\n\n## Vote mandate\nThe Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment is mandated to give effect to the right of citizens to an environment that is not harmful to their health or wellbeing, and that is protected for the benefit of current and future generations. To this end, the department provides leadership on sustainability in environmental management, conservation and protection for the benefit of South Africans and the global community. The department’s mandate is derived from the: Marine Living Resources Act (1998), which deals with the sustainable long-term use of marine living resources; National Environmental Management Act (1998), which provides for specific legislation on biodiversity and heritage resources, oceans and coasts, climate change and air quality management, and waste and chemicals management; National Forests Act (1998), which promotes the sustainable management and development of forests for the benefit of all, and creates the conditions necessary to restructure forestry in state forests for protection and sustainable use; National Veld and Forest Fire Act (1998), which provides for the prevention and combating of veld, forest and mountain fires across South Africa; National Environmental Management: Air Quality Act (2004), which reforms the law regulating air quality to protect the environment by providing reasonable measures for preventing pollution and ecological degradation, and securing ecologically sustainable development, and provides for national norms and standards that regulate the monitoring of air quality; National Environmental Management Amendment Act (2004), which streamlines the regulation and administration of environmental impact assessment processes; National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act (2004), which significantly reforms the laws regulating biodiversity; National Environmental Management: Integrated Coastal Management Act (2008), which promotes the conservation of the coastal environment, and ensures that development practices and the use of natural resources are sustainable; National Environmental Management: Waste Act (2008), which reforms the law regulating waste management to protect health and the environment by providing reasonable measures to prevent pollution; National Environmental Management: Protected Areas Amendment Act (2009), which provides for the assignment of national parks, special parks and heritage sites in terms of the World Heritage Conservation Act (1999).
The Estimates of National Expenditure (ENE) is a book published along with the tabling of the budget for the new financial year.
A department's programmes are the activities that it spends money on during the financial year. Different programmes have different budgets, depending on their objectives and available budgets. More detail on the programmes is available in the department's Estimates of National Expenditure documents.
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In addition to exploring the department budget by programmes, the budget is classified according to Economic Classification.
The Economic Classification of a department's expenditure distinguishes between various categories of current expenditure and capital expenditure. The purpose of the economic classification is to categorise transactions according to type of object or input, such as compensation of employees or capital assets.
This visualisation highlights how many categories of expenditure there are for this department at Economic Classification level 4, and which ones are the biggest. year -- 2024-25
Budget programmes will differ in composition of spending, from compensation of employees, transfers to other agencies and goods and services, depending on their objective.
Select an Economic Classification to filter the data in this chart and see how much programmes spend on that category.
The Adjusted Estimates of National Expenditure (AENE) is a book published along with the tabling of the adjusted budget.
These charts show changes to the spending plans originally published in the Estimates of National Expenditure. Details of these changes are published in the Adjusted Estimates of National Expenditure.
Budgeted and actual expenditure/allocations for a department can increase or decrease from year to year. Changes in expenditure for a department can be because of changes in the activities of the department, because of changes in priorities between departments, because of cost efficiencies or because of increases in the price of goods and services due to inflation.
The chart shows the department’s actual expenditure for past years, and budgeted expenditure for the current year and the upcoming three years of the medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF). By adjusting these numbers to take inflation into account, it is possible to determine if a department’s expenditure is really increasing or decreasing in real terms, as compared to the rest of the economy.
Previous financial years indicate actual expenditure while upcoming financial years indicate estimated expenditure:
Compare the adjusted appropriation to the main appropriation to see whether changes were made in the adjustments budget to the appropriations set out in the budget. The audited outcome shows what was actually spent.
Note: Direct charges against the National Revenue Fund are excluded.
Read more in the Annual Report on the department's website.
Compare the amount of budget allocated to each of this deparment’s programmes at each phase in the process leading up to the Audited Outcome
National Treasury, departments and commitees are busy with different things depending on the time of year: