JOHANNESBURG - The Department of Environmental Affairs says government has a controversial history of biodiversity offset agreements with private companies.
This process involves a company engaging in separate conservation efforts to compensate for environmental damage caused by its primary project. Last week, amaBhungane reported that Turkish energy giant, Karpowership, had offered to donate a game farm to the South African government to make up for the unavoidable biodiversity loss that will come from its floating power plant in Richard's Bay.
"We have a history in South Africa of having what we call biodiversity offsets. Let me give you an example: in Limpopo, Anglo American developed the Venetia Park, which is an offset for the Venetia mine."