These two terms are mostly seen as conflicting elements, development viewed as being done to the detriment of the environment. This perception and natural bias is not a new occurrence, it has been the cause of concern for years, culminating in legislation that aims to try to resolve this impasse. The Environment Conservation Act (73 of 1989) and more recently the National Environmental Management Act (107 of 1998), set out a series of regulations which guide the development application procedure through a process which should result in a development which will not have a substantial detrimental effect on the environment. This process, the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)Process is not designed to stop development, but to ensure that there is no substantial detrimental impact on the environment as a result of the set activity.

In order to guide this process, a list of activities which may have a substantial detrimental effect on the environment has been published as Schedule 1 in the government gazette. This list is pretty comprehensive and covers such diverse activities as nuclear power stations and resort development, release of biological organisms and concentration of livestock. Of particular interest is the "change in land use" listing. Where any change from agricultural use or open space to any other use requires the EIA process - this is the usual case with proposed new developments. Any listed activity is therefore required to go through the EIA process and obtain authorisation (the Record of Decision or RoD) prior to commencement. The process required is broken into three distinct phases:

1. the application,
2. the scoping, and
3. the assessment phase.

It is not a quick process and can take up to three months for a simple application, to two years for a full process. The steps are designed to follow on from one to the next; ie. if your application can not be approved on the application (and checklist) phase, then the authorities (Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning - DEA&DP) will request you to proceed to the scoping phase and so on to the EIA phase, until they have sufficient information from which to make an informed decision (the RoD).

The scoping phase is the phase during which all the issues and potential impacts are identified, whereas the EIA phase is the phase where the unresolved issues are actually assessed and evaluated to determine their significance, resulting in various mitigatory measures that would be necessary to reduce any significant issues.

The bottom line is that the process should help to shape the development proposal (activity) and its alternatives, into a final product that will be socially, environmentally and economically sustainable - the win-win scenario. The process will however weed out undesirable components which may result in a detrimental effect on the environment and the no-go alternative is always a consideration (the "do nothing" approach).