Military integrated environmental management programme of the South African National Defence Force

The purpose of this study is to explore the challenges the South African National Defence Force faces in translating existing environmental management programmes into action. The challenge to military forces to protect the environment led the South African National Defence Force to establish a military integrated environmental management programme. This is to ensure that its daily activities do not cause significant harm to the environment. Aligned to this programme, the SANDF formulated six sub-major programmes, namely, environmental research, environmental education and awareness training, cultural resources management, ecological management, base environmental management, and environmental planning. Thus, each military installation of the SANDF must have environmental management programmes aligned to any of these programmes. Evidence of the implementation of such programmes has been identified at the Grahamstown Military Installation (GMI) and South African Army Combat Training Centre (SAACTC). Three environmental programmes were identified at GMI. On the contrary, at SAACTC, seven different environmental management programmes were identified. Accordingly, the SAACTC is a heavy use military installation, wherein military activities are bound to cause significant damage. However, there is no capacity to adequately implement these programmes. Therefore, for the SANDF to realize the benefits of all these programmes, it has to forge collaborations with other state organs, academic and research institutions where skills and knowledge to assist in implementing these programmes are readily available.