Let agroforestry mitigate climate change and poverty alleviation

Human presence in nature cannot only be ascribed to the physical experience of the forest environment and its biota through walks, hiking, biking, hunting, retreats, to ruminate in the kingdom of ancestral spirits and to partake other devotional rituals. Forest and other bushveld don't only have these social benefits, but economic, food security and water management programs could immensely benefit the broader society.




The National Development Plan (NDP) offers a long-term perspective, defines a desired destination and identifies the role different sectors of society need to play in reaching that goal according to the then Minister in the Presidency, Jeff Radebe. It has the ambitious aim to eliminate poverty and reduce inequality by 2030.




As a conscious project leader I see it as my duty to identify project specific opportunities to achieve these noble aims, but being conscious requires me to sensitize others about determining priorities when identifying such projects cognizant of the social and economic environment we live in.




A conscious project leader will never present a business case for the development of a new road in a community whilst that very same community does not have access to proper sanitation and tap water. The development of the new road will be at the expense of meeting peoples’ basic needs.




With the infrastructure development being the buzz term in addressing socio-economic challenges in our country we should extend this from primarily focusing on the built environment to the natural environment. Green buildings and green cities may be attractive, but the development of our natural resources to derive social and economic benefits can go a long way in addressing poverty and household food insecurity challenges in our country.




Development of our natural resources for local economic stimulation and job creation, without degrading and depleting our resources, should be considered more intensely. 




In the forestry sector, in advancing the objectives of the National Development Plan (NDP), Forestry South Africa in its presentation, “The Footprint of Forestry in the National Development Plan,” only calls for further education training and extension services for small scale timber growers. Meanwhile the governments Agricultural Policy Action Plan, that was developed precisely to attend to the implementation of the NDP, mainly focuses on large scale commercial timber production and small-scale timber growers without consideration to developing the agro-forestry sector to achieve the objectives of the NDP.




The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations has reported that South Africa has wide-ranging and treasured forest resources. Our forests are prized for their biological diversity, medicinal and local uses and for their aesthetic and spiritual beliefs.




Human presence in nature cannot only be ascribed to the physical experience of the forest environment and its biota through walks, hiking, biking, hunting, retreats, to ruminate in the kingdom of ancestral spirits and to partake other devotional rituals. Forest and other bushveld not only has these social benefits, but economic, food security and water management programmes could immensely benefit the broader society.




These forests provide a diverse set of habitats for plants, animals and micro-organisms and the ecosystems within which they live. Our forest are the most important repositories of terrestrial biological diversity.




These plantations also support a multi-billion-rand industry, employing over one-hundred thousand people, which is managed for sustainable production.


Our country is faced with a growing population, with little new land available for agriculture, ageing farmers, urban migration, and lack of interest by our youth in agriculture and depleting natural resources.




These all impact on food production and food security in our country. Food security is not just about access to food, but also depends on a supply of nutritious food. Although South Africa is food secure, we cannot celebrate household food security because of poverty and in most instances abject poverty in our country.




Our agricultural systems need to be transformed, environmental degradation reversed, policies and governance improved, and better access to markets established for small-scale agro-processing and agro-forestry entrepreneurs.




A new innovative way of integrating the forest and bushveld with agriculture, crops and livestock, that would significantly improve livelihoods, food security and environmental stability, needs to be employed.




Agro-forestry, as this new innovation, offers a progressive way to achieve major gains in poverty reduction and food production.




Agro-forestry is an integrated approach to farming by using the benefits of linking trees and shrub production with crops and livestock. It combines forestry and agricultural technology to create more productive and sustainable land-usage systems.




Agro-forestry is often considered a cost-effective strategy for climate change mitigation. Tree-based farming systems may store carbon in soils and woody biomass, and they may also reduce greenhouse gas emissions from soils. The significant carbon sequestration potential of agro-forestry stems not so much from a high carbon mass, but from the large areas that are potentially suitable for agro-forestry.
South Africa possesses that potential.


Agro-forestry is a practice that respects the environment and has obvious landscape benefits.
Carbon sequestration projects in forestry and agro-forestry, to mitigate global warming and provide economic opportunities for poverty stricken communities living adjacent to the forest, must be implemented.




The need to increase community participation in the forest and bushveld economy is of utmost importance. These communities must also be granted sole rights to collect firewood, to produce and collect no-wood products like herbs, flora, medicinal plants, bark and fibres.




Resin tapping from trees is labour intensive and simple equipment is needed and it does not affect saw timber production in any way. In fact, tree resin including gum and latex fluid extraction plays a particularly important role in trees by rapidly sealing over wounds used as introductory pathways by invading insects and fungal disease agents.

38 species of Corkwood trees are found naturally in Southern Africa and some of these Commiphora species in South Africa have edible fruit. These trees are known for their historical and biblical association as providers of the earliest healing balms and fragrances and may add value to the flourishing commercialization of natural health products in our country.

Pine is another tree species from which resin is extracted. Distillation of pine trees yields two main products mainly turpentine and rosin. The active promotion of resin collection of trees not only contributes to job creation but increases our manufacturing capacity and these products can be supplied cheaper to the built and construction industry than imported products.




Honey, herbs, nuts, seeds, fresh and dried fruit production is also some of the many alternatives to income generation from agro-forestry.




It is however important to emphasize that insecure land tenure rights on forestry land by local communities hampers our people from deriving economic opportunities in forest. Resin rights cooperatives or groups of resin tappers are able to secure quasi property rights.




Most likely efforts to avoid and mitigate the risk of deforestation and the starting and spreading of wild forest fires would be more successful if local communities share in the economic benefits in our forest and bushveld.




Let us consciously consider utilizing the forest to meet the objectives of the NDP and create opportunities for agro-forestry inclusive of developing, at the point of extraction, local agro-forestry processing plants.