Forest-based land reform partnerships in rural development and the sustenance of timber markets. Learning from two South African cases

Abstract

In South Africa, although implementation of government and forestry industry's embraced forest-based land reform partnership governance models, rural development and community beneficiaries' access to timber or wood products markets independently remain a challenge. This study assessed the perception of community beneficiaries on the sales and leaseback and community managed enterprise forest-based land reform public-private partnership (FBLR PPP) models on the provision of wood product end-use alternative. Two communities (Amabomvini and Cata) were purposefully selected for the study, in which 140 and 175 household beneficiaries were randomly sampled, respectively. Focus group discussions were also conducted with key informants from both communities' registered legal entities. The chi-square results showed a significant (p ≤ 0.001) relationship between the household beneficiaries' responses regarding the recommendation of pulp and paper and fuelwood as preferred wood products end-use alternatives from both communities. Binary logistic regression analysis revealed that household beneficiaries who are not educated are significantly less likely to influence wood usage for building material (p ≤ 0.038) and sawn timber (p ≤ 0.033) compared to those who are educated, respectively. Most household beneficiaries in Amabomvini recommended pulp and paper (63.6%), while those from Cata community (84.6%) recommended fuelwood. Additionally, the study shows that the provision of wood product market for the community-managed enterprises would be vital for the sustainability of their forest-based business. Furthermore, prioritizing access roads could assist in construction of new or nested markets for timber products trade and improving their well-being and socioeconomic status. This would ensure that community beneficiaries value the economic role forest, forest products and the significance of strengthening community governance structures in an endeavour to reduce conflicts amongst beneficiaries. Most importantly, government support towards strengthening of community beneficiaries' institutional arrangement or governance of the legal entities is critical to create an enabling environment for the community beneficiaries.