The Environmental Audit, Assessment and Review Regulations, 2000

PART A: INTRODUCTION

Citation and Commencement

1. These Regulations may be cited as the Environmental Audit, Assessment and Review Regulations, 2000 and shall come into operation on the date of publication in the Gazette, except that the Third Schedule shall come into operation on a date prescribed by the Minister by notice in the Gazette, and until that date all references in these Regulations to fees shall have no legal effect.

Application

2. These Regulations shall apply to the Government and any other persons, bodies and institutions.

Interpretation

3. In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires -

"authorising agency" means any person empowered by law - to issue a permit, licence, consent or approval in respect of a project, undertaking or activity which may have an impact on the environment;

"category" means a class or projects to which a proposed project may be assigned under sub-regulation 6(1) and which is subject to a specific environmental review procedure;

"comprehensive mitigation plan" or "CMP" means a document containing a description of the mitigation measures to be implemented that would prevent, reduce or otherwise manage the environmental impacts of a project and done according to the reporting requirements in the Second Schedule;

"day" excludes Saturday, Sunday and an official public holiday;

"environmental audit" or "EA" means work done to identify and evaluate the environmental impacts of existing projects which is done according to the reporting requirements in the Second Schedule;

"environmental compliance certificate" or "ECC" means a certificate issued by the Authority under regulation 15 which certifies that the Authority has consented to an existing undertaking continuing to operate, or, to a proposed project proceeding, subject to the operator or proponent complying with the conditions specified in the certificate and in the approved comprehensive mitigation plan;

"environmental impact" means any positive or negative impact, on the natural and/or environment, on any form of life, on the social, economic and/or cultural conditions that influence human life, or on any inter-relationship between these elements or factors, which is, will be, or may be, directly or indirectly caused by an existing or proposed project, policy, plan or programme;

"environmental impact assessment" or "EIA" means the process of predicting and evaluating the likely environmental impacts of a proposed project where the scale, extent and significance of the environmental impacts cannot be easily determined;

"environmentally sensitive area" means an area which merits a high degree of environmental protection because the environment in that area, or any constituent part of it, is rare, endangered, or sensitive to harm, or has particular environmental, archaeological, social, or cultural significance or value, whether or not the area is legally or administratively protected, and includes areas designated as environmentally sensitive by the Minister under Regulation 6(2);

"existing undertaking" means an enterprise or activity which was being conducted on a site in Swaziland on 12 April 1996 and which has continued to be conducted on the same site without interruption until the present;

"initial environmental evaluation" or IEE" means an environmental analysis of a proposed project whose environmental impacts may be easily determined and for which there are appropriate, well known and tested mitigation measures;

"operator" means a person who is the owner of, in control of, or responsible for the management of, an existing undertaking or project;

"person" includes both natural and legal persons, a government ministry, department or agency, a statutory public body, a body answerable directly to the Ngwenyama which is empowered to formulate or implement policies, programmes, plans or projects which may have an impact on the environment, a municipality, a local authority, a partnership, an unincorporated joint venture and an unincorporated association;

"project" means an enterprise, undertaking or activity, or a proposal or plan for a new enterprise or activity to significantly change an enterprise, an undertaking or a project, and includes a plan, operation, undertaking, construction, development, change in land use, or alteration which may not be implemented without a permit, license, consent or approval from an authorising agency;

"project brief" means a document which incorporates a brief plan and/or outline proposal for a project which contains sufficient information to enable the Authority or an authorising agency to determine to which category the proposed project should be assigned;

"project compliance report" or "PCR" means a report produced periodically, during and after the implementation of a CMP, which describes actions and results taken to implement a CMP and which is done according to the reporting guidelines in the Second Schedule;

"proponent" means a person responsible for initiating a project and obtaining the appropriate authorization;

"notice of acceptance" means a notice issued in accordance with regulation 10 by the Authority or an authorising agency to an operator or proponent in respect of an EA, IEE, EIA, CMP or summary submitted by that operator or proponent confirming that the document in question appears to conform with the requirements of these Regulations and any relevant guidelines issued by the Authority and will be made public and evaluated for the purposes of deciding whether or not to grant an environmental compliance certificate.