Many green activists feared that the ANC government would push economic development to the detriment of the environment. These concerns have dissipated as government has pursued a forceful environmental agenda with strong antipollution and conservation regulations.
In particular, government has expanded the area under conservation status, realising that SA's natural beauty and abundance of wildlife is one of its greatest assets as it seeks to attract international tourists.
Since 1994, 370 000 ha have been added to SA National Parks (SANP), the largest proclamation of land since the 1920s. Almost 5,8% of SA is now formally protected. But it's not enough; in terms of a commitment by government bodies that figure needs to rise to 10% by 2010.
Part of the expansion will come from SANP's and government's land acquisition programme. The treasury has set aside R120m over the next three years to buy ecologically sensitive land, and environmental organisations, led by WWF (formerly known as the World Wildlife Fund), will also contribute as they have in the past.
SANP has traditionally funded its land acquisition programme from its conservation levy and the sale of surplus wildlife stock. But that won't get it much closer to the required 10%, particularly as land prices tend to increase sharply when land owners get a whiff of an imminent SANP expansion programme.
Environmental affairs & tourism department director-general Crispian Olver says SANP has often been forced to pay up to 15% above market value to buy crucial pockets of land.
The biggest push in boosting conservation has come and will come from the private sector. In response to growth in domestic and international tourism, many agricultural operations have already been converted to game reserves.
WWF CEO Tony Frost estimates that 15%-20% of all land in SA, including what is already formally protected, has some kind of conservation status, though the quality of environmental protection varies widely.
Olver is more cautious, suggesting a figure of about 10%, but his department has established a legal framework for the growth of private-sector conservancies. The recently proclaimed Protected Areas Act requires the department to set standards under which land can be classified as a conservation area. The owners of the land will then be exempt from property taxes on their land.
This helps government to meet its environmental targets; and conservation and game reserves generally employ more people in better-paying jobs than the previous agricultural use of the land.
The Addo National Park is an example of this. Since 1996 the size of the park has doubled to 145 000 ha and the number of jobs in the area has risen by 30%. SANP CEO David Mabunda says most of jobs - such as hospitality jobs in the new lodges that have sprung up with the park's expansion - are better paying .
"Land acquisition takes place with a job balance sheet in mind," he says. "Where we have not been able to place workers in permanent positions in the rest camps, we try to accommodate them in temporary jobs such as Working for Water projects, fencing and so on."
Olver says that to win cabinet's backing for the land drive, "the implication of buying land should be job positive. We try to put a programme in place to guarantee jobs for three to five years through working in the reserve, poverty relief funding and ecotourism facilities."
Most of government's programme of buying land for conservation has been driven by SANP. Four new national parks have been founded over the past decade: Cape Peninsula, Agulhas, Namaqua and Vembe-Dongola in Limpopo.
Provincial parks, on the other hand, have seen little development - "a reflection of the generally poor management and financial resources available to provincial authorities", says Mabunda.
Government has been anxious to ensure that all conservation areas are run on similar lines, according to strict environmental standards and with a long-term management plan in place.
The Protected Areas Act has given the environmental affairs & tourism department the legal framework to achieve more uniform standards by establishing so-called contractual national parks.
Most recently, the Blyde River Canyon was converted from a regional to a national park, with the Mpumalanga Parks Board contracted to run it. A similar model is being examined for the Pondoland reserve on the Wild Coast.
A number of national parks are already run on a contractual basis, including Marakele in Limpopo and the Greater St Lucia Wetlands Park.
The contractual park approach has also proved useful in managing successful land claims against national parks. The Makuleke community in Limpopo was awarded a claim in the northern Pafuri region of the Kruger National Park, but contracted SANP to run the area on its behalf. In turn the Makuleke won the right to develop game lodges .
