Ishaya Usman Gadzama, Homa Asadi, Qazal Hina
et al.
Virtual fencing (VF) technology represents an innovative approach to livestock management, utilizing GPS-enabled collars to establish invisible boundaries through auditory and mild electrical stimuli. While VF offers potential benefits such as enhanced pasture management flexibility and reduced labor costs, its widespread adoption faces challenges including high initial investment costs, connectivity issues, GPS accuracy limitations, potential device durability concerns, and individual animal variability in learning and response. Furthermore, despite studies showing rapid learning and generally minimal long-term welfare impacts, questions remain regarding optimizing training protocols, addressing occasional short-term behavioral disruptions and collar abrasions, assessing long-term welfare effects across diverse systems (especially intensive and dairy), and improving scalability. To comprehensively assess the potential and limitations of this technology and guide its future development and implementation, a review integrating existing knowledge on the efficacy, welfare implications, and practical applications of VF in cattle production systems is essential. This review examines the efficacy, welfare implications, and practical applications of VF in cattle production systems. Studies demonstrate that cattle rapidly learn to associate auditory cues with electrical pulses, achieving high containment rates (≥90%) within days, with minimal long-term welfare impacts as indicated by stable cortisol levels. However, short-term behavioral disruptions and occasional collar-related abrasions have been reported, particularly in dairy cattle. While VF enhances pasture management flexibility and reduces labor costs, challenges such as connectivity issues, individual animal variability, and high initial investment costs limit its widespread adoption. The findings suggest that VF is a promising tool for precision livestock farming, though further research is needed to optimize training protocols, assess long-term welfare effects, and improve scalability across diverse farming systems.
As investors and financial intermediaries, private banks are increasingly confronted with climate change concerns. But to what extent do banks identify as the changemakers driving climate alignment forward? To advance this question, this paper analyzes the South African banking sector with a specific focus on Standard Bank and Nedbank as exemplary case studies. Relying on the concept of ‘climate mainstreaming’, we critically assess the banks' annual reports and compare their self-portrayal with publicly available sources on the bank's business practices, chiefly provided by non-governmental organizations and media. We find that Nedbank pushes a holistic narrative of climate change as an inevitable business opportunity. Standard Bank, in turn, relies on a ‘narrative of balance’ between climate change and other profit-oriented investments to safeguard its stakes in the fossil industry. In so doing, this paper sheds light on greenwashing practices within disclosure specifically and the lack of binding corporate regulation more generally.
In the study of solar greenhouses, microclimate, soil, and back walls have an important influence on the greenhouse thermal environment because of their good heat storage and release characteristics. The transpiration of crops makes indoor humidity increase sharply, which is the main factor affecting indoor humidity distribution. Therefore, it is of great significance to grasp the microclimate change law of solar greenhouses and study the coupling effect of thermal and humidity environment. In this paper, based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD), a three-dimensional model of the thermal and humidity environment of a solar greenhouse is established, and the indoor temperature and humidity distribution under the influence of soil, crops, and back walls are considered. The CFD model initialization uses binary fitting functions to fit the temperature distribution of soil, back wall, and air. The distribution law of the temperature field and relative humidity field of the solar greenhouse under three different working conditions is simulated, that is, the insulation is uncovered and the ventilation window is closed during the day (G1), the insulation is uncovered and the ventilation window is opened during the day (G2), and the insulation is put down and the ventilation window is closed at night. (G3). The results show that the simulation results are in good agreement with the actual results under the three working conditions, and this paper can provide a reference for the improvement of the greenhouse structure and environmental regulation.
Introduction. The article is devoted to the problem of delimitation of competence for carrying out control and supervisory activities vertically – between federal and regional executive authorities that implement the function of environmental control (supervision). Theoretical analysis. The delimitation of the powers of federal and regional authorities in the field of state environmental control (supervision) is rather vague. The transfer of a large amount of such powers has led to the complication of the system of state environmental control (supervision). The objects of regional state environmental supervision are determined according to the residual principle without the mandatory fixing their list. At the same time, the legislation does not provide for the possibility of transferring the powers of regional executive authorities in the field of environmental protection to federal authorities. Empirical analysis. In practice, there is often duplication of control and supervision powers in the environmental sphere between federal executive authorities and executive authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, as well as local governments, which negatively affects their performance. In the constituent entities of the Russian Federation there are no specialized bodies exercising the implementation of the powers transferred by the Russian Federation. Results. It is concluded that there is no effective interaction between environmental control (supervision) bodies at all levels of government due to insufficient regulation of this issue in the legislation. In order to eliminate legal conflicts, simplify the interaction between subjects, the article substantiates the necessity of adoption of the Federal Law “On Environmental Control (Supervision)”; development and adoption of administrative regulations for the interaction of federal and regional environmental control (supervision) bodies; conclusion of agreements on the “reverse delegation” of powers from the executive authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation to the federal bodies of state environmental control (supervision).
