Green Scorpions are warriors guarding our environment

The protection of the environment is now more important than ever, especially because of the devastating effects of climate change on the lives of people.

That is why the South African constitution enshrines the right of all to an environment that is not harmful to our health and wellbeing and which encourages the sustainable use of natural resources.

These rights have been taken a step further through the introduction of a number of environmental laws and policies that provide for the effective management and conservation of the environment. This includes legislation governing air quality, waste management, biodiversity, conservation, climate change and programmes aimed at ridding our country of alien and invasive species and providing ecosystem services and managing natural resources.

The 2021/22 national environmental compliance and enforcement report indicates that there has been an increase in environmental incidents in the last year, resulting in devastating impacts on the environment. This brings into question the environmental compliance profile of the sources of these problems.

Because of this, a cohesive and complex government intervention is required. This includes designing an “all of government enforcement model” informed by lessons learnt from past experiences which considers resources available within all government institutions to deal with different but mutually beneficial points.

Why is conserving the environment so important? The environment is the foundation on which all life is built. Remove one part and another collapses.

Thus the critical need to protect wetlands, rivers, mountains, our rich floral kingdom and our wildlife. Those protectors are the Environmental Management Inspectorate, or Green Scorpions, as they are popularly known.

The Green Scorpions are government officials from national, provincial and local government, including the parks authorities, who are responsible for compliance and enforcement activities related to environmental legislation. Sadly, the 2021/22 environmental compliance and enforcement report shows a decrease of more than 5% in the number of national and provincial inspectors from 3,158 in the 2020/21 financial year to 2,995.

Steps are being taken to not only fill vacant positions but to also increase the number of Green Scorpions across the country.

In the past year, the Green Scorpions have experienced a number of unforeseen challenges, not least being the Covid-19 pandemic, which resulted in a decrease in certain types of environmental non-compliances while triggering a significant increase in others. These include unlawful land invasions of protected areas.

Also, the budget allocated to the Green Scorpions has decreased as the economy falters and other priorities compete for resources.

Despite these challenges, the Green Scorpions are still expected to protect the environment. This will require adaptability from the inspectorate to meet these challenges.