Ex post facto authorisation in South African environmental assessment legislation: a critical review

One of the fundamental tenets underlying environmental assessment both internationally and in South Africa is that it is anticipatory in nature in that it is essentially an evaluation of the effects likely to arise from a major project or other action significantly affecting the natural or artificial environment. Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is therefore a systematic and integrative process for considering possible impacts prior to a decision being taken on whether or not a proposal should be given approval to proceed. This article argues that the current legislative basis for environmental assessment in South Africa, namely Part V of the Environment Conservation Act 73 of 1998 (ECA) and regulations made under it, reflects this philosophy. It argues that the phenomenon of ex post facto or retrospective environmental authorisation is ultra vires and thus not permissible under the current legislative regime. Finally the article outlines and assesses the environmental assessment regime under the National Environmental Management Act 107 of 1998 (NEMA) and recent amendments to it under the NEMA Amendment Act 8 of 2004, which will in future govern the environmental assessment process. The amending Act introduces a new section 24G into the anticipated environmental assessment regime which will permit ex post facto or retrospective environmental authorisation. The authors argue that this is an unwelcome development which will militate against the purposes underlying environmental assessment

Ex post facto authorisation in south african environmental assessment legislation: A critical review

One of the fundamental tenets underlying environmental assessment both internationally and in South Africa is that it is anticipatory in nature in that it is essentially an evaluation of the effects likely to arise from a major project or other action significantly affecting the natural or artificial environment. Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is therefore a systematic and integrative process for considering possible impacts prior to a decision being taken on whether or not a proposal should be given approval to proceed. This article argues that the current legislative basis for environmental assessment in South Africa, namely Part V of the Environment Conservation Act 73 of 1998 (ECA) and regulations made under it, reflects this philosophy. It argues that the phenomenon of ex post facto or retrospective environmental authorisation is ultra vires and thus not permissible under the current legislative regime. Finally the article outlines and assesses the environmental assessment regime under the National Environmental Management Act 107 of 1998 (NEMA) and recent amendments to it under the NEMA Amendment Act 8 of 2004, which will in future govern the environmental assessment process. The amending Act introduces a new section 24G into the anticipated environmental assessment regime which will permit ex post facto or retrospective environmental  authorisation. The authors argue that this is an unwelcome development which will militate against the purposes underlying environmental assessment

Ex post facto authorisation in South African environmental assessment legislation: a critical review

One of the fundamental tenets underlying environmental assessment both internationally and in South Africa is that it is anticipatory in nature in that it is essentially an evaluation of the effects likely to arise from a major project or other action significantly affecting the natural or artificial environment. Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is therefore a systematic and integrative process for considering possible impacts prior to a decision being taken on whether or not a proposal should be given approval to proceed.  This article argues that the current legislative basis for environmental assessment in South Africa, namely Part V of the Environment Conservation Act 73 of 1998 (ECA) and regulations made under it, reflects this philosophy. It argues that the phenomenon of ex post facto or retrospective environmental authorisation is ultra vires and thus not permissible under the current legislative regime.  Finally the article outlines and assesses the environmental assessment regime under the National Environmental Management Act 107 of 1998 (NEMA) and recent amendments to it under the NEMA Amendment Act 8 of 2004, which will in future govern the environmental assessment process. The amending Act introduces a new section 24G into the anticipated environmental assessment regime which will permit ex post facto or retrospective environmental authorisation. The authors argue that this is an unwelcome development which will militate against the purposes underlying environmental assessment.   &nbsp

The Lingering Environmental Impact of Repressive Governance: The Environmental Legacy of the Apartheid Era for the New South Africa

This article aims to explore the historical link between contemporary environmental problems and the environmental, economic and political policies of the apartheid government. The analysis draws on an examination of the detrimental environmental impacts of the apartheid era and how international isolation impacted on governmental environmental management in the country, before turning attention to the way in which the ANC government has managed the South African natural and human environments in the period after 1994. The article shows that despite many important new developments since 1994, that there are high levels of continuity between the environmental management practices of the old and the new regimes. This state of affairs negatively impacts on the ability of the ANC government to provide every South African citizen with the clean and safe environment guaranteed to all within the 1996 Bill of Rights.This article also appeared unchanged as a chapter in the following edited collection: Jan Oosthoek and Barry K. Gills (eds), _The Globalization of Environmental Crisis_ (Abingdon: Routledge, 2008), pp. 109-120