Objective: The development of justice in civil societies and overcoming existing inequalities requires the provision of philosophical foundations and the principles of the realization of the concept of urban justice. Efforts to achieve this goal are made by explaining the thinking course of various philosophers on the subject of justice and how to implement its implementation process. Hence, the new paradigm of urban justice is based on the three dimensions of justice (law, ethics, and civilization) and four basic dimensions (substantive, formal, distributive, and structural). Accordingly, the realization of this paradigm in Farahzad Tehran is evaluated. The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of the urban justice paradigm on decreeing environmental inequalities.
Methods: The present research is applied-developmental in terms of purpose and descriptive-analytical in terms of the research method used. The method of data collection was documentary and field. Also, the statistical population of the study consists of residents, users, experts and city officials.The results were analyzed in SPSS software based on descriptive statistics (qualitative, average, and standard deviation items) and inferential statistics (weighting of Bogardus, one-sample t-test, and Pearson correlation items).
Results: The results of the Bogardus scale data indicate a large social distance and an undesirable level of acceptance among the residents of Farahzad. In addition, the data of one-sample t-test and Pearson correlation analysis in Delphi questionnaire and measuring the application of local paradigm of urban justice in the ratified plan of urban-oriented organizing of Farahzad, show the favorable status of this plan in terms of law and ethics against the unfavorable conditions of socialism dimension, from the viewpoint of experts.
Conclusion: Therefore, The results of the research indicate the existence of deep gaps and shortcomings in the field of realization of various aspects of urban justice in Farahzad area compared to the surrounding areas. On this basis, the existence of a direct relationship between distributive justice and structural justice in the field of urban justice paradigm is shown. These funds will be adopted and monitored in the formal dimension of urban justice and based on interactive policies.
Recent work on self-organized remodeling of vasculature in slime molds, leaf venation systems, and vessel systems in vertebrates has put forward a plethora of potential adaptation mechanisms. All these share the underlying hypothesis of a flow-driven machinery, meant to alter rudimentary vessel networks in order to optimize the system's dissipation, flow uniformity, or more, with different versions of constraints. Nevertheless, the influence of environmental factors on the long-term adaptation dynamics as well as the network structure and function have not been fully understood. Therefore, interwoven capillary systems such as those found in the liver, kidney, and pancreas present a novel challenge and key opportunity regarding the field of coupled distribution networks. We here present an advanced version of the discrete Hu-Cai model, coupling two spatial networks in three dimensions. We show that spatial coupling of two flow-adapting networks can control the onset of topological complexity in concert with short-term flow fluctuations. We find that both fluctuation-induced and spatial coupling induced topology transitions undergo curve collapse, obeying simple functional rescaling. Further, our approach results in an alternative form of Murray's law, which incorporates local vessel interactions and flow interactions. This geometric law allows for the estimation of the model parameters in ideal Kirchhoff networks and respective experimentally acquired network skeletons.
With the rapid economic and social development, environmental protection is facing many challenges, especially air pollution. It is an urgent task to study and recognize the current situation of air pollution and its causes, and to take corresponding measures. In this paper, by analyzing the status and changing trend of air environmental quality of Tianjin, the research of main pollutant and the characteristics of pollutants in the air of frequency, pollution characteristics, pollution change law and stress time, on the basis of put forward the countermeasure and the suggestion of collaborative control more pollutants, to provide accurate ShiCe, scientific control science and technology support, provide scientific support to win the battle blue sky.
