On 22 September 2026, the Portfolio Committee on Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (the Committee) reviewed its performance for the 2025/26 financial year and adopted its 2026/27 Annual Performance Plan (APP), reaffirming its commitment to strengthening oversight, accountability and public participation in advancing South Africa’s environmental rights and sustainable development agenda. The Committee reported that it achieved nine of its eleven planned targets in 2025/26 and exceeded its annual meeting target, convening 29 meetings against a planned minimum of 20.

While a parliamentary committee’s own performance review is not, on its face, a source of new legal obligations, the priorities it sets for the year ahead are a reliable early indicator of where regulatory and enforcement attention within the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) is likely to concentrate. For regulated entities, the 2026/27 APP is worth reading as a forward signal, not just a governance formality.

What The Committee Reported

The Committee credited its 2025/26 oversight work with contributing to several notable developments: improved audit outcomes across the DFFE and its entities, enhanced implementation of environmental programmes, progress in addressing human-wildlife conflict through interventions relating to the Mawana elephants, improved operations at state nurseries, declining rhino poaching levels, strengthened community beneficiation initiatives linked to conservation areas, and positive trends in visitor numbers and revenue generation across national parks, botanical gardens and other conservation institutions.

Against that, the Committee was candid about the scale of unresolved challenges. It flagged deteriorating air quality in pollution hotspots, climate change impacts, weak waste management systems, biodiversity loss, invasive species, habitat degradation, underperforming forestry resources, and delays in implementing strategic programmes such as the Oceans Economy Master Plan. Significantly, the Committee acknowledged that improvements in governance and administration “have not always translated into measurable environmental outcomes and improved quality of life for citizens”, and identified persistent coordination challenges between national departments, provinces, municipalities and public entities as a continuing barrier to effective implementation.

Priorities For 2026/27

The Committee’s stated priorities for the year ahead cover several areas of direct relevance to regulated industry –

• improving air-quality monitoring and environmental law enforcement;
• advancing climate change mitigation and adaptation initiatives and overseeing climate finance commitments;
• supporting sustainable forestry and fisheries development and promoting biodiversity conservation;
• monitoring the implementation of Operation Phakisa programmes within the oceans, biodiversity and waste economy sectors; and
• advocating for the realisation of section 24 of the Constitution, with particular attention to environmental pollution, waste management, the establishment and functionality of fire protection associations, sustainable natural resource management, and community participation in environmental value chains.

The Committee intends to hold at least 20 meetings on priority environmental matters during 2026/27, undertake oversight visits, strengthen collaboration with other parliamentary committees on cross-cutting issues, monitor the implementation of international environmental agreements, and participate in international parliamentary engagements on climate change, biodiversity and sustainable development. It also plans to run a Robben Island clean-up campaign as part of Parliament’s own contribution to environmental awareness.

Why This Matters For Regulated Entities

Several of the Committee’s stated priorities point directly to where compliance and enforcement pressure is likely to increase over the coming year –

• Air quality enforcement in priority and hotspot areas: with air-quality monitoring and environmental law enforcement named as an explicit priority, holders of Atmospheric Emission Licences under the National Environmental Management: Air Quality Act 39 of 2004, particularly those operating in declared priority areas, should expect closer parliamentary and departmental scrutiny of compliance and enforcement action over the year ahead;
• Climate finance and carbon budget scrutiny: the Committee’s commitment to overseeing climate finance commitments, alongside its focus on mitigation and adaptation, signals closer attention to how climate-related public and private funding is deployed. Designated greenhouse gas emitters with obligations under the Climate Change Act 22 of 2024, carbon budgets, mitigation plans and reporting, should ensure their compliance documentation is audit-ready;
• Waste licence compliance: “weak waste management systems” was named specifically among the persisting national challenges. Holders of Waste Management Licences under the National Environmental Management: Waste Act 59 of 2008 should anticipate renewed compliance monitoring and enforcement focus, consistent with the direction already visible in recent high-profile licence review action;
• Marine, coastal and fisheries oversight through Operation Phakisa: the Committee’s stated concern about delays implementing the Oceans Economy Master Plan, paired with its commitment to monitor Operation Phakisa’s oceans, biodiversity and waste economy programmes, points to closer scrutiny of marine spatial planning, coastal licensing and fisheries management processes over the coming year;
• Continued friction, but also pressure to resolve it, across spheres of government: the Committee’s explicit acknowledgement of coordination challenges between national, provincial, municipal and entity-level environmental administration means proponents navigating multi-sphere authorisation processes should expect these frictions to persist in the short term, while also watching for political pressure to accelerate resolution; and
• Elevated expectations around public participation: the Committee’s renewed emphasis on public participation and community involvement in environmental value chains reinforces a theme increasingly visible in recent environmental litigation: regulators, courts and now Parliament itself are testing whether consultation processes are genuinely meaningful, not merely procedurally complete.

Practical Steps

Regulated entities should treat the 2026/27 APP as an opportunity to get ahead of where attention will concentrate, rather than waiting for enforcement to arrive –

• auditing Atmospheric Emission Licence compliance now, with particular attention to operations in declared priority areas and known pollution hotspots;
• reviewing climate change compliance documentation, including carbon budgets, greenhouse gas mitigation plans and reporting records, for audit-readiness ahead of anticipated closer climate finance oversight;
• conducting a compliance review of Waste Management Licence conditions, given the Committee’s specific identification of waste management as a persisting weakness;
• monitoring Oceans Economy Master Plan and Operation Phakisa developments for marine, coastal, fisheries and aquaculture operations;
• engaging proactively with DFFE, provincial and municipal counterparts on pending authorisations, given the political pressure now building to resolve intergovernmental coordination failures; and
• strengthening documentation of public participation processes, so that consultation undertaken for any pending or future authorisation can withstand closer regulatory, parliamentary or judicial scrutiny.

Conclusion

A committee’s annual performance plan is, by nature, a statement of intent rather than a binding instrument. But it is a reliable guide to where a regulator’s political and administrative energy will be directed over the year ahead, and the 2026/27 APP is unusually candid about where South Africa’s environmental governance is still falling short: air quality, waste management, biodiversity, and the coordination between spheres of government that so often determines whether an authorisation is delivered on time. Entities operating in those areas should treat this year’s APP less as a governance update and more as an early warning of where compliance and enforcement pressure is headed.

How LexEco Can Assist

LexEco advises regulated entities on compliance across the priority areas identified in the Committee’s 2026/27 oversight programme, including:

• conducting compliance audits against Atmospheric Emission Licence, Waste Management Licence and environmental authorisation conditions ahead of anticipated intensified enforcement;
• advising on Climate Change Act compliance, including carbon budgets, greenhouse gas mitigation plans and climate finance documentation;
• tracking Oceans Economy Master Plan and Operation Phakisa developments for clients in the marine, coastal, fisheries and aquaculture sectors;
• supporting clients through multi-sphere authorisation processes involving national, provincial and municipal environmental authorities; and
• structuring and documenting public participation processes capable of withstanding regulatory and judicial scrutiny.

With Parliament signalling a sharper focus on enforcement, climate finance and waste management for the year ahead, entities operating in these areas should treat proactive compliance review as a priority now, rather than a response to a future notice. Contact LexEco to discuss your environmental compliance position ahead of the 2026/27 oversight cycle.