CHAPTER ONE: GENERAL OVERVIEW
1.8 NOVELTY OF THE RESEARCH
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40 | P a g e 1.8.2 Value of Forestry
It is important to note that forestry in South Africa is a rural-based activity that offers opportunities to many of the poorest of black South African citizens living in the rural areas (Shackleton et al., 2007). The main argument of this study is that these community forests can play an important role in promoting sustainability and livelihoods in the rural areas. Community forests have a significant economic impact on the income of the majority of involved rural households (Forestry SA, 2011). In the light of its contribution as the main raw material supplier (i.e., timber) to processing industries such as sawmills, pulp and paper mills, and furniture joineries, the forestry plantation sector in South Africa is an important element in the forestry value chain (Mudombi, 2020; Ledger, 2017). The demand for timber and timber products has steadily increased over the years in a way that is outrunning the supply.
The forestry sector value chain mainly involves plantations and the primary and secondary processing of timber (Mudombi, 2020; Ledger, 2017; DTI, 2005). However, the sector presents a range of opportunities for forestry enterprises. The inclusive appraisal of its possible contributions should entail a holistic view of its overall impact, including its associated economic value (Slee et al., 2004). Slee et al. (2004) asserts that the forestry contribution can be classified and grouped according to four values:
• Those directly linked to forest activities,
• Shadow values, resulting from linkages to direct activities,
• Non-market values, and
• Social values, mostly linked to cultural practices.
As indicated above by Slee et al. (2004), forests may generate social values or relate to people’s lives in various ways that contribute to social well-being. Forestry provides an important livelihood resource for the rural poor in the country. Most of South Africa’s rural poor also make extensive use of forest products from plantations, indigenous forests, and woodlands for their livelihoods, subsistence, and small-scale trade (Shackleton and Shackleton, 2004). By providing important subsistence products and the prospect of an income, forest resources in the rural areas of South Africa play a significant role in the livelihoods of the population. Rural and poor people depend on
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forest and non-timber product resources such as firewood, building poles, medicinal plants, fodder plants, bushmeat and foodstuffs. Despite their importance, only limited information is available on the actual socio-economic importance of these resources and products, as well as on the ecological impact of their exploitation.
There have been limited attempts to evaluate the contribution of all goods and services derived from forest plantations to rural communities. At the national and even local levels, assessment studies have rarely considered the benefits of all goods and services from forest plantations to the local people. However, numerous studies have shown that forest resources are important for supporting rural livelihoods and commercial farming and ranching activities. These findings have been supported by various studies. Shackleton and Shackleton (2004) and Bailey et al. (1999), for example, mention that woodlands provide a large range of non-timber goods and services, both for household consumption, as well for sale, with a mean direct value across several case studies of approximately R5 584 745 per household per year.
Where individuals come together to manage forest plantation resources in groups, either through their own independent decisions or through the political arrangements that some of them have made for those living in rural areas, there is an accumulation of social capital for group members. Thus, the poor find that beyond their meagre kinship groups, they have patrons within the village, or other new sources of security.
Many such groups devise rules for the elderly or the poor, which in some cases do not apply to all (Shepherd et al., 1999).
Finance generated through communal forestry projects may be of special value if it tides a household over its seasonal or unforeseen shortfalls, provides lump sums which can pay off debts, acts as working capital for some new enterprise, or enables the members to sell crops at more advantageous times of the year (Shepherd et al., 1999). Such forest products may also make up a higher percentage of the annual household income of the poor in a village or community of women or of individuals in a certain age group (Dewees, 1994).
42 | P a g e 1.8.3 Theoretical value of the research
After 27 April 1994, the democratic South African government inherited several challenges, including a ruined economy and widespread poverty and inequality, the result of three centuries of racial discrimination, dispossession, and displacement.
Rural areas were affected particularly badly as they had been either totally neglected during the apartheid era or subjected to discriminatory practices that resulted in spatial distortions, which made traditional smallholder agriculture all but impossible (Waeterloos and Cockburn, 2017; Olivier et al., 2010). There is a clear indication that before 1994, rural development was neglected, resulting in underdevelopment and impoverishment in rural areas. After 1994, policies for rural development were adopted by the democratic government to improve the economic well-being of people living in rural communities. However, thus far, this has had limited success as high levels of poverty and inequalities in rural areas still prevail (Statistics SA, 2017; NDP, 2012).
“Rural areas face several new opportunities and challenges which call for appropriate rural development policies and a more efficient use of scarce financial resources”
(OECD, 2006:2). According to Meyer (2016), rural development is a possible solution for improving socio-economic conditions, as well as the standard of living in rural areas. The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) (2018) and OECD (2016; 2018) support this view by suggesting that problems in rural areas can be addressed through investment and rural policies that promote rural development.
Rural development is regarded as the backbone of development globally (Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, 2011). In South Africa, as indicated by ex-President J.G. Zuma in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) (Zuma, 2013), the government’s key priorities in 2013 included job creation and rural development.
The role that rural development plays in mitigating poverty has not, however, been perfectly defined. However, if well implemented, it can possibly lead to improved access to economic opportunities for those living in rural areas (Madell, 2008).