In the context of globalization of economic development processes, the issue of determining the level of public welfare of economic agents is particularly burning. The object of ehis study is the process of assessing welfare of the economic entities system. The subject of the study is the instrumental and mathematical aspects of modeling and measuring the public welfare. The aim of the work is to develop the mathematical model for measuring the welfare of Ukraine using methods of intellectual analysis, namely, the theory of fuzzy sets. The output of the study is a new approach to objective estimation of public welfare of the state. It is proposed to assess the level of public welfare of the state on the basis of a mathematical model developed on the basis of the theory of fuzzy sets. Input factors of the model are international indices and indicators, such as Index of Economic Freedom, Global Peace Index, Democracy Index, Corruption Perceptions Index, Human Development Index, Prosperity Index, Global Competitiveness Index as well as an indicator that reflects the characteristic property of the Ukrainian economy, namely the minimum living wage. Developed mathematical model for assessment of the level of public welfare of Ukraine and made a prediction of the indicator by 2024 on the basis of the above indices. The results of the study allowed us to establish that the level of public welfare (units) in Ukraine on a scale from 0 to 100 will be equal to 25, 17, 32, 26, and 28 in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024, accordingly.
INTRODUCTION. Treaty and customary rules of International Law of the Sea provide for the duty of States to protect and preserve the marine environment, using for this purpose “the best” means. States shall also cooperate in elaborating legal mechanisms for the protection and preservation of the marine environment on a universal, regional or bilateral basis. Universal treaty sources of modern international law, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1982 (UNCLOS), among other numerous rules on protection and preservation of the marine environment, provide for the adoption by the coastal states more stringent ecological laws and regulations in “clearly defined” areas. Different terms are used for designating such areas in UNCLOS and other international instruments such as Convention for the Prevention of Pollution by Ships, 1973 modified by the Protocol of 1978 (MARPOL 1973/78); Convention on Biological Diversity, 1992; the Protocols adopted by the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP); documents of International Maritime Organization (IMO). Such terms are used: “special areas”; “marine protected areas”; “marine protected territories”; “particularly sensitive areas”. Not all these terms are used in UNCLOS and none of them is defined by the rules of this convention. Convention on Biological Diversity provides for the definition of “marine protected areas”, but only for the purpose of conservation of biodiversity. This paper addresses optional approaches to interpreting rules of international law which are relevant to marine protected areas and practice of states in designating such areas, first and foremost, in the waters of Arctic and Antarctic, where the consequences of marine pollution might be irreversible.MATERIALS AND METHODS. This paper demonstrates the evolving legal basis of international cooperation of states in establishing marine protected areas beginning from the text of the Washington convention of 1926, materials of the Committee of Experts of the League of Nations, the Convention for the Prevention of Pollution by Ships, 1973 as amended by Protocol 1978, and documents of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Particular attention is devoted to interpreting the rules on special areas provided in UNCLOS. The paper addresses also the relevant rules of the Convention on Biological Diversity, 1992; UNEP Protocols, beginning with the first of them – “the Protocol on Mediterranean Specially Protected Areas”, adopted in 1982; and also relevant soft-law documents such as “Guidelines for the Designation of Special Areas and the Identification of Particularly Sensitive Areas”, adopted by the Assembly IMO in 1991 and famous “Agenda for XXI”, adopted by the Rio Environmental Conference in 1992 and relevant documents of the Johannesburg Summit, 2002. The focus of the research is directed to legal materials of designating marine protected areas in the Arctic and Antarctic.RESEARCH RESULTS. International Law is developed by more and more maturing legal mechanisms of different level, including treaty level, which relate to designating marine protected areas and to governance theirof. Different classifications of such areas are suggested in legal literature, taking into account different terms used in relevant sources of international law. It is suggested in legal literature to make accent on differentiating between the term “special areas”, as it is provided in MARPOL 1973/78 and the same term used in UNCLOS. As a result of this research it is suggested a different approach. The practice of states in pursuing environmental protection, as noted in the paper, reveals a trend not to fragment relevant legal notions, applicable to designating special protected areas at sea in defined limits and thus not to create additional confusion of legal terms but rather to consolidation, comprehensive interpretation of international law rules applicable to special areas. Within this trend it is suggested that the term “marine protected areas” as a generic term is interpreted in a wide context, not limiting it to the meaning of the term, used in a specific international agreement. According to such a wide approach rules of international law on marine protected areas in their cumulative effect provide not only duties of states to protect marine environment; not only that more stringent environmental measures in such areas are aimed at protection from pollution by oil or other pollutants; such stringent measures are aimed also at preservation of ecosystems, ecological complexes, including marine living resources. The economic activities in such areas might be restricted or even