National Environmental Management Act, 1998 (Act No. 107 of 1998) Regulations Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations Listing Notice 3 of 2014 2. Definitions

 

 

"bioregional plan"

means the bioregional plan contemplated in Chapter 3 of the National Environment Management Biodiversity Act, 2004 (Act No. 10 of 2004);

 

"buffer area"

means, unless specifically defined, an area extending 10 kilometres from the proclaimed boundary of a world heritage site or national park and 5 kilometres from the proclaimed boundary of a nature reserve, respectively, or that defined as such for a biosphere;

 

"dangerous goods"

means goods containing any of the substances as contemplated in South African National Standard No. 10234, supplement 2008 1.00: designated "List of classification and labelling of chemicals in accordance with the Globally Harmonized Systems (GHS)" published by Standards South Africa, and where the presence of such goods, regardless of quantity, in a blend or mixture, causes such blend or mixture to have one or more of the characteristics listed in the Hazard Statements in section 4.2.3, namely physical hazards, health hazards or environmental hazards;

 

"development"

means the building, erection, construction or establishment of a facility, structure or infrastructure, including associated earthworks or borrow pits, that is necessary for the undertaking of a listed or specified activity, including any associated post development monitoring, but excludes any modification, alteration or expansion of such a facility, structure or infrastructure, including associated earthworks or borrow pits, and excluding the redevelopment of the same facility in the same location, with the same capacity and footprint;

 

"development footprint"

means any evidence of physical alteration as a result of the undertaking of any activity;

 

"development setback"

means a setback line as defined or adopted by the competent authority;

 

"estuarine functional zone"

means the area in and around an estuary which includes the open water area, estuarine habitat (such as sand and mudflats, rock and plant communities) and the surrounding floodplain area, as defined by the area below the 5 m topographical contour (referenced from the indicative mean sea level)";

 

"expansion"

means the modification, extension, alteration or upgrading of a facility, structure or infrastructure at which an activity takes place in such a manner that the capacity of the facility or the footprint of the activity is increased;

 

"Gauteng Agricultural Potential Atlas"

means the Gauteng Agricultural Potential Atlas, which can be obtained from the Gauteng Provincial Department responsible for environmental affairs;

 

"Gauteng Conservation Plan"

means a systematic conservation planning tool delineating biodiversity priority areas representative of biodiversity pattern, process and species of special concern, which areas have been identified in three broad categories; namely, Critical Biodiversity Areas (CBAs), Ecological Support Areas (ESAs) and Protected Areas;

 

"Gauteng Protected Area Expansion Strategy"

means a framework for protected area expansion in Gauteng, setting out key strategies for protected area expansion and identifying spatial priorities and protected area targets and is aligned to the National Protected Area Expansion Strategy as it identifies finer scaled provincial priorities based on regional and local conservation imperatives;

 

"Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBA)"

means areas / sites that hold significant numbers of globally and/or regionally threatened species (Categories Al and C1); sites that are known or thought to hold a significant component of a group of species whose breeding distributions define an Endemic Bird Area (EBA) (Category A2); sites that are known or thought to hold a significant component of a group of species whose distributions are largely or wholly confined to one biome (Category A3);

 

"indigenous vegetation"

refers to vegetation consisting of indigenous plant species occurring naturally in an area, regardless the level of alien infestation and where the topsoil has not been lawfully disturbed during the preceding ten years;

 

"industrial complex"

means an area used or zoned for industrial purposes, including bulk storage, manufacturing, processing or packaging purposes;

 

"maintenance"

means actions performed to keep a structure or system functioning or in service on the same location, capacity and footprint;

 

"maintenance management plan"

means a management plan for maintenance purposes defined or adopted by the competent authority;

 

"mining application"

means an application for an environmental authorisation for a permission, right, permit, or consent required in terms of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act, 2002 (Act No. 28 of 2002) and includes hydraulic facturing and reclamation;

[Definition inserted by section 29(a) of Notice 517, GG44701, dated 11 June 2021]

 

"National Protected Area Expansion Strategy (NPAES)"

means South Africa's national strategy for expansion of the protected area network, led by the National Department responsible for environmental affairs and developed in collaboration with national and provincial conservation authorities. The NPAES sets targets for protected area expansion, provides maps of the most important areas for protected area expansion, and makes recommendations on mechanisms for protected area expansion. Focus areas for protected area expansion are identified in the NPAES. They are large, intact, unfragmented areas of high importance for land-based protected area expansion, suitable for the creation or expansion of large protected areas;

 

"NEMBA"

means the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act, 2004 (Act No. 10 of 2004);

 

"NEMPAA"

means the National Environmental Management: Protected Areas Act, 2003 (Act No. 57 of 2003);

 

"phased activities"

means an activity that is developed in phases over time on the same or adjacent properties to create a single or linked entity;

 

"previous NEMA notices"

as contemplated in these transitional arrangements means the previous notices published in terms of section 24(2) of NEMA (Government Notices R. 386 and R. 387 in the Government Gazette of 21 April 2006, as amended, or Government Notice No. R. 544, 545 and 546 in the Government Gazette of 18 June 2010, as amended);

 

"protected area"

means those protected areas contemplated in section 9 of the NEMPAA and the core area of a biosphere reserve and shall include their

buffers;

 

"sites or areas listed in terms of an International Convention"

means any area and its buffer, unless specifically defined, of 5 kilometres extending from its listed boundary, listed in terms of an international convention but does not include world heritage sites, and shall include but not be limited to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar, Iran, 1971);

 

"systematic biodiversity plan"

is a plan that identifies important areas for biodiversity conservation, taking into account biodiversity patterns (i.e. the principle of representation) and the ecological and evolutionary processes that sustain them (i.e. the principle of persistence). A systematic biodiversity plan must set quantitative targets/thresholds for aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity features in order to conserve a representative sample of biodiversity pattern and ecological processes;

 

"the Act"

means the National Environmental Management Act, 1998 (Act No. 107 of 1998);

 

"throughput capacity"

means the design capacity or maximum capable capacity of a facility, structures or infrastructure, whichever is the greater;

 

"urban areas"

means areas situated within the urban edge (as defined or adopted by the competent authority), or in instances where no urban edge or boundary has been defined or adopted, it refers to areas situated within the edge of built-up areas;

 

"watercourse"

means—

a reference to a watercourse includes, where relevant, its bed and banks; and

 

"wetland"

means land which is transitional between terrestrial and aquatic systems where the water table is usually at or near the surface, or the land is periodically covered with shallow water, and which land in normal circumstances supports or would support vegetation typically adapted to life in saturated soil.