Non-government organisations in francophone Africa are protesting against the revised Bangui Agreement, a new law to be administered by the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI). It is scheduled to come into force on 28 February 2002. This agreement, signed by OAPI’s 15 member states in February 1999, introduces -- for the first time ever -- a regime of intellectual property rights on seeds in francophone Africa. The Bangui Agreement was revised without any consultation with or participation of farmers, even though they will be seriously affected by the new law. The agreement restricts the rights of farmers to save seeds from their harvests and imposes a system of royalty payments on commercial planting material.

Conservation Legislation in South Africa is comprehensive and decrees that many activities require Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) and Integrated Environmental Management controls. Mountains are not seen as a separate category of land over which specific legislation would apply. Recently new unrelated legislation has created legislative loopholes that allow the indiscriminate construction of roads into the Cape's important mountain catchments for the use of recreational vehicles for tourism.