prohibited in order to achieve specific environmental purposes, including preservation of marine endemics and other rare marine living resources; including also sustainability of marine bioproductivity and monitoring the state of ecological balance in such areas. The coastal states may also adopt laws and regulations relating to special environmental governance of such areas.DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. While according to MARPOL 1973/78 the legal regime of “special areas” is limited by more stringent measures for preventing pollution of the sea from vessels, the legal regime of marine protected areas is different, according to cumulative effect of relevant rules provided in UNCLOS, Conservation of Marine Biodiversity, the UNEP Protocols to regional sea conventions and other sources of international law relating to preservation and protection of the marine environment. Firstly, according to the latter sources, the legal status of marine protected areas is defined not only a broader context, but also as an on-going process, with perspectives of its development and individual framing, taking into account the oceanographical and ecological conditions of a concrete marine area which is qualified as specially protected. Secondly, almost universal recognition in legal teachings of a broad meaning of the term “marine protected areas” does not mean that designation of such areas is the most effective at the universal level. Though the first Intergovernmental Conference in September 2018 demonstrated the common intention of states to prepare at the universal level the Agreement on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction, no one expects a speedy conclusion of such an agreement, even of framework character. In this context it is concluded in the paper that more perspective are regional and bilateral levels of interaction of states concerned for designating marine protected areas, with more detailed consideration of the relevant oceanographical and ecological conditions of a particular marine region and special character of shipping traffic in such a region. In practical terms, issues of interpretation and application of rules of international law on marine protected areas are very important for the relatively young practice of designating such areas in the Arctic, which is nevertheless very sensitive for each Arctic states as shown in the paper.
Law of nations, Comparative law. International uniform law
Achmad Romsan, Akhmad Idris, Mada Apriandi Zuhir
et al.
During the long and dry season, land fire which cause smog haze pollution, is a common phenomenon in Indonesia. Although the practice of slash and burn cultivation has no longer in existence after the promulgation of the 1974 Law No. 5 on the Village Government which abolished the Marga Government. Nevertheless, that tradition remained continued practiced by the workers hired by the big palm plantation companies and industries when they open the land to start their activities. it is very surprising that the above practice has resurfaced in the midst of a long dry season that is happening in Indonesia, especially in South Sumatra. Smog and haze resulting from land fire create health problems for the people in South Sumatra, especially in the area where smog and haze located. There are legal instruments as the foundation to claim the healthy environmental rights, the Indonesian Constitution of 1945, The 1999 Law No. 39 on Human Rights and the 2009 Law No. 32 on the Environmental Protection of and the Environmental Management. Herein, the smog and haze pollution are seen to violate the people’s human rights. Unfortunately, the use of human rights law instruments has never been done in Indonesia. Notwithstanding, many community environmental disputes are brought to the District Court rather than to the Indonesian Commission of Human Rights (KOMNAS HAM) for further study. As a result, the legal instruments above di not fully protect the victims of environmental pollution. This paper suggests the use of human rights provisions as the basis for prosecution for community environmental-human rights related disputes. For that, a comparative study to the practice of the European Human Rights Court will be of beneficial for Indonesia in protecting the people environmental human rights. In Indonesia the people’s right to a good and healthy environment is constitutional rights and legal rights for it is protected in the Human Rights Law of 1999 No. 39 and Environmental Law of 2009 No. 32. To that end, the human rights approach to the prosecution of environmental disputes are possible because of environmental pollution disturb the enjoyment of human rights.
Craig Anthony (Tony). Arnold, Hannah Gosnell, Melinda H. Benson
et al.
The Adaptive Water Governance project is an interdisciplinary collaborative synthesis project aimed at identifying the features of adaptive governance in complex social-ecological institutional systems to manage for water-basin resilience. We conducted a systematic qualitative meta-analysis of the project's first set of published interdisciplinary studies, six North American basin resilience assessments. We sought to develop new knowledge that transcends each study, concerning two categories of variables: (1) the drivers of change in complex water-basin systems that affect systemic resilience; and (2) the features of adaptive governance. We have identified the pervasive themes, concepts, and variables of the systemic-change drivers and adaptive-governance features from these six interdisciplinary texts using qualitative methods of inductive textual analysis and synthesis. We produced synthesis frameworks for understanding the patterns that emerged from the basin assessment texts, as well as comprehensive lists of the variables that these studies uniformly or nearly uniformly addressed. These study results are cross-interdisciplinary in the sense that they identify patterns and knowledge that transcend several diverse interdisciplinary studies. These relevant and potentially generalizable insights form a foundation for future research on the dynamics of complex social-ecological institutional systems and how they could be governed adaptively.
