Page 18 - State of Biodiversity Report 2022/2023

4.2.1.1 Subdivision of land: below illustrates property 1 (within red demarcation),
The term subdivision means the process of dividing the existing piece of land into two or more portions. The map
which will be subdivided to create property 2 and 3 (white demarcations)
AB
Figure 4. The maps illustrates the product of a subdivision where property (A) was subdivided to create two separate properties in (B)
4.2.1.2 Rezoning of properties:
The Biodiversity Management Department is responsible for environmental protection in eThekwini Municipality. The department also undertakes statutory planning applications in terms of the Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act (SPLUMA, Act No.16 of 2013). The statutory planning applications are prepared in terms of eThekwini Municipality Planning and Land Use Management Second Amendment By-Law (Notice 95 of 2021), for the better management and protection of land found within the Durban Metropolitan Open Space System and ecosystem services.
Statutory planning applications include the subdivision of land, consolidation, and rezoning applications. The Biodiversity Management Department introduced environmental zones into the eThekwini Land Use Management scheme in 2015. The zones that were introduced include the Conservation
16 STATE OF BIODIVERSITY REPORT 2022/2023
Zone, which is applicable to private property, and the Environmental Conservation Reserve, which applies to public owned property. Upon the successful acquisition of land, and subject to the land use zone of the property, BMD undertakes a rezoning application from the non-environmental zone to Environmental Conservation Reserve. Rezoning refers to
the process of assigning property to a different category of development restrictions and land use. In addition, a Nature Reserve zone was introduced into all eThekwini Land
Use Schemes in 2019, which is only applicable to nature reserves that are proclaimed in accordance with the National Environmental Management: Protected Area Act (NEM: PAA, Act 57 of 2003) and where a Conservation Management Plan has been adopted. Some of the acquired properties undergo the proclamation process with an intention of giving them a nature reserve status, which is the highest level of protection in terms of NEMPAA.