Louise Agenbag, Polygon Environmental Planning
Over the past few years, environmental and related legislation as it pertains to agriculture has become stricter, and many farming activities now require authorisation from one or more government department at much lower thresholds than before. With the departments also ramping up the consequences for non-compliance, it is best to make sure early on whether your intended activities will require authorisation.
The authorisations most commonly required for agricultural activities from an environmental perspective, are broadly the following:
- Environmental Authorisation (EA), usually from the Limpopo Department of Economic Development, Environment and Tourism (LDEDET). Either an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) or the shorter Basic Assessment (BA) process is undertaken in applying for EA, depending on the type, scale and location of the proposed activities. Some of the activities that may trigger the need for EA include:
- Creating new fields or orchards, or expanding cultivation into areas of indigenous vegetation, regardless of whether the vegetation is pristine, degraded or infested with alien invasive vegetation, if those areas have not been developed or cultivated in the past 10 years. The extent of the area that may be cleared without EA differs between different geographical areas – the threshold is much lower in certain specified sensitive areas than in most other areas;
- Construction of a dam – even a small one! An offstream balancing dam can be constructed up to a certain threshold without EA, but even a small instream dam will require EA;
- Repairing and/or upgrading an old, broken dam may also require EA;
- Establishment of certain supporting infrastructure, such as pipelines or roads, may also require EA, depending on the dimensions and whether stream crossings are involved;
- Concentration of animals, such as chicken houses or feedlots for livestock.
- Water Use Licence Application (WULA) from the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS). The term Water “Use” Licence often creates confusion, as it also includes non-consumptive “uses” such as impedance of a watercourse or storage of water, which are not instinctively thought of as “using” water. It is therefore important to keep in mind that the following activities are classified as water uses in terms of Section 21 of the National Water Act, and may require a WULA process to be undertaken or for the water use to be registered with DWS in terms of the General Authorisation, depending on factors such as the type and scale of the activity or water use and whether wetlands will be affected:
- Water abstraction, whether from a river, dam or borehole. Various factors must be taken into account to determine whether a WULA is required;
- Construction of a dam. There is a common misconception that dams with a storage capacity of less than 50 000m3 do not need to be subjected to a WULA, but instream dams require a WULA even below this threshold;
- Wastewater / sewerage treatment systems and the associated disposal of treated effluent may require a WULA;
- Stream crossings by pipelines or farm roads may require a WULA or GA registration.
- Cultivation permit from the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF). This is applicable to cultivation of land which has not been cultivated in the past 10 years.
- Permit for removal of protected plants. For removal, de-limbing or disturbance of listed protected trees, a permit is required from DAFF, while for certain other plants (not only trees) a permit is required from the national Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA).
This is just an overview of environmental and related legislation that is commonly triggered by agricultural activities. There are a great many variables to be taken into consideration on each particular project, therefore be sure to contact an environmental consultant, such as Polygon Environmental Planning in Tzaneen, to plan your project within the context of environmental legislation as well as sensitive areas or aspects on the site, and to make sure that your project is environmentally compliant.