Environment in South Africa

The tension between maintaining that natural beauty while exploiting those natural resources constitutes the primary challenge facing the people of South Africa today.

The South African Government reports on the State of the Environment, using a variety of indicators to measure the country's progress in maintaining a sustainable growth pattern.

In the mining sector, for example, most people associate South Africa with gold and diamonds. Less well known is the contribution that coal mining and other metals and mineral mining make to the South African Economy.

Like mining enterprises around the world, South Africa's mining sector brings with it water quality problems. The government is only now beginning to confront water quality issues such as acid mine drainage, associated with its long mining history.

South Africa's many urban areas face many of the same problems of urban centers around the world, such as congestion and air pollution. Electricity generated by coal fueled power plants accounts for much of the country's air pollution problems.

Coal's dominance in the electricity sector has, to date, provided a road block for renewable energy production. On the bright side, South Africa's renewable energy conservation has begun with the government recently announcing a plan for renewable energy sources to constitute over forty percent of new electricity generation in the next twenty years.

Biodiversity in South Africa faces stresses similar to the stresses faced in other states. As habitats are altered to make way for human settlements, pressures on the country's wildlife populations, birds, animal, amphibians and reptiles, continues.

Elephant, leopard, lion and rhinoceros populations, all native South African species face population pressures.

South Africa's multiple climate areas makes for a rich birding experience. The country's birders continue to monitor the status of its eight hundred and fifty plus known bird species.

© 2011. Patricia A. Michaels