CHAPTER THREE: FORESTRY AND SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
3.3 GEOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF FOREST DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA
3.3.1 Natural or Indigenous Forests in South Africa
In South Africa, only 1.27 million ha or approximately one percent (1%) of the country’s total land area is covered by forest plantations, while the exact extent of woodlands,
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that play an important role in terms of community livelihoods in rural areas, is not clear (Table 3.2). There is immense pressure on woodlands and indigenous forests to provide communities with a safety net in terms of food, fuel, shelter, medicine, etc. The expansion of forest plantations is hampered by the availability of water and suitable land.
Table 3.2: Types of forests in South Africa
Forest Type Area % of Land Cover
Indigenous forests 500 000 ha 0.5%
Woodlands 39 million ha 40%
Plantation forests 1.2 million ha 1.1%
Source: DWAF (2009); Mucina and Rutherford (2006)
South Africa does not have any extensive tracts of indigenous forestland. So, when the first European settlers arrived in the country, in an effort to meet their increasing demand for timber products, the limited indigenous forest resources that were available were rapidly exploited (The Wood Foundation, 2010). Natural indigenous forests constitute a small resource sector in South Africa, mainly occurring in the moister parts of the country (Figure 3.5). They are often relicts from a larger forest coverage that retreated at the end of the previous Ice Age. Thus, they are susceptible to degradation through excessive use and clearance projects. Fifty-four percent (54%) of forests in South Africa occur on state land, 23.4% on private land, and 22.6% on communal land. It is only in recent years that the state has considered these forests as community assets rather than as a resource to be protected by the people.
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Figure 3.5: Geographical distribution of natural forests in South Africa Source: CSIR (2006)
Most definitions of forests suggest a 75% canopy cover, with a common definition, considered to be a continuous stand of trees that are at least 10 m tall, with their crowns interlocking (Geldenhuys, 2005). Using this as a guideline, South Africa's indigenous forests cover approximately 500 000ha of the country, with their ownership split more or less equally between the state and private holdings. Indigenous forests are restricted to high rainfall areas where the forests grow in areas protected against fire and other forms of disturbance. As based on the findings of Gibbs-Russell (1987) and Geldenhuys (1992), they do in fact support the highest biodiversity per unit area of any biome in South Africa (0.418 species per ha of the biome as opposed to an average of 0.098 species per ha in respect of the fynbos biome, which covers a much larger area). Forests in South Africa also represent the most diverse of the warm temperate forest areas of the world, and the most vulnerable, smallest, and most fragmented biome.
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Indigenous forests are valued in South Africa for many different reasons. The limited supply of timber from indigenous forests has led to the establishment of the commercial forestry sector in South Africa. There are increasing demands for forest resources, particularly in the exploitation by poor rural people of the resource for subsistence purposes, and also in the illegal commercial trade with urban areas. For example, timber is still harvested from indigenous forests, but this is strictly controlled.
Other benefits presented by forests, both direct and indirect, include their role in tourism and the various edible and non-edible products that they offer, such as traditional medicines, honey, mushrooms, ferns, etc., as illustrated in Figure 3.6 (Bailey et al., 1999). There are several poverty alleviation strategies that promote the sustainable harvesting of these products as important contributors to rural livelihoods.
The National Forests Act of 1998 is the main legislation governing and controlling indigenous forests.
Figure 3.6: Use of indigenous tree species in South Africa Source: Bailey et al. (1999)
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The term, ‘woodland’, is generally synonymous with the term savanna. According to Balance et al. (1998), savanna refers to a suite of neotropical vegetation types in which fire-adapted, co-dominant herbaceous and tree strata experience markedly seasonal growth patterns in relation to the seasonal delivery of precipitation. The term,
‘savanna’, embraces a range of wooded areas, ranging country from the tall, broad- leafed miombo woodland of Zimbabwe and northern Mozambique to the arid thornveld of the Kalahari (Sinclair and Hockey, 1996).
Woodlands are one of the world’s major terrestrial ecosystems, constituting between 10 and 15% of the world’s land surface area, and are home to over 30% of the world’s population (Shackleton et al., 1999). Woodlands are differentiated from natural forests on the basis of the degree of coverage of the canopy. The term ‘woodland’ is used when the trees form a closed canopy, while ‘parkland’ is used when the trees are scattered. According to the National Forestry Act (Act 84 of 1998; DAFF, 1998: 14), woodland is taken to mean a group of indigenous trees which are not natural forest, but whose crown covers more than five percent (5%) of the area bounded by the trees, thus forming the perimeter of the group”. Shackleton (2000) claims that this is different from a natural forest, which is defined as a group of indigenous trees, whose crowns are largely contiguous, or which have been declared by the Minister under Section 7(2) of the National Forestry Act (Act 84 of 1998), to be a natural forest.
The National Forestry Act (Act 84 of 1998) further explains that the definition of woodlands includes areas currently deemed to be fynbos, thicket, and other woodlands, but excludes other areas of woodland with either a sparse (≥ 5%) or a dense canopy cover (≥ 75%). Although they may include some localised areas of self- seeded exotic species, woodlands generally exclude planted forests and woodlots (Balance et al., 1998).
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Unlike forest and grassland, there is no climate or soil that typifies woodland regions, although much of the woodland areas occur within regions characterised by rain-green tropical forests or thorn forests. The great expanse of woodlands that cover the surface of the earth is now believed to have been caused by the activities of people and domestic animals. Humans seem to prefer the interspersion of vegetation and create such conditions wherever they go. Fire and grazing have been techniques used to open up the forest and allow the grassland to enter. Grazing, irrigation, and planting are techniques for spreading woody vegetation into otherwise grassy areas (Dasmann, 1984).
In terms of the classification of woodlands in South Africa, approximately 50% of the African continent, 65% of southern Africa, and 30% of South Africa can be classified as woodlands (Shackleton et al., 1999). There are two main types of woodland in South Africa, namely, the eutrophic and dystrophic woodlands. Most of South Africa’s woodlands are eutrophic (± 82%), while the remainder are dystrophic. According to Low and Rebelo (1996), woodlands are the most widely distributed vegetational type in South Africa, covering about one third of South Africa. They are home to approximately 9.2 million rural inhabitants (National Forests Act, 84 of 1998).
According to the FAO (1999) ecozones classification, cited in Global Forestry Resource Assessment (GFRA) 2000 (FAO, 2000), the woodlands in South Africa fall under the tropical high and montane dry ecozone regions. Approximately nine percent (9%) of the South African woodland biome falls within the state conservation areas, with a more-or-less equal area under private ownership (9% eutrophic woodlands; 6%
dystrophic woodlands). The eutrophic woodlands are more common than the dystrophic woodlands and constitute about 83% of the woodland area (Bailey et al., 1999).
Geographically, in South Africa, most woodland occurs in the northern regions of the country (e.g., about 67% of woodland occurs in the Limpopo, Northwest and Northern Cape Provinces). The eastern region, including provinces such as KwaZulu-Natal and
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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.