Vulnerability mapping as a tool to manage the environmental impacts of oil and gas extraction

Various biophysical and socio-economic impacts may be associated with unconventional oil and gas (UOG) extraction. A vulnerability map may assist governments during environmental assessments, spatial planning and the regulation of UOG extraction, as well as decision-making around UOG extraction in fragile areas. A regional interactive vulnerability map was developed for UOG extraction in South Africa. This map covers groundwater, surface water, vegetation, socio-economics and seismicity as mapping themes, based on impacts that may emanate from UOG extraction. The mapping themes were developed using a normative approach, where expert input during the identification and classification of vulnerability indicators may increase the acceptability of the resultant map. This article describes the development of the interactive vulnerability map for South Africa, where UOG extraction is not yet allowed and where regulations are still being developed to manage this activity. The importance and policy implications of using vulnerability maps for managing UOG extraction impacts in countries where UOG extraction is planned are highlighted in this article.The Water Research Commission, South Africahttp://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.orgam2018Geolog

A requirement for astrocyte IP 3 R2 signaling for whisker experience-dependent depression and homeostatic upregulation in the mouse barrel cortex

Changes to sensory experience result in plasticity of synapses in the cortex. This experience-dependent plasticity (EDP) is a fundamental property of the brain. Yet, while much is known about neuronal roles in EDP, very little is known about the role of astrocytes. To address this issue, we used the well-described mouse whiskers-to-barrel cortex system, which expresses a number of forms of EDP. We found that all-whisker deprivation induced characteristic experience-dependent Hebbian depression (EDHD) followed by homeostatic upregulation in L2/3 barrel cortex of wild type mice. However, these changes were not seen in mutant animals (IP3R2–/–) that lack the astrocyte-expressed IP3 receptor subtype. A separate paradigm, the single-whisker experience, induced potentiation of whisker-induced response in both wild-type (WT) mice and IP3R2–/– mice. Recordings in ex vivo barrel cortex slices reflected the in vivo results so that long-term depression (LTD) could not be elicited in slices from IP3R2–/– mice, but long-term potentiation (LTP) could. Interestingly, 1 Hz stimulation inducing LTD in WT paradoxically resulted in NMDAR-dependent LTP in slices from IP3R2–/– animals. The LTD to LTP switch was mimicked by acute buffering astrocytic [Ca2+]i in WT slices. Both WT LTD and IP3R2–/– 1 Hz LTP were mediated by non-ionotropic NMDAR signaling, but only WT LTD was P38 MAPK dependent, indicating an underlying mechanistic switch. These results demonstrate a critical role for astrocytic [Ca2+]i in several EDP mechanisms in neocortex

A Significant but Rather Mild Contribution of T286 Autophosphorylation to Ca2+/CaM-Stimulated CaMKII Activity

