Monitoring the Environment
The South African case study
J de Beer
1
Mandate and context
• Statistics Act, 6 of 1999
• Purpose of the Act
– Advance planning, production, analysis, documentation, storage, dissemination and
use of official and other statistics
– Provide for coordination with other organs of state (section 5, 7 & 14)
– Provide for cooperation between producers of official statistics
• Role players in the Act
–
–
–
–
Minister in the Presidency responsible for National Planning: Approval of plans
Statistician-General: Producer, Coordinator and Certification
Statistics Council: Advisory
Heads of Organs of State: Producer
• Vision:
Your leading partner in quality statistics
• Mission:
To lead and partner in statistical production systems for
evidence based decisions
2
Statistical production system required
• To raise the profile of statistics in policy formulation, planning,
monitoring and evaluation
• To address gaps in the statistical production process
– Information gap
– Quality gap
– Capacity gap
• To guide and govern statistical production in the country
3
Stats SA core areas
• Economic statistics
–
–
–
–
–
Employment
National Accounts (including Environmental Economic Accounts)
Business cycle
Government statistics
Price statistics
• Social and Population statistics
– Household surveys
– Service delivery
– Population Census
• Scattered environment statistics
– By chance
– Module approach to existing surveys
4
Current work programme
• Partnerships
– Memorandum of Understanding with The Presidency; Dept of Environmental
Affairs; Energy; Mineral resources; Water Affairs; Agriculture, water and
fisheries
– Inter departmental working groups
• Stats SA publications – updated annually
–
–
–
–
EEA: Water Accounts for South Africa: 2000
EEA: Energy Accounts for South Africa, 2002 to 2006
EEA: Minerals Accounts for South Africa, 1980 to 2008
EEA: Fisheries Accounts for South Africa, 1990 to 2008
• International participation
–
–
–
–
Opportunities for development, relevance, quality improvement
UNCEEA, London group, Oslo group
SADC workshops (UNSD support)
UNECA
5
Importance of environmental info
• Environmental information is becoming increasingly important as an
assessment tool for:
– Main drivers of change;
– Identifying trends; and
– Responses.
• Environmental information informs:
– Public debate;
– Policy development; and
– Decision-making.
6
Importance of environmental info
South Africa’s ecological footprint is higher than global
average.
South Africa
7
Linkages
ENVIRONMENTAL
STATISTICS
Stocks and inventory
statistics
ENVIRONMENTAL
INDICATORS
ENVIRONMENTAL
ECONOMIC ACCOUNTS
(EEA) – PHYSICAL
ACCOUNTS
Opening and closing stocks
State
Activity statistics: resource
extraction / harvesting
Extraction, harvest,
discoveries, natural growth
Impact
Impact statistics: emissions
/ contamination
Residual flow account
Pressure
Response statistics
INTEGRATED PHYSICAL
AND MONETARY ACCOUNTS
Response
Opening and closing stocks;
depletion, accumulation,
degradation; production and
income
Partners in statistics – Line Ministries
Stats SA
Source: Statistics South Africa, 2009
8
Strengths and Weaknesses
• Strengths:
– Formalized agreements;
– Expert knowledge in line ministries; and
– Existing informal networks.
• Weaknesses:
– Limited budget allocations;
– Environmental statistics not mainstream priority;
– Framework Development for Environmental Statistics (FDES) not established
within Stats SA;
– No resources in Stats SA to collect environmental data; and
– Institutionalization lengthy process preventing publishing official reports.
We never know the worth of water till the well is dry.
~Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732
9
Thank you
Joe de Beer
DDG: Economic statistics
joedb@statssa.gov.za
10