| (1) | The purposes of areas declared as protected areas are set out in section 17 of the Act. This provides the guiding principles for these norms and standards, namely— |
| (a) | to protect ecologically viable areas representative of South Africa's biological diversity and its natural landscapes and seascapes in a system of protected areas; |
| (b) | to preserve the ecological integrity of those areas; |
| (c) | to conserve biodiversfty in those areas; |
| (d) | to protect areas representative of all ecosystems, habitats and species naturally occurring in South Africa; |
| (e) | to protect South Africa's threatened or rare species; |
| (f) | to protect an area which is vulnerable or ecologically sensitive; |
| (g) | to assist in ensuring the sustained supply of environmental goods and services; |
| (h) | to provide for the sustainable use of natural and biological resources; |
| (i) | to create or augment destinations for nature based tourism; |
| (j) | to manage the interrelationship between natural environmental biodiversity, human settlement and economic development; |
| (k) | generally, to contribute to human, social, cultural, spiritual and economic development; or |
| (l) | to rehabilitate and restore degraded ecosystems and promote the recovery of endangered and vulnerable species |
| (2) | The rights of landowners of private nature reserves include— |
(a) the right to their property which is protected under section 25 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996;
| (b) | the right to the lawful use of existing private property; |
| (3) | The obligation of landowners of private nature reserves include— |
| (a) | the obligation not to undertake actions which will compromise the integrity of the private nature reserve, and such actions must be In accordance to a management plan; |
| (b) | the obligation to ensure that reasonable measures are taken to prevent environmental degradation from occurring, continuing or recurring on their property |
| (c) | the obligation to ensure that any developmental activity be subject to the relevant policies, legislation and in accordance with the management plan; |
| (d) | the responsibility for the maintenance of developmental activities on their property in the long term; and |
| (e) | the obligation to cooperate with the relevant organ of state in an open and transparent manner. |
| (4) | All affected parties have an obligation to cooperate with each other in good faith and mutual understanding and seek consensus to ensure the private nature reserve is declared and is managed in accordance to a management plan. |
| (5) | The management authorities must have an action plan with specified timeframes to implement corrective measures, when the private nature reserve is not in compliance with these norms and standards. |
| (6) | Where there is significant degradation or changes to the attributes of a site that are irremediable the Minister or MEC may withdraw the status of the private nature reserve in terms of section 24(1) or (2) of the Act |
