Possibilities for the conservation of the built-up environment in current south african statutory law

A wide variety of statutory remedies designed specifically for the conservation of the natural environment are available in current South African law, and the application and effect of these measures have been discussed in a growing corpus of literature on the topic. This article, however, will focus on the possibilities offered by current South African statutory law for the conservation of the built-up environment, including townscapes, parts of or areas and districts in towns and cities, streets, groups or ensembles of buildings, individual buildings, open spaces and all the constituent elements of the man-made environment. The relevant statutory measures are not always designed or used to promote the conservation of the built-up environment, but all of them have some potential value for that purpose, and it is in that context that they are discussed in this article.