O presente trabalho se dedica à regulação ambiental, como parte das políticas públicas, e em particular sobre o licenciamento ambiental. É ressaltado como o licenciamento tem sido conduzido pelos órgãos ambientais de maneira legalista e estática, sem ter apresentado evolução na incorporação e enfrentamento de novos problemas ambientais, cada vez mais complexos, apesar de avanços e resultados de melhoria ambiental em determinadas regiões do País. A percepção dos limites a que chegou o licenciamento originou diversas proposições de alterações legislativas, nem sempre preocupadas com a melhoria do seu desempenho e sua qualidade. Concluiu-se que o reexame é necessário e que deve relativizar a lógica burocrática de tomada de decisão, por um processo mais amplo de gestão que adote uma visão mais elaborada do comportamento das empresas e da participação de outros atores sociais. A metodologia se baseou numa pesquisa exploratória e qualitativa, a partir de uma revisão bibliográfica.
Environmental sciences, Law in general. Comparative and uniform law. Jurisprudence
In 2013, the Polish legal system referring to municipal waste management was restructured in a revolutionary way. The analysis of new provisions of law described in the article requires particular attention, taking into account their place in the entire system of dealing with waste and connections with the remaining elements of this system. At present, Polish regulations lay down the rules of conduct with all types of waste, diversifying a subjective area of responsibility. These assumptions are determined by the provisions of law that are in force in the Republic of Poland. At present, the system of legal provisions is quite complex; however, the provisions of law of the EU constitute its base (the first article). At the level of Polish law, the goals and tasks concerned with dealing with waste were set forth, which leads to tightening of the system. All actions in this respect - from propagating the selective accumulation and collection of municipal waste, keeping the established levels of recycling and recycling of packaging wastes, and limiting the mass of biodegradable waste directed at the storage - is only a beginning of the road to reduction of environmental risks. In this case, permanent monitoring of proper waste dealing in the commune, the province as well as the entire country is essential. Third part of the article will present characterization, division, classification and identification of waste, together with the aspects of logistic process of municipal waste collection and transport.
Abstract Background Everyday products can contain a multitude of harmful substances unnoticed by most consumers, because established risk communication channels reach only part of the society. The question is, whether at least interested and informed consumers are able to use risk communication tools and assess harmful chemicals in products. Results An online survey investigated the awareness of 1030 consumers on harmful substances in everyday items. Participating consumers’ education level, knowledge in chemistry, and motivation were above society’s average. Although a large number of responses showed that survey participants were familiar with several aspects of the issue, the results revealed that knowledge in chemistry helped, but was not enough. Many participants assumed that products with an eco-label, natural personal care products, products without hazard pictograms or products produced in the European Union would not contain harmful substances. Most participants indicated to use hazard pictograms, information on the packaging, reports in the media, and environmental and consumer organizations as information sources, while information by authorities and manufacturers were not named frequently and did not receive high confidence. Smartphone applications were not indicated by many participants as information sources. The information sources most trusted were environmental and consumer organizations, hazard pictograms, and lists of ingredients on the containers. The declared confidence in certain risk communication instruments did not always correspond to the use frequencies indicated. Nearly all participants considered legislators as responsible for the reduction of harmful substances in consumer products. Conclusions Misconceptions about harmful substances in products can be dangerous for the personal health and the environment. The survey indicates that motivation, educational level, and chemical expertise do not automatically provide an appropriate understanding of harmful substances in products. If well-informed consumers are not sufficiently capable to use risk information elements as revealed in this study, then this will be even more the case for the general public. Consumer awareness should be stipulated by an improved information strategy about chemical risks in consumer products with an extensive participation of the target groups and by more efforts by authorities and manufactures to build trust and to provide easily understandable information.
To improve fish migration and restore local lotic ecosystems, it is necessary to consider the various current hydro-construction methods. There have been partial successes in systems that improve fish passage over various obstacles but new approaches that present more efficient solutions and international collaboration among specialists are required. This article deals with European themes of great interest; issues related to interruption of longitudinal connectivity in heavily modified water courses, and improving the ecological status of damaged lotic systems, with the goal of achieving the environmental objectives set forth by the Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC (WFD) and the national legislative framework regarding water policy (which reflects the European directives) Water Law no. 107, with subsequent amendments, NT No. / 2006 OM 1163/2007, and discusses the obligation to ensure that construction works protect fish migration to maintain ecological balance in the reservoirs. It is possible to use this system in almost any fish-bearing stream, both upstream and downstream of maximum circulation, which makes the system an excellent solution for assisting and improving migration.
