Abstract:
Sand Forest in the Maputaland region of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa is deemed
the most valuable, but also probably the most complex vegetation type of this part of the
Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany hotspot of biodiversity. However, Sand Forest is under threat
from the current human population growth in that region as well as uncontrolled increases in
animal numbers in conservation areas. In this study the impacts of herbivores and humans
on the state of woody resources at two sites under differing utilisation regimes were
compared. Sand Forest was found to be a complex assemblage of tree communities defined
by different canopy and subcanopy levels. Although marked differences in abundance we
noted for selected species at the different sites, Sand Forest was still dominated by finegrained
species with an ideal population structure under both utilisation regimes. The finegrained
nature of Sand Forest implies that regeneration depends on the creation of small
canopy gaps either by natural processes, humans or elephants, while the creation of large
gaps could transform it into woodland. Management of conservation areas where Sand
Forest occurs should therefore concentrate efforts on regulating animal populations to levels
that provide gap properties that favour forest regeneration.
