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Forestry Component

The forestry sector is the second largest land user after agriculture in the grasslands biome. The total area under timber plantations is approximately 1.27 million hectares. Government and large business owns about 76% of the plantations, medium growers about 20% and the remaining 4% are small-scale community based timber growers. All timber growers are members of the Forestry South Africa (FSA), a well organised industry body with 2500 members.

In association with the plantations are approximately 600 000 hectares of unplanted land, most of which is managed as natural habitat. This land contributes substantially to the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services.

The forestry sector in South Africa has a long history of proactive engagement with environmental programmes and 80% of forestry land is certified under the Forest Stewardship Council the world’s leading forest certification system. Forestry properties intersect with a number of the grassland biome’s biodiversity priority areas and many of the plantation owners are engaging with the provincial biodiversity stewardship programmes to have these areas formally secured under the National Environmental Management Protected Areas Act.

Plantation established in South Africa is heavily regulated through the water-use licensing system and the EIA process. As a result, for water conservation and biodiversity reasons, the area under plantations has decreased over the past 8 years. But, forestry makes an important contribution to the national economy, and is seen by government as an important development sector, with an emphasis being placed on small grower expansion in the Eastern Cape and southern KwaZulu-Natal.

The Grassland Programme’s interventions in the forestry sector, in partnership with FSA, include:

  • The formal conservation tenure of unplanted, high priority forestry landholdings is secured - Forestry lands contain some of the best examples of the grassland vegetation types that occur in the moist grasslands of South Africa. 37 sites comprising 45 000 ha of natural habitat on forestry land have been prioritised for conservation.

 

  • The expansion of small grower plantation forestry is underpinned by biodiversity considerations, and capacity building to meet industry-led certification standards is undertaken - A partnership between ASGISA Eastern Cape, Forestry South Africa and the Grasslands Programme was established to benefit emerging timber growers in the Eastern Cape and to ensure responsible and biodiversity compatible forestry takes place. Through this partnership, a biodiversity screening tool was produced to provide maps indicating areas of potential ecological importance. This information is being used by those involved in forestry development, including the regulatory authorities to ensure these areas are protected from the impacts of afforestation. In KZN, the Grasslands Programme is also in partnership with 3 community projects which have the goal of sustainable and responsible plantation forestry and stewardship of their grasslands.

 

  • The management of the forestry estate is improved to more effectively mitigate biodiversity impacts and contribute to meeting grasslands conservation targets - A GIS based planning tool has been developed to help plantation managers identify areas of greatest conservation value. The Programme also works closely with the FSC National Standard development process in order to make forest certification, which is important to improved management, relevant to the management of all elements of the grassland biome and more pertinent to small and medium-scale forestry.