O terrorismo tem causado sérios aborrecimentos à sociedade internacional. Desde o atentado ocorrido nos Estados Unidos da América em 11 de setembro de 2001, o mundo nunca mais seria mesmo. Diante de uma situação de instabilidade, as sanções passaram a ser bruscas e, muitas vezes, direitos vitais, como os Direitos Humanos, além da própria atividade econômica, passaram a sofrer, inadvertidamente, restrições. Como consequência, compreender o terrorismo e a forma eficaz de combatê-lo passa por compreender o que significa, realmente, a aplicação do sistema de tutela dos Direitos Humanos, a maneira de efetivação da legislação internacional, bem como a forma como devem se portar o Estado e a Comunidade Internacional perante tal quadro.
Environmental sciences, Law in general. Comparative and uniform law. Jurisprudence
The withdrawal of water from the nation’s waterways to cool industrial facilities kills billions of adult, juvenile, and larval fish each year. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) promulgation of categorical rules defining the best technology available to minimize adverse environmental impact (AEI) could standardize and improve the control of such mortality. However, in an attempt to avoid compliance costs, industry has seized on the statutory phrase “adverse environmental impact” to propose significant procedural and substantive hurdles and layers of uncertainty in the permitting of cooling-water intakes under the Clean Water Act. These include, among other things, a requirement to prove that a particular facility threatens the sustainability of an aquatic population as a prerequisite to regulation. Such claims have no foundation in science, law, or the English language. Any nontrivial aquatic mortality constitutes AEI, as the EPA and several state and federal regulatory agencies have properly acknowledged. The focus of scientists, lawyers, regulators, permit applicants, and other interested parties should not be on defining AEI, but rather on minimizing AEI, which requires minimization of impingement and entrainment.
Land reform in South Africa and the realisation of the section 25 property clause of the Constitution of South Africa, 1996 (hereafter the Constitution) is seen as an integral step in the democratisation process as well as in the social and economic empowerment of previously marginalised groups. For many, the true test for political transformation will be whether land needs (including protection of and care for the environment) are addressed effectively and in a sustainable manner. In recent years, however, government’s addressing of land needs has become a highly controversial issue, especially where land that vests in private owners is claimed back because of its status as ancestral land. Land reform may strongly impact on the environment and sustainable development as protected in section 24 of the Constitution since it involves vast hectares of land, other environmental media and people. Restitution of land processes in terms of section 25(7), as one of the components of land reform, often does not take key provisions contained in environmental and planning law into account. In many instances, for example, government’s restitution projects do not make sufficient provision for harmonisation with environmental principles contained in environmental law and no or limited systems exist whereby to inform and assist land restitution beneficiaries on compliance with environmental and planning law obligations in post settlement development endeavours. These limitations could, inter alia, be linked with the fragmentation of the environmental governance regime and a lack of role clarification. It may furthermore result in significant conflict between sections 24 and 25(7) of the Constitution as overarching framework legislation, and between developmental objectives contained in sectoral-specific subordinate legislation. The restitution of land is, amongst other policies, regulated by section 25(7) of the Constitution and the Restitution of Land Rights Act 22 of 1994 whilst section 24 of the Constitution and the National Environmental Management Act 107 of 1998 aim at protection of the environment, the prevention of pollution, the promotion of conservation, and secured ecologically sustainable development. The conditions following land restitution settlement, including the current state of the environment on land that has been restituted, provide an interesting and factual source of reference for critical analysis of environmental policy implementation in land restitution processes and post-settlement endeavours. It further allows for a critical view on the effective or futile realisation of sustainable development in national and provincial governments’ efforts to finalise claim-driven restitution of land. In order to limit the scope of this article, land restitution policy, progress with the national land restitution programme and some post-settlement accounts will be critically analysed and assessed in the light of obligations and initiatives for environmental governance derived from the legal framework concerned. A land restitution case is briefly discussed with subsequent comments and suggestions for the way forward.
Law in general. Comparative and uniform law. Jurisprudence