Popular Environmental Struggles in South Africa, 1972-1992
Author(s)
Steyn, Phia
Abstract
Examines the activities of the nongovernmental sector of the South African environmental movement between the UN Conference on the Human Environment (Stockholm) in 1972 and the Earth Summit (Rio de Janeiro) in 1992. During this period, nongovernmental environmental organizations in South Africa gradually moved away from the predominantly conservation-based environmental agenda that was apolitical and important mostly to whites to an environmental agenda that, by the late 1980’s, was highly emotive, politically charged, and racially inclusive. The twenty years under discussion are divided into three periods: 1972-82, during which time the white conservation agenda dominated; 1982-88, in which the nongovernmental sector gradually started to move toward an environmental justice agenda; and 1988-92, which was dominated by highly political and emotive struggles over various environmental problems in South Africa.
