The Swaziland Environment Action Plan (SEAP)

RECOMMENDED POLICY AND STRATEGY FRAMEWORK

CONTENTS | INTRODUCTION | NATIONAL LAND AND ENVIRONMENT | RURAL LAND AND ENVIRONMENT | SOIL CONSERVATION | AGRICULTURAL LAND USE | LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION | CROP PRODUCTION | FORESTRY | MINING | BIODIVERSITY | RURAL WATER | RURAL SETTLEMENT, ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH AND INFRASTRUCTURE | TOURISM | RURAL ENERGY | PERI-URBAN LAND AND ENVIRONMENT | URBAN LAND AND ENVIRONMENT | RESIDENTIAL | COMMERCIAL, RETAIL & INDUSTRIAL | GREEN BELT, AGRICULTURAL AND RECREATIONAL |

3.3 GREEN BELT, AGRICULTURAL AND RECREATIONAL

This policy is to address the issue of retaining areas of open space within urban environments - parklands, sports areas, greenways, and areas reserved in perpetuity for agricultural use (for the richness of their soils or for social amenity). The policies so decided are to be implemented through the Structure Plans of the relevant local authorities. They are to be cross referenced with forestry, tourism and crop production policy.

ISSUES SUMMARY

  • Much of the best arable land in Swaziland will be covered by urban development without appropriate safeguards.
  • The aesthetic impairment of hills face development.
  • Spatially undirected market forces will not allow any green belt, agricultural and recreational land to remain in urban areas once its development becomes economically rational.
  • Security problems in premises adjoining open areas, and unauthorised activities causing disturbances in open areas.
  • Habitat fragmentation in urban areas and its effect on ecosystem structure and function.

SUMMARY POLICY PROPOSALS

Status of Policy

Non-existent, save for de facto policies incorporated in existing Structure Plans.

Broad Overall Objectives

  • To ensure the incorporation and management of open spaces within and around urban environments, and to encourage the protection and planting of indigenous flora.
  • To ensure the adequate provision of parks, sport and recreational areas, public spaces and facilities, and plots of land for home gardening and urban agriculture.

Policy Principles

  • Green spaces and vegetation cover in urban areas be considered essential for biological and hydrological balance and economic development and be treated as such.
  • Urban green spaces are of significant social and educational value.
  • Swaziland's supply of arable land in general and the soil potential of the subject site in particular be considered in structure plans and thereby affect subdivision approvals.
  • Landscapes and urban flora and fauna be protected in open and green spaces.
  • Productive and recreational green belts around urban agglomerations be established in order to protect their environment and contribute to the provision of food products.
  • The conservation and sustainable use of urban biodiversity be promoted, including forests, local habitats and species biodiversity.
  • The transition from rural to urban lifestyles should allow scope for gradual change, and avoid abrupt change.

Policy Practical Elements

  • The proprietorial right to development to alternate uses be made inactionable and non-transferable in the hands of the local authority.
  • Permitted uses be actioned as early and extensively as possible, insofar as occupied and utilised land pre-empts illegal occupation.
  • Management of each area of green belt, agricultural and recreational land be made fully transparent and accountable, with appropriate rewards for effective management and penalties for mismanagement.

SUMMARY STRATEGY PROPOSALS

General Strategic Approach

  • To ensure the formulation and strict enforcement of Structure Plans incorporating green belt, agricultural and recreational land as permanent features of urban areas in Swaziland.

Practical Strategy Elements

  • Local authorities to create parks for the protection of endangered indigenous flora.
  • Local authorities, in cooperation with NGO's and the SEA, to encourage tree-planting programmes by schools, service clubs, and other community organisations.
  • To integrate healthy and environmentally sound agricultural activities such as permaculture into the planning of urban areas.
  • SEA and local authorities to stimulate the development of urban forestry and provide free tree-planting information e.g., recommended species, their recommended distances from foundations, water mains, etc.
  • Linear parks be cultivated along all stream banks in urban areas, in consort with the stricter enforcement of the Natural Resources Regulations 1951 (which freeze development for 33 metres both sides of stream banks).

Community Participation Strategy

  • Local authorities to encourage the formation of neighbourhood watch organisations in all urban areas, and such organisations to include adjoining green areas in their purview.
  • To establish community organisations to manage designated enclosed areas wherein local communities, particularly those on small plots, may practice urban agriculture.
  • Local authorities and local communities to cooperate in the provision and maintenance of recreational facilities accessible to all at minimal or no cost, such as playgrounds, football pitches, volleyball/netball/basketball courts etc.

Supportive Strategies

  • Surveyor-General to liaise with local authorities regarding requirements for spatial monitoring of green belt areas.
  • To strengthen management capacities to monitor green areas, inclusive of privatisation of some activities, the education and cooperation of law enforcement organisations, and to enhance the capacities of local authorities in accordance with the provisions of the Urban Government Policy.

MINISTERIAL RESPONSIBILITIES

MTEC (SEA & SNTC), MHUD, MOAC, MNRE.