including those EMIs being
recognised today), the Greater St Lucia Wetlands Park, the Department of
Environmental Affairs and Tourism, all nine provincial environment departments,
and all provincial park authorities. These EMIs co-operate on issues of
training, standard operating procedures and interaction with other key
stakeholders," said the Minister.
Prosecutors' guide
One of these key stakeholders is the National Prosecuting Authority, whose
prosecutors across the country are responsible for prosecuting the cases
prepared by our EMIs in court. The Minister announced that "for some time, our
department has been working to provide support to these prosecutors and today
I'm proud to introduce to you our new Guide to Environmental Prosecutors. This
guide was prepared from experience gained in environmental prosecutions across
the country."
The guide consists of:
* an overview of the constitutional and international law context to
environmental crime
* a detailed discussion of environmental legislation, specifically looking at
criminal offences and the powers of environmental enforcement officers to do
search and seize evidence
* guidance to conducting court trials in environmental criminal cases,
including the drafting of charge sheets, expert scientific witnesses; it also
provides guidance on issues of sentencing and the recovery of costs that are
unique to environmental transgressions.
The guide will be made available to the National Directorate of Public
Prosecutions and all its offices countrywide.
Achievements
As a group, the Environmental Management Inspectorate has only just started
to collate enforcement statistics at a national level. In 2006/07, the
Inspectorate reported nearly 900 arrests and 134 convictions for environmental
crimes across the country. Two hundred and thirty-five directives were issued
in the 2006/07 financial year. The Inspectorate believes that they are still
under-reporting results and that their 2007/08 report will be a better
reflection of what they are achieving.
The Minister further said that "the 630 EMIs in South African National
Parks, who manage and protect all our national parks, form a core group of the
Environmental Management Inspectorate. Here in the Table Mountain National
Park, EMIs are enforcing both the Protected Areas Act and the Marine Living
Resources Act. Since the Table Mountain National Park's Marine Protected Area's
inception in 2004, EMIs have arrested 291 transgressors."
The SANParks Environmental Management Inspectors that were recognised today
are playing a crucial role in protecting the natural resources in this World
Heritage Area from environmental criminals. The graduation of the 20 EMIs
today, is the first grade five EMIs in SANParks to attend the Marine and
Protected Areas Training for Field Ranger EMIs.
Enquiries:
Riaan Aucamp
Cell: 083 778 9923
Issued by: Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism
16 August 2007
