Countries

Forestry policies, institutions and programmes South Africa

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Administration
In parallel with the restructuring of forest holdings, the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) has also been reorganized and refocused to address its national role with regard to State forests as well as forest and woodland resources on communal and private land. It is also focusing more on Community Forestry. It launched an audit of the natural closed forests of the country for use as a basis for the programmed delegation or assignment of the management of these forests to provincial authorities wherever appropriate, on the basis of agreed requirements for sustainable forest management. It is actively pursuing formal arrangements for joint forest management with local communities in cases where joint interest is strong.

The Chief Directorate for Forestry, within the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF), has the objective of promoting the optimum development of commercial and community forests and the efficient management of state forest conservation areas. The directorate works closely with stakeholders in the forestry sector. Its functions are:

• to formulate and implement forestry policy;
• to plan, control and promote conservation and community forestry;
• to manage commercial forestry and contribute to the development of the forestry industry.

Policy
South Africa¿s national forest programme is the National Forestry Action Programme (NFAP). It was developed in 1997, according to the principles of the country¿s forest policy, with substantial coherence to the recommendations of the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests (IPF). The NFAP developed in partnership with other government departments, the forestry industry, forestry industry labour, communities and other stakeholders. It will ultimately form a part of a National Environmental Plan, coordinated by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism.

Following the NFAP, DWAF is presently embarked in the formulation of a national forestry programme. This programme will be launched after the elections in May 2004 by the new Minister in charge of Water and Forestry.

Legislation
South Africa adopted a White Paper, Sustainable forestry development in South Africa, in March 1996. This policy holistically addresses the sustainable development of the country¿s forests, plantations and woodlands. The NFAP is a framework for implementation of the White Paper on Sustainable Forest Management. The National Environmental Management Act provides a framework for procedures of cooperative governance, including Environmental Management Plans and Environmental Implementation Plans to be agreed with line departments, as well as its provisions for environmental management cooperative agreements. The NFAP will provide the basis and the content for such instruments in the forest sector.

Forestry is an area of national legislative competence, although the management of some State forests has been delegated to provincial governments. New forest laws, the National Forests Act and the National Veld and Forest Fire Act, were passed in 1998 after the development of the NFAP. The National Forests Act makes special provision to clarify land tenure and forest rights, including access rights, and creates the instrument of Community Forest Agreements. Principles guiding decision-making state that forests must be developed and managed so as to sustain the potential yield of their economic, social and environmental benefits, and to conserve natural resources, especially soil and water. Special measures are included to protect indigenous forests and trees. Regulations may be made to control the collection, removal, transport, and various other activities relating to parts of or products from protected trees.

Consultation with stakeholders
The National Forestry Advisory Council, established according to the terms of the National Forests Act provides advice directly to the Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry on all matters of forest policy and on the national strategy for sustainable forest development. It includes representatives of the various stakeholders in the forest sector, as well as any other person regarded by the Minister as able to give advice on forestry matters. The Minister has stated that he will be bound by unanimous resolutions taken by it. The council has two permanent committees, the Committee on Sustainable Forest Management and the Committee for Forest Access.

Sustainable forest management
The Committee on Sustainable Forest Management's main task was to oversee the development of criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management of indigenous forests and plantations at the national as well as local (forest management unit) levels, based upon the principles contained in the National Forests Act. This process was finalised in 2003. South Africa participates in the Dry Zone Africa Process for the development of criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management.

The private forestry sector in South Africa has made substantial progress in sustainable forest management over the past several years. In 1995, the industry adopted Guidelines for environmental conservation management in commercial forests in South Africa. These have been progressively deployed in the industry, and their implementation has recently been further formalized through forest certification.

The forests of SAFCOL and the Mondi Paper Company have all been certified according to the requirements of the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC). The majority of plantation forests are now certified through FSC. South Africa has the fourth largest number of FSC-certified forest management units in the world. In addition, the NCT Timber Co-operative has just developed an approach to facilitate certification of its members, who each have relatively small forest holdings. Sappi Forest, owner of 500 000 ha of estates with plantation forests, manages its forests under the ISO 14001 environmental management system.

The certification of forests will be influenced by the work of the Committee for Sustainable Forest Management, which will identify, where necessary, minimum standards of forest management which would be enforceable through regulations in terms of the Forests Act. Such measures would be linked with the licensing of plantation forests as stream flow reduction activities under the National Water Act.

The privatization of about 70 000 ha of plantations will also advance sustainable management of industrial forests. The new operators are required to achieve certification within five years of signing the lease. DWAF is now actively working with other government agencies, such as the national Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, with private-sector forestry and with other parties in streamlining and consolidating the regulatory requirements that govern plantation forestry. The goal is commonly agreed standards to be met through a workable system while the forest sector achieves sustainability as well as international competitiveness. For natural forests on private land, a number of programmes have been developed to inform landowners of the value of these resources and to enlist the support of landowners in their protection. These programmes are:

• the establishment of conservancies, where a complex of private landowners commit themselves to the joint management of adjacent lands;
• biosphere reserves, where a statutorily proclaimed protected area forms a component part of a multiple use zone;
• the South African Natural Heritage Site, where sites are designated as meeting certain criteria and where landowners commit themselves to the conservation management of the sites;
• sites of conservation significance, where features of regional value for nature conservation are designated.

International activities
Through the signing of the Convention to Combat Desertification, South Africa has committed itself to combating deforestation as a priority. South Africa has also been an active participant in the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests (IPF), the Intergovernmental Forum on Forests (IFF) and the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF), and in many of their inter-sessional activities, and has collaborated with other member countries of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) to develop a common position on relevant issues.

Last updated: February 2004