The four environmental narratives identified in South Africa are: 1) The conservative view, 2) The economic view, 3) The non-state actor view and 4) The local community views.

For the first view, the objective is ensuring the protection of an environmental land for the sake of communities and the motive is that the environment needs saving from people. For the second view, the objective is that people ought to realize the money they can make from exploiting the environment and the motive is that nature exists for the financial betterment of people. The third narrative's objective is to protect and respect the value of the environment whilst its motive is to go against the government in their decision making. The last narrative believes that people's relationship with the environment is guided by the politics of those in power.

In answering if whether or not these narratives contribute to the understanding of the South African environment - the answer is yes. In us understanding these narratives, we can also now make sense of why the government, even in democracy, still struggles to see why it is important to include citizens when making decisions about their direct environment: it has been like this since apartheid. We can also understand why people in underdeveloped areas are so stubborn and apprehensive with allowing companies to come and build businesses on their land: it would be easy to rob them as many are aware that they lack education and skills. Lastly, we can also understand why in some cases, the help from international investors is rejected.

The two discourses of the environment are sustainable development and environmental & social justice. In sustainable development, the aim is to ensure that development does not harm the environment and that it is not unjust to the local people. The second discourse aims to create a fair system of distributing and receiving good quality resources that will only occur after social problems are dealt with.

The Sustainable Development discourse links to the South African policies in that the government utilizes its policy mechanisms to get to attain their Sustainable Development goals.