Chapter 3: Case study –Tokai
3.7 Resistance to landscape change in Tokai
A media release dated March 2003 presents a contrast to the plans and events as described above. In this media statement (Kasrils 2003), the Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry at the time, Ronnie Kasrils, stated a vision of outcomes that does not accord with the plans released in 2009 (SANParks 2009). The media statement indicates that all parties had committed to a plan to retain the plantation forests in Tokai and to strike a balance between “conservation, timber production, outdoor recreation and cultural landscape values”. According to this Ministerial statement the intention at the time was not to completely remove the plantation forests.
SANParks conducted a public participation process during 2006 to prepare a vision for the Tokai area previously under plantation forest, recognising that the goals of biodiversity conservation, heritage resources, recreation and ecotourism development options must be accommodated within a new management framework for Tokai (SANParks 2009). One objective of the new management framework is to accommodate recreation activities in a
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shaded (i.e. wooded) environment, although greatly reduced, as well as open (i.e. Fynbos) environment. The area available for recreation will remain the same as is currently, but the visitor experience will change as plantation forests are removed and alternative shaded areas, and open (un-shaded) areas, are created. It was felt that the current state of the landscape, with the pine trees included, does not allow SANParks to achieve biodiversity conservation targets.
From a biodiversity perspective “Tokai represents one of the last opportunities to effectively link ecological processes from the mountain to the lowlands but also is one of the few remaining opportunities to rehabilitate a sustainable area of critically endangered Cape Flats Sand Fynbos.” (SANParks 2009; p. 3). At the same time, it was felt that, given the goals of biodiversity restoration, not enough emphasis was placed on providing adequately for heritage aspects and the need for maintaining or enhancing shaded recreation opportunities. SANParks is striving for a compromise between these goals and the intention of the management framework is to reflect this compromise. In the management framework, high-level goals for the four themes (biodiversity, heritage, recreation and eco-tourism) are articulated. With regard to the most cited objection from users about wanting shaded recreation to continue, a major commitment by SANParks is “the continuation and enhancement of current recreational activities without compromising the sustainable rehabilitation of threatened vegetation types”
(p. 12). Three strategies have been proposed for accommodating shaded recreation. Firstly, small pockets of native Afromontane forests will be restored. Secondly, new shade routes will be established that link already shaded areas along existing tree avenues, as continuous shade routes or ‘broken’ or intermittent shade routes along rivers. Thirdly, ‘transition areas’ will be established in lower Tokai along the urban edge where replanting pines, Fynbos restoration and burning will be implemented in turn to create temporary shade whilst conserving and promoting the development of the Fynbos soil seed bank. The nature of recreation in the ‘transition areas is also likely to change. “As plantation compartments are harvested and rehabilitated [back to Fynbos], footpaths and routes will need to be formalized to minimise impacts on restoring Fynbos” (p. 15).
Despite the public participation process facilitated by SANParks and the decision to promote the protection and restoration of indigenous vegetation types and to provide some shaded walkways, resistance to the decision has persisted. In an August 2010 Parliamentary Meeting of the National Assembly, a number of questions were posed to the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries about the landscape change in Tokai. Questions were centred around the processes followed to secure public support for the decision and specifically why stakeholder concerns had not been adequately addressed before as well as after the commencement of permanent tree felling. Formal responses to the questions posed to the Minister were prepared by vegetation specialists involved in the Tokai lowlands Fynbos restoration project and (SANParks pers. comm. 2014) such that any arguments for future landscape options other than removing the plantations permanently were not presented. When asked about the possible reversal of the decision, the response was that legally binding contractual agreements are in place to remove the pine plantations and that it would not be desirable to revisit the decision (South African National Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries 2010). These sentiments were affirmed by Table Mountain National Park (TMNP) management in a letter to the press in April 2011 (SANParks 2011).
Objections to the plan to permanently remove the pine trees came from a number of stakeholders of Tokai forest. Apart from a desire to protect Tokai as a heritage landscape as one of the oldest plantations in the country, the plantations had been enjoyed by recreationists for a hundred years. One of the most often mentioned objections from stakeholders, as judged from press articles on the issue, is that the replacement of plantation trees with Fynbos vegetation would remove shade, thereby limiting shaded recreation in this landscape.
Plate 3.20. An insert into the Cape Times Newspaper of March 2011 indicating resistance to the permanent felling of plantation trees.
Plate 3.21. Remaining pine plantations (on the right) contrasts with the Fynbos heathland (on the left) as different contexts for recreation. (Photo: Ernita van Wyk).
In a formal response to the proposed SANParks framework, a lobby group ‘Shout for Shade’
indicated two major concerns. The first is that they felt that the proposed area under permanent shade is not sufficient to sustain a quality shaded recreation/relaxation experience for visitors. In their report (Hewitson et al. 2012) they make specific recommendations with maps and figures and propose a more extensive parkscape area for permanent shaded recreation in Tokai, but also propose to retain areas for Fynbos restoration. The second concern is around the use of fire in relation to the desirable success of the Fynbos restoration project. Fynbos needs to burn at certain frequencies and intensities in order to regenerate and remain or, in this case, to become viable. Due to risk of damage to people and property, implementing prescribed burns that are ecologically optimal, is not always feasible in an urban setting (Forsyth & Van Wilgen 2008;
Van Wilgen et al. 2012). As a result, some have questioned the feasibility of the Fynbos restoration project in Tokai.
The main events leading up to the recent policy change and associated stakeholder response, are summarised in Table 3.1. The Table Mountain National Park management plan revision is currently under way (2014) and this means that the Tokai Management Framework, which is a lower level, subsidiary ‘site plan’ to the overall TMNP park-level management plan, may be revised, with public input, during 2015 (SANParks staff pers. comm.).
Table 3.1. The main historical events leading up to the transformation of the Tokai landscape from plantation forests to open heathland (Fynbos).
Date Event
1652 Dutch settlers arrived and established at the Cape
1792 Dutch agriculture and settlements expanded and reached Tokai 1883 Pine plantations (Pinus species) established at Tokai
1906 First South African Forestry School established at Tokai
1970s Department of Forestry policy adjusted to promote recreation in State forests 1998 Table Mountain National Park established
1999 Government decision to phase out commercial forestry on the Cape Peninsula 2003 Government (Kasrils) media statement affirming that the Tokai plantation forest
will remain.
2005 Management of Tokai transferred from the Department of Forestry to SANParks 2006 SANParks conducted a public participation process for Tokai
2009 SANParks releases Tokai Management Framework