Regulations promulgated under the National Environmental Management Act No. 107 of 1998 requires any government official wishing to be designated as an Environmental Management Inspector (EMI) to attend a training course approved by the Director-General of the National Department Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE).

The basic and advanced training programme for EMIs is managed by the Directorate: EMI Capacity Development and Support at DFFE. In addition to facilitating capacity development and skills transfer to EMIs, the programme also seeks to advance the awareness of key role-players such as magistrates, prosecutors, the South African Police Service and various border law enforcement authorities.

Although the Directorate was only formally created in 2009, the management of a training programme for EMIs dates back to the creation of the EMIs in national environmental legislation, with the first round of training taking place in November 2005 in Augrabies National Park. In these early days, the focus was on clearing the backlog of compliance and enforcement officials requiring basic training in order to be designated as EMIs.

Today, however, the small yet dedicated team at DFFE manages a fully-fledged training programme with collaborative partnerships with institutions such as the South African Judicial Education Institute and Justice College, as well as international entities such as the International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA) in Gaborone, Botswana.

“The development of an eLearning facility for EMIs and other key role-players in environmental compliance and enforcement represents a big step forward for the training programme and will assist DFFE in extending the reach of the current training capacity, both in terms of quantity and quality.”