Acid mine drainage from coal and gold mining areas has had devastating impacts on water resources, with acidification of rivers and streams and elevated metal levels making the water unfit for human or animal consumption. Many of our catchments are already heavily polluted by mining and an estimated R30 billion is required to clean South Africa's nearly 6000 abandoned mines. Only 8% of all coal deposits in South Africa occur in Water Source Areas. Coal is plentiful in South Africa while water is scarce, so coal mining should be kept out of these areas to ensure they continue to provide clean water to the people living downstream.

Unsustainable land use practices pose a major threat to ecosystems and the livelihood of local communities. It damages flood plains, river banks and wetlands, reducing the regulating capacity of catchments and increasing erosion and sediment loads. This raises the risk of flooding.

Forestry plantations are grown to provide wood for construction and raw materials for the paper and pulp industry, creating a large number of jobs in these value chains that contributes significantly to South Africa's economy.

However, plantations are made up of exotic tree species (pine, eucalyptus and wattle) that generally use more water than the surrounding natural vegetation, and have the potential to spread invasively. Therefore if not managed responsibly, plantations can have a number of environmental impacts, such as reducing steam flow, and potentially spreading invasively outside of the plantation areas.

80% of the plantations in South Africa's are certified by the FSC or PEFC international forestry standards, which significantly reduces this risk in many areas of the country.