South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal recently dismissed an appeal by Shell, Impact Africa and the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy to overturn a High Court judgment that halted a seismic survey off the country’s pristine Wild Coast. The High Court found that the right to carry out a seismic survey had been granted to Shell and Impact Africa unlawfully. This was because they had failed to adequately consult the Wild Coast’s affected communities, ignoring the communities’ cultural rights and their use of the land and sea for fishing and generating livelihoods.
Environmental law researcher Robert Krause of the Centre for Applied Legal Studies explains what South Africa’s laws say about genuine consultation, and how courts have ruled on this. He argues that communities need to organise against fossil fuel mining because the law offers them only limited protection.
