4.5 Environmental rule of law as a means to achieving the outcomes of
4.5.3 ESD as a means to realising poverty reduction
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poverty.195 The following section discusses how ESD could help promote poverty reduction.
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Without digressing from the discussion at hand, it is important to note that the notion of poverty has been the subject of wide international scholarly discourse.199 However as Matunhu200 notes, regardless of the worldwide statistics and rapid accrual of literature on global poverty, no universally accepted definition of the concept exists. This thesis will not focus on the intricacies of poverty, but however notes that as of 2020, 62.1% of children in South Africa were living in poverty, whilst 49.2% of adults were living in poverty.201 Some striking aspects and indicators of poverty in South Africa include homelessness, insufficient access to housing, malnourishment (lack of food and water), overcrowding, bad or insecure social conditions, poor health conditions and public health in general.202
A feature of the wicked problems of poverty in South Africa is inequality and the immense bearing that apartheid had on the environment.203 Writing on the impact of apartheid on the environment, Steyn204 notes that the apartheid government did not effectively regulate industrial activity or other forms of economic development. Instead, the apartheid government focused mostly on:
Conservation only for the benefit of the white minority, and failed to establish an environmental agenda that was responsive to pollution or the unhealthy state of overcrowded areas that poor South Africans were compelled to occupy as a result of apartheid's spatial planning laws.205
The devastating impact of apartheid on the environment and people has extended to post-apartheid South Africa.206 In other words, poverty, as an effect of apartheid, not only
199 See for instance the works of Matunhu 2008 Tamara Journal 200-214; Spicker "The Rights of the Poor"
3-6; Spicker "Definitions of Poverty: Eleven Clusters of Meaning" 229-243; Baratz and Grigsby 1972 J Soc Policy 119-134.
200 Matunhu 2008 Tamara Journal 201.
201 Statistics South Africa 2020 http://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=13422.
202 Statistics South Africa 2020 http://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=13422; Africa 2010 Millennium Development Goals Country Report 23-40.
203 Steyn 2005 Globalizations 393-397; Haydar 2005 Metaphilosophy 251-252.
204 Steyn 2005 Globalizations 393-397.
205 Steyn 2005 Globalizations 393, 395-397; Murcott Towards a Social Justice-Oiented Environmental Law Jurisprudence 5.
206 Butler Contemporary South Africa 4, 29, 100, 107.
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affects people but the environment as well. Stated differently, "the poor (as do all people) depend on natural resources and ecosystem services for their survival" and therefore equally have an environmental footprint.207 This means that there is a relationship between poverty and ESD. That is to say ESD is necessary and essential to achieving poverty reduction. In other words, ESD is a precondition for poverty reduction. A failure to sustain the earth's finite resources will in turn result in a failure to end poverty.
With respect to the relationship between poverty and ESD, Swilling contends that ESD is primarily concerned with eradicating poverty in a manner that rebuilds natural resources and ecosystems.208 Similarly Pierce209 argues that: For development to be sustainable it must "require a rising average standard of living, and faster than average growth in the well-being of the poorest sections of society". This reasoning appears to be based on the notion that the sustainability of ecological systems can be sacrificed on grounds such as social and economic development. For instance, states could at times engage in unsustainable mining practices under the guise of reducing poverty. This approach is unsustainable as it fails to consider humanity's long-term need for a sustainable ecological system. Thus, economic growth policies that fail to advance ESD present a "long-term impact of poor environmental quality on the lives of people".210 Accordingly, ESD is primarily concerned with preserving the earth's natural systems and not poverty reduction. This means that a sustainable society in the context of this thesis is not measured by the number of poor people, but is instead measured by how successful a society has been in preserving its finite natural resources. Viewed in this light, poverty can never be an obstacle to achieving ESD, instead the failure to promote ESD is an indirect obstacle and hindrance to achieving poverty reduction. This assertion, in some way, addresses the argument to the effect that poverty reduction inevitably requires an
207 Du Plessis 2011 SAJHR 285.
208 Swilling "Local Governance and the Politics of Sustainability" 77, 79.
209 Pearce "Managing Environmental Wealth for Poverty Reduction" 30.
210 Du Plessis 2011 SAJHR 286.
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increase in the exploitation of natural resources so as to bolster access to food and wealth.211
Consequently, this thesis submits that it would be fruitless to engage in unsustainable development activities that over exploit the natural resource base as such exploitation could leave future generations without any resources to live by, thereby leading to poverty. Put differently, ESD is not against development, but unsustainable development.
In fact, ESD seeks to promote development that improves humanity's well-being through activities and processes that preserve the continued existence of the earth's ecological systems. In other words, ESD seeks to ensure that the developmental process promotes ecological sustainability, through mechanisms that preserve and protect the continued existence and integrity of the earth's ecological systems for the benefit of present and future generations.
Furthermore, in response to the argument that poverty reduction inevitably requires an increase in the exploitation of natural resources,212 this thesis submits that the unsustainable exploitation of natural resources would actually leave the poor more impoverished. That is to say, the unsustainable exploitation of natural resources could lead to the pollution of the soil, air, ground and surface water resources which the poor mostly rely on for their livelihood. In this light, ESD becomes a precondition to achieving poverty reduction. There is, therefore, a delicate although unmistakable correlation between poverty and the inability to prioritise the conservation of an already limited natural resource base.213 This relationship is illustrated by Bosselmann et al,214 who deduce a connection between inter-generational and intra-generational equity, poverty and sustainability in stating that:
The scope of sustainability ranges from maintaining the integrity of biophysical systems to offering better services to more people to provide freedom from hunger and
211 Du Plessis 2011 SAJHR 287; Scanlon, Cassar and Nemes 2006 Water as a Human Right? 25.
212 Du Plessis 2011 SAJHR 287; Scanlon, Cassar and Nemes 2006 Water as a Human Right? 25.
213 Du Plessis 2011 SAJHR 286-287.
214 Bosselmann, Engel and Taylor Governance for Sustainability: Issues, Challenges, Successes 7.
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deprivation, as well as choice, opportunity and access to decision-making, which are aspects of equity within and across generations.
Therefore, what comes first is the integrity of the earth's ecological systems. Once sustained, the earth's ecological systems will be able to offer better services (food, water, air) to more people. Once the present and future generations are bestowed with life sustaining resources, social justice problems such as poverty and inequality could be reduced. Accordingly, eradicating poverty could also advance environmental protection, since reducing poverty might lead to a reduction of unsustainable and environmentally damaging practices employed by the poor. It is therefore important for legal systems to promote ESD through laws that take into consideration the needs and views of the poor.
In other words, ESD can only promote poverty reduction if there is collaborative governance and management that involves the poor, or communities at large, as stakeholders in environmental decision making. Furthermore, ESD can only promote poverty reduction if a legal system incorporates substantive and procedural laws that address the effects of humanity's economic development on ecological stress (i.e. the degradation of soils atmosphere, water regimes, and forests). In view of the above, the notion that poverty reduction could be an outcome of employing ESD as a constitutional value is concretised by a post-liberal interpretation of the Constitution which requires judges to engage in value-laden adjudication.