Autophosphorylation of the Ca(2+)/calmodulin (CaM)-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) at T286 generates partially Ca(2+)/CaM-independent "autonomous" activity, which is thought to be required for long-term potentiation (LTP), a form of synaptic plasticity thought to underlie learning and memory. A requirement for T286 autophosphorylation also for efficient Ca(2+)/CaM-stimulated CaMKII activity has been described, but remains controversial.In order to determine the contribution of T286 autophosphorylation to Ca(2+)/CaM-stimulated CaMKII activity, the activity of CaMKII wild type and its phosphorylation-incompetent T286A mutant was compared. As the absolute activity can vary between individual kinase preparations, the activity was measured in six different extracts for each kinase (expressed in HEK-293 cells). Consistent with measurements on purified kinase (from a baculovirus/Sf9 cell expression system), CaMKII T286A showed a mildly but significantly reduced rate of Ca(2+)/CaM-stimulated phosphorylation for two different peptide substrates (to ~75-84% of wild type). Additional slower CaMKII autophosphorylation at T305/306 inhibits stimulation by Ca(2+)/CaM, but occurs only minimally for CaMKII wild type during CaM-stimulated activity assays. Thus, we tested if the T286A mutant may show more extensive inhibitory autophosphorylation, which could explain its reduced stimulated activity. By contrast, inhibitory autophosphorylation was instead found to be even further reduced for the T286A mutant under our assay conditions. On a side note, the phospho-T305 antibody showed some basal background immuno-reactivity also with non-phosphorylated CaMKII, as indicated by T305/306A mutants.These results indicate that Ca(2+)/CaM-stimulated CaMKII activity is mildly (~1.2-1.3fold) further increased by additional T286 autophosphorylation, but that this autophosphorylation is not required for the major part of the stimulated activity. This indicates that the phenotype of CaMKII T286A mutant mice is indeed due to the lack of autonomous activity, as the T286A mutant showed no dramatic reduction in stimulated activity

Experience-dependent plasticity acts via GluR1 and a novel neuronal nitric oxide synthase-dependent synaptic mechanism in adult cortex

Synaptic plasticity directs development of the nervous system and is thought to underlie memory storage in adult animals. A great deal of our current understanding of the role of AMPA receptors in synaptic plasticity comes from studies on developing cortex and cell cultures. In the present study, we instead focus on plasticity in mature neurons in the neocortex of adult animals. We find that the glutamate receptor 1 (GluR1) subunit of the AMPA receptor is involved in experience-dependent plasticity in adult cortex in vivo and that it acts in addition to neuronal nitric oxide synthase (αNOS1), an enzyme that produces the rapid synaptic signaling molecule nitric oxide (NO). Potentiation of the spared whisker response, following single whisker experience, is ∼33% less in GluR1-null mutants than in wild types. We found that the remaining plasticity depended on αNOS1. Potentiation was reduced by >42% in the single αNOS1-null mutants and completely abolished in GluR1/αNOS1 double-knock-out mice. However, potentiation in GluR1/NOS3 double knock-outs occurred at similar levels to that seen in GluR1 single knock-outs. Synaptic plasticity in the layer IV to II/III pathway in vitro mirrored the results in vivo, in that LTP was present in GluR1/NOS3 double-knock-out mice but not in the GluR1/αNOS1 animals. While basal levels of NO in cortical slices depended on both αNOS1 and NOS3, NMDA receptor-dependent NO release only depended on αNOS1 and not on NOS3. These findings demonstrate that αNOS1 acts in concert with GluR1 to produce experience-dependent plasticity in the neocortex

Intrinsic Signal Imaging of Deprivation-Induced Contraction of Whisker Representations in Rat Somatosensory Cortex

In classical sensory cortical map plasticity, the representation of deprived or underused inputs contracts within cortical sensory maps, whereas spared inputs expand. Expansion of spared inputs occurs preferentially into nearby cortical columns representing temporally correlated spared inputs, suggesting that expansion involves correlation-based learning rules at cross-columnar synapses. It is unknown whether deprived representations contract in a similar anisotropic manner, which would implicate similar learning rules and sites of plasticity. We briefly deprived D-row whiskers in 20-day-old rats, so that each deprived whisker had deprived (D-row) and spared (C- and E-row) neighbors. Intrinsic signal optical imaging revealed that D-row deprivation weakened and contracted the functional representation of deprived D-row whiskers in L2/3 of somatosensory (S1) cortex. Spared whisker representations did not strengthen or expand, indicating that D-row deprivation selectively engages the depression component of map plasticity. Contraction of deprived whisker representations was spatially uniform, with equal withdrawal from spared and deprived neighbors. Single-unit electrophysiological recordings confirmed these results, and showed substantial weakening of responses to deprived whiskers in layer 2/3 of S1, and modest weakening in L4. The observed isotropic contraction of deprived whisker representations during D-row deprivation is consistent with plasticity at intracolumnar, rather than cross-columnar, synapses