Land expropriation could put environment at risk
Land expropriation without compensation could have an unintended consequence that could seriously compromise the sustainability and enforcement of environmental legislation. The debate on expropriation without compensation has led to a lot of talk on the risks landowners run, maintaining land at a huge cost, when they could end up losing it all if the land should be taken away by government, with zero compensation.
Land management implications
Cobus Meiring of the Southern Cape Landowners Initiative (SCLI) explains that South Africa has an advanced legislative framework promoting sound land management practices detailing landowner responsibility. The National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act 10 of
2004 (Nemba) and the Conservation of Agricultural Resources Act, Act 43 of 1983 (Cara) are good examples.
"Generally speaking - there are many exceptions - landowners in South Africa and particularly in the Southern Cape, take land management seriously and do so in line with legislation guidelines. Land management is an expensive and neverending exercise, especially with stringent guidelines and compliance enforcement pertaining to controlling and eradicating invasive alien plants," says Meiring.
A prime example of land management cost to landowners is the wave of invasive alien plants posing a serious economic challenge in the Knysna burn scar. Dealing with invasive alien plants at this scale costs landowners hundreds of thousands of rand, management resources and deep commitment.
Government faces the same challenge as private landowners, with thousands of hectares in important mountain catchments completely overgrown with run-away plantations, posing an ever-bigger threat to water security, biodiversity, wildfire management and natural infrastructure in general.
Where does the buck stop?
Landowners are responsible for managing their land, including what is growing on their land, and paying for doing so.
With the debate on expropriation without compensation, there is a lot of talk on risk exposure of landowners paying for maintaining land at a huge cost, when all that investment can be fruitless when the land can be taken away from them by government, with zero compensation.
"An unintended consequence of land expropriation, without compensation, would pose a very real threat to the sustainability and enforcement of environmental legislation," says Meiring.
As an example of responsible ownership models, land management in communal land areas are often completely lacking, with serial over-grazing and disastrous fire regimes, leading to completely degraded soil with no crop or grazing value, severely eroded river systems and silted wetlands, indicating that private land ownership has proved to be a preferable option in sound land management practice.
Other examples are the rehabilitation of mining land, new land available for development, and land where successful land claims resulted in management failure.
The Southern Cape Landowners Initiative (SCLI) is an environmental think tank for landowners and land managers with an interest in the control and eradication of invasive alien plants, water stewardship and biodiversity conservation. SCLI is supported by the Table Mountain Fund, a subsidiary of WWF SA. www.scli.org.za.