Assessing the drivers of land abandonment in afforested land reform projects in the Gert Sibande-District in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa

Abstract

The segregation of black Africans to access and participate in forestry was purely a development plan imposed by the apartheid government. Initially, this started as a conservation route, where special indigenous trees were marked as a no-go zone, and this was solely to feed international markets. As the demand increased, it was necessary to introduce the exotic tree species, and this is where forceful removals of indigenous people from their ancestral land began. To reverse the effects of the land dispossession and/or removals, the democratic government prioritised the restitution, redistribution, and tenure of land to the landless. A collapse of transferred land due to under utilisation by new beneficiaries has been reported widely. This study assessed the drivers of land abandonment in afforested land reform projects in Gert Sibande District in Mpumalanga Province in South Africa, in order to formulate mitigation measures or damage control measures on how to revive these farms and assist them to function again. The study further intended to investigate the effects of not functioning forestry farms in the lives of beneficiaries, on the aspect of economic, environment and social. This study was conducted in two communities that were purposively selected considering their land abandonment status. Data were collected using the semi-structured questionnaire to randomly selected heads of households. Additionally, the focus group discussions were conducted to gather in-depth information regarding the status of forestry in their locality. Descriptive and inferential statistical analysis tests were performed to process the primary data using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) software. The results showed a statistically significant relationship (p ≥ 0.001) between the respondent’s responses regarding the drivers contributing to land abandonment. The study showed that lack of benefit sharing; elitism; lack of transparency; infighting; lack of funding; lack of expertise (technical skills); lack of evaluation and monitoring and lack of mentorship were all contributing factors to land abandonment in restored forestry land. The results indicated that over 98% in both Jabulani and Thuthukani communities have neither benefited from business opportunities nor development skills. Over 98,7% of the community in Thuthukani never benefited from employment compared to 45.7% in Jabulani. The study results show that sufficiency in forest products (firewood, building material, grazing areas, commercial timber, water sources, medicinal plants, crafting materials, food sources) were highly impacted or affected (78.7%) in Thuthukani community compared to 48.6% in Jabulani. Additionally, 76% and 60% of the communities respectively, at Thuthukani and Jabulani indicated that ecosystem services were affected, typified by sighting of wild animals. Over 88% in both communities observed an increase in fire occurrences. With respect to the preferred intervention forest management models, most preferred partnerships (> 90%), followed by participatory forest management received (88%) and agroforestry (82%). The study findings revealed that the potential economic benefits intended for accrual to the beneficiaries were compromised. The institutional arrangement resulted in beneficiaries disregarding the constitution in terms of CPA committee members' nomination, which delegitimised the CPA committee members who were elected outside the prescripts of the constitution. Furthermore, this study showed that beneficiaries from both communities have been failed by the government entities whose oversight and coordination role was non-existent. However, a positive note was observed in the Jabulani community where the partnership effort managed to establish an Agri-Village that immensely contributed to the lives of the beneficiaries. However, weaknesses were attributed to the neglect of the forestry business aspect of land management. In contrast, Thuthukani community never experienced transformation including basic service delivery and as a result, beneficiaries have lost hope in the function of their forestry farm. Lastly, to ensure that restored community forestry land use and/or farms are sustainable, it would be paramount that the private sector opens market opportunities for the community beneficiaries. Additionally, considering the sense of fatigue and helplessness of the forestry land beneficiaries, it would be critical that strong support is provided from government entities such as the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment to negotiate and forge mutual partnerships with the private sector as well as ensuring clear benefit sharing mechanisms are defined.