Strategic Developments in Natural Forest Conservation in South Africa

Abstract

South Africa has limited indigenous forest resources. These indigenous forests play a significant role in biodiversity conservation and socioeconomic development, although these values have never been fully accounted for. The general scarcity of natural forest cover defines the long history of forest biodiversity conservation that commenced as a proclamation in 1658. Subsequent proclamations and laws addressed the same issue until it was obvious that natural forests could not be managed sustainably to meet environmental, timber, and fuelwood needs that laws favoring the establishment of plantations were passed. Today, more sophisticated policies and laws which are anchored in South Africa's constitution and the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA) have evolved to conserve the same resources. However, successful implementation of these natural resource conservation laws is weakened by the lack of institutional capacity within the Forestry Function in the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF). Furthermore, lack of capacity limits intersectoral and intergovernmental coordination which is essential for optimizing strategic synergies for natural resource conservation. Opportunities for overturning these constraints on indigenous forest conservation are provided.