Driving forces (or drivers) are "the human influences and activities that, when combined with environmental conditions, underpin environmental change". It is essential to understand the driving forces in Northern Cape so that the human behaviour resulting in negative environmental change can be avoided.

For example, the macro-economic policies in South Africa, that determine the boundaries for sectoral policies, should be amended to ensure human behaviour is influenced in a positive manner. The way in which these policies are implemented will determine how the natural resources of the country are used.

Driving forces of environmental change in Northern Cape originate from both within (local forces) and outside of (international forces) South Africa. The sections that follow discuss the driving forces related to Northern Cape.

International driving forces

A number of complex international trends and processes have an influence on the environment of South Africa. Trade and the global market affect the way in which South Africa conducts business with other countries, and therefore impacts on life within the country. Some of the ways in which international events and trends influence life and environmental decisions in South Africa are listed briefly:

• Processes of trade liberalisation and patterns of global inequality and poverty continue to increase, ultimately affecting social stability;
• Globalisation advances the interests of developed countries to the detriment of developing countries in the areas of trade, finance and technology;
• African region is troubled by small arms, continued national commitment to extensive military expenditure, deepening unemployment, poverty and inequality, and HIV/AIDS ;
• Changing consumer patterns are shown to affect the environmental standards and procedures that companies put in place;
• Development of guidelines, standards and certification measures aimed at introducing sustainable development objectives in the operations of private companies and industries;
• Migration of people into and out of South Africa; and
• Activities of regional development bodies (such as NEPAD and SADC).

The global environmental strategy which resulted from the 'Earth Summit' in Rio (1992), Agenda 21, has been adopted by South Africa and the government is committed to a national strategy for sustainable development. A host of new international conventions and agreements have emerged, and relevant conventions and protocols have been included in the Responses section.

Local driving forces

Local driving forces can occur at national, provincial and/or municipal level. Even individuals can play a role in affecting environmental change in the Province. Some local driving forces in the Province include:

• The agriculture and mining sectors provide the highest financial inputs to the province, while the highest employment is offered by the agriculture, forestry and fishing; community and social services; wholesale and retail trade; and mining and quarrying sectors.
• The Northern Cape showed a decline in formal sector employment of about 20% from 1980 to 1991. This was mainly due to a decline in the mining sector and the vulnerability of agriculture in the area.
• In the Northern Cape, 17.1% of people have no annual household income and 31.2% have an annual household income less than R9600. However, in comparison to the other provinces, households in the Province own a relatively high number of selected goods (televisions, refrigerators).
• The Province generates the fourth highest amount of waste per person, 0.89 m³ /a per capita. The Northern Cape has 90 general waste landfills and 2 hazardous waste landfills.
• While 31% of the Province's population is under the age of 15, 5% is over the age of 65.
• Education levels in Northern Cape are relatively low; about 70% of the population has not finished Secondary school. The percentage unemployment of economically active people is 14.4%. These levels of unemployment may be related to the levels of education in the Province.
• HIV is an epidemic that affects all ages, geographic areas and races. It is likely that the HIV prevalence in the population of Northern Cape is around 8.4%.
• The population decreased from about 840 000 to 822 727 people between 1996 and 2001. This means that Northern Cape has the smallest population of all provinces in the country, and was the only province to show negative population growth.