Environmental Rehabilitation Guide for South Africa

In essence, to rehabilitate is to restore the pre-existing environment. This book is a guide to why environmental rehabilitation is necessary, the standard to which it should be done, and how to do it. Using the South African Constitution as the ultimate frame of reference, the guide explains, for any given case, derivation of a rehabilitation objective, its boundary conditions, the interventions to be applied, and simple powerful metrics that can be used to measure achievement. The key elements of much rehabilitation – landscaping, runoff control and revegetation – are explained in terms of what the finished rehabilitation product should look like and how to get there. The approach to rehabilitation taken in this book, and the rehabilitation standards and methods explained, are not based on cost-benefit analysis and other financial trading off tools. These tools rely on discounting and pricing of non-market goods, all of which are infinitely debatable. Rather, this book rests on experiential learning as to what is sustainable. Sustainability, while a clichéd word, is here given operational definition. Though this book focuses on rehabilitation in the humid and semi-arid regions of South Africa, the principles it uses are applicable across environmental management making it an invaluable handbook for business and political leaders, government officials, project managers, rehabilitation practitioners, farmers and civic institutions. The author has included 67 exhibits that include full colour photographs of rehabilitation and revegetation examples, problem-solving flow diagrams, tables of summaries, graphs, and more. With a Foreword by Morné du Plessis, CEO of WWF South Africa.