CHAPTER THREE: FORESTRY AND SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
3.3 GEOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF FOREST DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA
3.3.3 Historical Development of Forest Plantations
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the Eastern Cape, follows the distributions for the above-mentioned provinces (Figure 3.7). All of the woodlands are eutrophic in the Northern Cape, while the other two provinces accommodate both types. The Western Cape and Free State provinces have few woodland areas, with only approximately two percent (2%) and six percent (6%) of these provinces, respectively, covered by woodland vegetation (These are eutrophic woodlands).
In most rural areas, woodland resources play a significant role in the livelihood of the population in that they provide key subsistence products and incomes. Rural and poor people depend on woodland resources such as medicinal plants, fodder plants, bushmeat and foodstuffs, etc (Shackleton et al. (1998). There have been numerous studies to evaluate the contribution of all goods and services derived from woodlands.
These studies have shown that woodlands are important sources for resources that support rural livelihoods and commercial farming and ranching activities. These findings have been supported by various studies, including Bailey et al. (1999) and Shackleton et al. (1998), where it is noted that woodlands provide a large range of non-timber goods and services, both for household consumption, as well as for sale, with a mean direct value across a number of case studies of approximately R5 584
±745 per household per year.
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tree species to meet the timber needs of a rapidly developing economy. A severe shortage of timber products was experienced during World War I (Olivier, 2009; Hinze, 2004), and at that time, virtually all timber was imported (The Wood Foundation, 2010).
This led the Government to embark on an accelerated drive to increase the country’s timber resources for “strategic” reasons. Thus, the Government was again the driver behind the expansion of the planted area during the depression years of the 1930s through its extensive public works programmes (The Wood Foundation, 2010).
Figure 3.7: Geographical distribution of woodland in South Africa Source: DAFF (2012)
According to Bethlem and Dlomo (2004), forestry development in South Africa arose out of colonial development strategies. The increasing demands for timber, primarily by mining operations and urbanisation, resulted in the establishment of exotic Pinus and Eucalyptus plantations to supplement the limited local wood supply. The first exotic timber plantation was established at Worcester in 1876. It produced wood for fuelling the early steam locomotives (Hinze, 2004; Steyn, 1982). Planting then proceeded on a small scale when sample plots were established to the east and north.
Eventually, about 1 000 species were counted. The outputs from these plots proved
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to benefit later afforestation programmes. The three main genera, used in the early commercial plantings were the Pinus spp., Eucalyptus spp. and the Acacia species.
Acacia mearnsii was cultivated in the Cape for poles and fuel and for building stables for stock (Olivier, 2009). It was from the 1880s onwards that several newly planted wattle plantations were noted in KwaZulu-Natal province, with the bark from these plantations eventually being sold to local tanneries. In 1886, the first consignment of tanning material was sent to London and subsequent to that, there was a rapid growth in the industry. By 1917, there were in the region of 65 000 ha of Acacia mearnsii in South Africa (Poynton, 1990).
The Union Forestry Department was founded in 1910 (Steyn, 1961). At this stage, the Department of Forestry had already established 13 500 ha of plantations and the railway sector, 5 000 ha. The timber from these plantations was used for the building of coaches and wagons and was also sold to the mines (Pirie, 1982). The advent and progress of the First World War saw the importation of timber supplies from South Africa halted - a serious blow to the economic life of the country. With the rise in timber prices because of the scarcity of the product, the Government showed much interest in making South Africa self-sufficient in terms of her timber resources (Anon, 1973).
Thus, the Government built the first sawmill in 1915 at Fort Cunnynghame, Stutterheim, Eastern Cape province, which was dedicated to sawn pine timber (Steyn, 1982). At this stage, because the private sector had shown little interest in such long- term investments, the Government took the lead in sawn timber production from its exotic pine plantations. New incentives for afforestation rose to the fore during the depression years of the late 1920s and early 1930s as unemployed families were accommodated in “forestry settlements”, where they worked as tree planters. A problem that arose at this stage was that when timber became available from the thinning6 of the early pine plantations, there were very few sawmills to process it.
Furthermore, the private sector was again not interested in investing large amounts of money in wood processing plants (The Wood Foundation, 2010).
6 i.e., the selective removal of trees, primarily to improve the growth rate of the remaining trees
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South Africa was extremely successful in the establishment of exotic plantations. Dr Ian Craib, who in 1939, published his well-known book entitled: ‘Thinning, pruning and management studies on the main exotic conifers grown in South Africa’, made one of the most important contributions. Many of the South African principles were also implemented in other southern hemisphere countries, such as New Zealand, Australia, and various countries in South America (Olivier, 2009; Hinze, 2004).
Initially, in South Africa, private investors in the forestry industry concentrated on short rotation products (e.g., wattle bark and poles). By the 1960s, the private sector (e.g., Mondi and SAPPI) had started to compete and about 900 000 ha of commercial plantation had been established in South Africa (Hinze, 2004). The period after the 1960s saw the maturation of the forestry industry in South Africa, with the private sector making strides in longer-term sawn timber and processing-plant initiatives. At this stage too, the mining timber sector reached a peak, which impacted negatively on the wattle bark industry.
By 1970, 471 000 ha had been planted to Pinus spp., 289 000 ha to Eucalyptus spp.
and 191 000 ha to Acacia mearnsii (Black Wattle), with other commercial species covering an area of 7 000 ha. The total afforested area now amounted to an area of 958 000 ha. By 1976, this was doubled to about 1 140 000 ha, the estimated value being R1 231 million. Thus, afforestation, although slow to start at the beginning of the 1900s, had by the 1970s pinnacled through massive expansion in the forestry sector to ultimately lead to alarming concern about the effects of afforestation on the water resources and the environment (Mkwalo, 2011; Olivier, 2009; Hinze, 2004; Anon, 1973).
South Africa currently has the highest global proportion of its plantations environmentally certified, with 82% of planted forests certified by international certification bodies. In 2014, approximately 1.3 million ha of plantations in South Africa (over 80%) were situated in Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Eastern Cape (DAFF, 2015; Forestry SA, 2014).
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3.3.4 Current Status of Forestry Plantations in South Africa