December 2016:
Professor Richard Fuggle is a South African. His schooling and undergraduate training took place in Kwazulu-Natal. He undertook graduate studies at Louisiana State University, USA, and obtained his PhD from McGill University, Canada, in 1971 for a thesis dealing with the warming and cooling of an urban atmosphere.
Professor Fuggle held the Shell Chair of Environmental Studies at the University of Cape Town from 1973 until his retirement in 2006. During this time he introduced the theory and practise of Environmental Impact Assessment to South Africa through his teaching at University of Cape Town and chairing the committee of the erstwhile Council for the Environment that formalised EIA in South Africa. With colleagues from the University he undertook some of the earliest EIAs in the country. At the University of Cape Town Professor Fuggle ran courses in environmental and professional ethics for both short-courses and Honours and Masters Programmes. He authored, inter alia, the chapters on Environmental Impact Assessment and Ethics in the books he produced with Andre Rabie in 1983 and 1992. He was responsible for developing the International Association for Impact Assessment’s Code of Ethics and is the author of the IAIA FasTip on Ethics.
Professor Fuggle has wide international experience, having been involved with the World Bank’s Inspection Panel in environmental reviews in Albania, Argentina, China, Colombia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria, Uganda, and Paraguay. He was also Environmental Advisor to the Caspian Development Panel and reviewed and inspected the environmental and social impact components of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline in Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey. He has also served on international advisory panels for projects in Israel, Jordan, Palestine, Tanzania, and Tajikistan.
In South Africa Professor Fuggle chaired the committee of the Council for the Environment that pioneered Integrated Environmental Management in South Africa and was responsible for the team that produced the first set of guideline documents for South African environmental assessments. He served on several South African Commissions of Enquiry into controversial projects with environmental impact, inter alia: The development of Saldanha Bay; the Overberg Weapons Test Range; the South Coast Off-shore Oil and gas Development; the Table Mountain Cableway Upgrade; the Cape Point Redevelopment; and for the aborted establishment of an SABC Complex on Devils Peak.
Professor Fuggle is a Member of the Academy of Science of South Africa, is a Registered Natural Scientist, and a Certified Environmental Impact Assessment Practitioner. He is a past President of the International Association for Impact Assessment. He has received both national and international awards for his contributions to the advancement of Environmental Assessment.
Professor Fuggle is a practising Christian worshipping at Christ the King, Anglican Church in Claremont, Cape Town. He is a lay minister licenced to preach and to assist in the administration of Holy Communion.