Community Facilitation in Forestry: quick guide

What we do

The objective of this project is to contribute to the reduction of the incidence of poverty in the Eastern Cape by facilitatating the entry of small-scale growers and entrepreneurs into the forestry sector in the province. Increased ownership and participation in forestry and related sectors by previously disadvantaged individuals - specifically the poor and women - as well as increased local beneficiation of forestry products in the Eastern Cape are part of the project's aims. It endeavours to provide improved information on market opportunities in all parts of the forestry and related sectors value chain. The project is further investigating how the forestry market in the Eastern Cape can operate more effectively, with investors, plantation operators and workers benefiting.
A scoping phase identified the need for a series of strategic interventions to address specific blockages to forestry development - principally unpaid land rentals to community trusts and delays in issuing licences - as well as the need for improved business and technical support and mentorship for the emerging Eastern Cape forestry sector at various points along the forest products value chain. Traditionally, support has been provided primarily by the private sector through outgrower schemes, but this is limited to growers, is narrow in scope and binds growers into exclusive timber sales agreements. There is a need for independent support for forest-based small and micro-enterprises, including sawmillers, contractors and manufacturers (furniture makers, pole treatment, charcoal makers, etc.).
Two case studies have been undertaken in areas with high forestry potential in the Eastern Cape - the Ntabankulu/Mount Ayliff area and Keiskammahoek. Case studies provide the opportunity to work directly with role-players on the ground to find practical solutions to ongoing problems that hamper progress in forestry development.
Community facilitation has begun to explore and demonstrate how forestry development can be facilitated in relation to specific opportunities and constraints on the ground. Depending on the outcome of the specific case studies, the facilitation support will be extended in these case study areas, or initiated in new cases with high potential that face specific challenges.

Why this intervention

This project's ultimate aim is to enable the development of up to 100,000 hectares of commercial plantation by small-scale foresters and community-owned entities. Timber shortages (sawtimber and pulpwood) have been forecast for South Africa and areas of expansion have been identified in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces. Forestry is a sector of focus within the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative - South Africa (Asgisa), and government and other role-players have done much planning work around forestry development. The challenge is to convert the planning into a workable framework to enable forestry development.
Forestry development among smallholders and communities has been most significant in KwaZulu-Natal, where some 19,000 growers have been producing pulpwood/chipping plant products and to a lesser extent wattle bark for tannin extraction.
In general there have been no development funds from government or donors in getting plantation development going in communally owned rural areas, to the extent that all potential small growers are dependent on commercial companies for loan funding and technical support. The companies with the most significant involvement are Sappi in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape and Mondi in the Zululand region. In these instances, the product is specifically pulpwood for the corporate processor plants in KwaZulu-Natal. Hans Merensky Trust, through its capacity at Singisi and Langeni, has also interacted with communities in its forestry development in Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.
Small grower loan funding is traditionally for planting trees and growing them. No resources are made available for fire protection equipment, training and road infrastructure. Costs/risks for small growers are high, given the poor infrastructure and other obstacles. In addition, the availability of this loan funding has reduced dramatically over the past three years as corporates incurred high loan defaults, with a resultant loss of fibre, and they grapple with the appropriateness of the models used for such development.
Given this background and knowing that further growth of the industry is limited to the former Transkei and KwaZulu-Natal communal areas, alternative models are urgently required to implement commercial forestry development and fulfill community/government needs and aspirations.
The creation of a forest industry in the Eastern Cape to benefit small-scale growers and communities on communal land requires an intervention that goes beyond existing models centred on pulp wood development. Past experience shows there are low benefits and high risks to small-scale producers through pulpwood production, given the lack of infrastructure and distances to processing plants outside of the province.
Thus plantation development should take place at a number of levels and across a spectrum of products. Large-scale timber development could be centred on sawtimber production (eucalyptus and pine), complemented by pulpwood/wattle bark production areas, including small-scale outgrower programmes. Within these plantations, agricultural use of grazing, crop production and non-timber forest products require investigation. A model to incorporate these concepts is likely to be sustainable in a rural context.

What we achieve

The project thus far has focused on unblocking a number of key problem areas:

• Support to fast-track disbursement of trust funds accrued from the leasing of state plantations to local communities who are the rightful beneficiaries. Delays in releasing these funds are having a negative impact on community attitudes towards forestry;
• Assistance to establish the forestry development grant scheme proposed by government as a source of independent funding for forestry and forest-based enterprise development.
• Support for current initiatives aimed at making the afforestation authorisation process more efficient. The long delays in obtaining afforestation licences is severely holding up the establishment of new plantations and serves as a disincentive to growers and investors.

Intensive and ongoing liaison with key stakeholders in the Eastern Cape across government/parastatals and communities have taken place, including the Eastern Cape Development Agency (ECDC), Asgisa Eastern Cape, the Eastern Cape Social and Economic Council, the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) and District Municipalities.
Integrated forestry enterprise scenarios for a number of identified zones have been identified, centred on existing or potential processing or market opportunity which detail the available resources, their potential, the ‘ideal' enterprise mix and potential for investment in plantations and local processing.
Work has begun with stakeholders and private investors to ensure that zonal scenarios lead to investments in plantations, processing or related industries. Strong implementation partners were identified in both case study areas, and substantive agreement reached on the nature of co-operation. In both areas the identified partners are playing an ongoing role in supporting forestry development and have a strong interest in the test cases and other support measures being proposed by Teba. In the Keiskammahoek area the project partners with the Border Rural Committee and in Mount Ayliff with the Community Development unit of Singisi Forest Products.
Category A and Category B test case plantations were identified in both case study areas, in consultation with our implementation partners. One Category A and one Category B plantation was identified for each area, as well as alternatives should the first choice not be feasible. All of the test case plantations were selected on the basis of having clear links to a particular community, their commercial viability, level of institutional development and support. Key steps, roles and responsibilities were agreed to with the partner agencies for each of the test cases. The resulting action plan will be the basis for further consultation, including with DLA and DWAF.

How is this sustainable

The nature of this development is unique - no one agency or company has a model that can deal with the potential forestry growth opportunities in the Eastern Cape. While the private sector has a vested interest in specific commodities in certain areas, communities require economic upliftment. Although government has made certain undertakings to promote forestry development in the Eastern Cape and DWAF has tried to bring these sectors together and develop a plan for the Eastern Cape, this has not progressed into a roll-out model as yet. Communities are not sensitive to or able to fully grasp the impact that forestry would have on their lives and therefore need to be informed so as to enable decision-making.
TEBA has initiated a participative process to develop a viable and sustainable model, with participation by lead government agencies, industry role-players (growers and processors) and representative bodies of small-scale growers and millers such as the Amahlati Emerging Entrepreneurs Forum, to facilitatate the entry of small-scale growers and entrepreneurs into the forestry sector in the province.

Who we work with

TEBA Development

The purpose of TEBA Development is to play a leading role in a collective endeavour to improve living conditions and livelihoods of communities that have provided labour to the mining industry for decades.