According to Stewart and Zaaiman Ch21 (p. 514 – 521). In South Africa the are four development narrative found between the relationship of society and the  environment, namely the conservation view, the local economic view, the non-state actors view and local community views. 

Each narrative has it on motives

The conservation view, people are denied a chance to participate in decision making as they are excluded and their rights to land and other natural resources on that land is removed.

The motivation, it approach justified by creating alarm and panic about the state of the environment, making people to believe that they have to move. sees environment as victim that has to be saved from the society.

The economic view, the environment is viewed as commodity for selling and buying, benefiting only the privileged groups.

The motivation behind this approach is capitalism, that the natural resources have to be sold to lift people  out of poverty.

The non-state actor view the views come from external interested parties outside of the local community and sometimes it may exclude the local community representation.

The motivation behind this approach are the beliefs that the inherent value of the environment that should be protected and respected,​ supervised by communities and government, the strong belief that environmental resources are finite and people should not use nature to serve their own needs and it also challenge the state power & decision making in promoting unrestrained economic growth.​

The local community view, the views vary and they are extremely differentiated, as they are informed by time, place, individual characteristics and circumstances as well as local power & politics.

The motivation being the nature of the relationship with the environment as shaped by the socio-political context and policies and practices being place to challenge the communities relationship with the environment.

All the narratives contribute to an understanding of the SA environment, they help us know what are the causes of environmental change and the rich are able to take some rural land using the approaches taking land with resources so that they can benefit themselves and boost the economy.

The are two main environmental discourses in SA, the Sustainable development and Environmental and social justice.

The Sustainable development, include all the developed and developing countries and the different groups for country to succeed or develop. The resources are used to pursue development without harming the environment and Profit from the environment but do justice to communities.

Environmental and social justice, environmental resources are used to overcome social problems and environmental justice in the distribution of waste is managed.

The sustainable development discourses link to the SA policies by using the Natural Capital account and valuation of Ecosystem Services will benefit from measurement and tracking resources. It helps to link national economic and demographic data, to show how and where people most​ depend on, and impact the nature​ so that the things to be fixed or improved are known.