Hon Deputy Speaker and hon members of this august House, good afternoon. I must indeed commend the Portfolio Committee on Water and Environmental Affairs for finalising this National Environmental Management Laws First Amendment Bill, which is an important Bill for the Department of Environmental Affairs and our provinces.
Once promulgated, the Bill will facilitate the implementation of amending Threatened or Protected Species Regulations and the implementation of the comprehensive Alien and Invasive Species Regulations. The main aim of the Bill is to clarify the scope of the National Environmental Management Biodiversity Act, 2004; to strengthen the regulatory and enforcement provisions; to prevent abuse of the permitting system; to give national effect to the obligations of the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilisation to the Convention on Biodiversity; to amend the definition of waste; and to align the penalty provision for regulations in the National Environmental Management: Air Quality Act, 2004, with other specific environmental management Acts.
The Bill will also enhance service delivery as it provides the Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs with the legal mandate to develop regulations that specify the timeframes applicable to the issuing authority when considering and issuing permits and registration certificates. These provisions will improve service delivery and address uniformity in terms of timeframes within which applications should be considered.
The Bill provides the Minister with the legal mandate to provide the regulations for the reporting requirements of permit and registration holders to the issuing authority. This will strengthen the legal requirements relating to reporting, which will assist the authorities in terms of the monitoring and the utilisation of species.
Together with the courts, the provinces, law enforcement agencies and SARS, the Department of Environmental Affairs continues to be an integral part of the fight against organised environmental crimes. The sentencing, last week, of the Thai kingpin to an effective 40 years of imprisonment must serve as a deterrent to poachers and would-be poachers.
With this Bill, more provisions are introduced to assist the country in its fight against environmental crimes relating to rhino poaching, the illegal removal of cycad species from the wild, and so forth. The Bill now makes provision for the issuing authority to suspend a permit if the permit holder is under investigation for the contravention of a provision of the National Environmental Management Biodiversity Act.
The compulsory registration of professional hunters and outfitters will ensure uniformity in the system and prevent the abuse of the permit system. Currently professional hunters and outfitters register in individual provinces, and if they are noncompliant in one province, and the permit to operate is withdrawn, they can still operate in another province. The national system will now ensure that they have to register nationally in order to operate in any of the provinces.
With this Bill, we will also ensure that specimens in transit through the Republic are always accompanied by the necessary documentation. This will assist us in addressing the movement of illegal specimens, like rhino horn, through our ports. Many persons are in possession of provincial permits, but have also not yet applied for permits in terms of the National Environmental Management Biodiversity Act. These persons may not be aware that they do not comply with the Act, even though they have no intention of carrying out an illegal activity. We say they may not, but of course not all of them. The intention is to allow these persons to apply for permits, without the fear of being prosecuted for not having applied earlier. The Bill will provide the Minister with the legal mandate to declare amnesty from prosecution for the purpose of facilitating compliance with the provisions of the Act. This offers individuals with rhino horns in their possession an opportunity to apply for permits now, as there will be an opening.
The strengthening of the regulation provision will allow the Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs to, by regulation, limit the number of permits that can be issued in order to protect our species. Trade and export are integral to the process of bioprospecting. However, the biotrading industry always contests that they are not regulated by the National Environmental Management Biodiversity Act, Nemba, because the bioprospecting activity of trade is not explicitly mentioned. The revision of the definition of bioprospecting in commercialisation, as well as the inclusion of the definition of commercial exploitation, will close a regulatory gap in regulating the biotrading industry.
The Bill further revises the purpose and application of Chapter 6 of the National Environmental Management Biodiversity Act. The current provisions of Chapter 6 are not explicitly encouraging the sustainable use of indigenous plants, animals and associated traditional knowledge. This approach is in line with the country's international obligation under the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilisation to the Convention on Biological Diversity.
The Bill revises the current provision on the bioprospecting Trust Fund and ... [Time expired.] It also speaks to that trust anyway. Thank you.