In recent times a need has developed within NCT for a more accurate prediction of pulpwood available from its members for supply to strategic markets. Present systems indicate the volume of timber per member per farm, however this volume has been found not to be an accurate prediction of what will actually reach the mill at the end of the day as many factors come into play and influence the volume that reaches the mill. The questions arise: which factors influence the availability of marketable Eucalyptus pulpwood timber, and to what extent do the different factors play a role? It was with this problem in mind that a comprehensive survey was undertaken to evaluate a number of factors identified and to try and determine their impact on the volume of Eucalyptus pulpwood supplied. / Thesis (M.B.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Carleton University, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 276-293). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

The objectives of the study were to examine the socio-economic impact of outsourcing on forest-dependent communities, to evaluate the current outsourcing management system in Mondi Forests, and to assess the financial impact (costs savings) of outsourcing on Mondi Forests: Natal Region in KwaZulu-Natal. Participatory Rural Appraisal exercises were used to assess the socio-economic impact of outsourcing on forest-dependent communities. A questionnaire was then used on a sample of Mondi Forests personnel to evaluate the current outsourcing management system in Mondi Forests. Finally, cash-flow trends were used to assess the financial impact (costs savings) of outsourcing on Mondi Forests, Natal Region. Activities that have been outsourced include transport, harvesting operations, silviculture operations, security services, mechanical services, training, payroll services and information systems. Results show that outsourcing has impacted negatively on the livelihoods of some of the forest-dependent communities sampled. The negative impacts are mainly associated with a reduction in hygiene services offered to these communities and an increase in unemployment in some of these villages. Forest-dependent communities perceive outsourcing as the cause of poor relationship between the rural communities, forest companies and contractors as well as being the cause of high unemployment rates. Mondi Forests' personnel perceive that outsourcing goes beyond costs savings to include redirecting scarce resources toward core business activities. Lower morale and insecurity among forest staff members and negative views of the forestry companies by rural communities, unions and government departments were perceived as the disadvantages of outsourcing. Uncertainty with regards to employment continuity and social problems (e.g. increased forest fires, poor relationship with local communities) were perceived as outsourcing risks. Results show that Mondi Forests has implemented a number of strategies in order to reduce some of these risks and disadvantages by giving preference to their ex-employees when offering contracts, by providing start-up capital to emerging black contractors, and by initiating community development programmes in order to uplift the standard of living of the forest-dependent communities. Mondi Forests' personnel suggested that forest management. accounting, conservation management, and human resources are the best candidates for future outsourcing, since most other forest organizations in the world are already outsourcing them successfully. Most of these activities are still kept in-house in Mondi Forests. Results also show that outsourcing can be used with other rationalization methods to save costs. This is because costs savings in Mondi Forests: Natal Region, since 1998 to 2001 were .not only due to outsourcing, but also to some other management decisions such as reduced fertilizer and pesticides use. The total costs savings were R14.5 million from 1998 to 2001. Results support the need to strengthen the current rural development programmes in Mondi Forests, and to the establish Community Liaison Forums to improve communication with rural communities and to start community development programmes. A contractor upliftment programme was also recommended for developing the emerging black contractors. Lastly, company/contractor agreements must be reviewed in order to ensure that social responsibility aspects are appropriately managed. Outsourcing relationships need to consider the economic, environmental and social effects in order to be sustainable. / Thesis (M.Env.Dev.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2001.

Sustainability, and transitions away from currently prevailing unsustainability, is a project with political (economic) and cultural dimensions. Yet, the potential of a cultural political lens to investigate sustainability prefigurations is neglected by the academy. Moreover, existing cultural political conceptualizations are ontologically incoherent with green political perspectives. In this thesis, I articulate a revised notion of cultural politics consistent with normative visions of sustainability transitions, and validate the new approach through an exploratory investigation of Scottish community woodland organizations (CWOs). CWOs are alternative organizations troubling hegemonic land tenurial and forest management practices. However, these organizations are under- researched by sustainability scholars. The study shows how one CWO prefigures sustainability transitions, not least through distinctive woodland artistic activities. The thesis narrates threefold theoretical originality, and also extends empirical knowledge. Originality lies (first) in the practice-theoretical recasting of cultural politics theory, (second) in the synthesis concept describing practices of everyday artistic activism, and (third) in the green republican interpretive framework of sustainability subjectivities, against which cultural political performances may be evaluated. Empirical originality lies in the exploration of community woodlands. I argue that through practices of everyday artistic activism and more general woodland practices, woodland activists perform alternative conceptions of human-nature relations, intrahuman relations, and organization. Through these performances, woodland artistic activists enact a cultural politics of sustainability transitions, and make visible alternative modes of humans being in the world. The study contributes to theoretical debates concerned with cultural politics and artistic activism, with researching community organizing for sustainability transitions, and with interpretive approaches to sustainability knowledge production. Empirically, it extends alternative organizational knowledge, showing how sustainability subjectivities can be communicated through woodland practices.

Please read the abstract in the front section of this document / Dissertation (M Inst Agrar (Sustainable Ecological Management))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development / unrestricted

Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) constitute an important source of livelihood for most poor rural households and communities in Zimbabwe. NTFPs also serve as a vital livelihood safety net in times of hardship. An important feature of this dependence is that almost all NTFPs are deemed to have ‘public good’ characteristics, with no exclusive property rights. Consequently, extraction is often intense and exhaustive because of lack of alternative income sources, unreliable productivity and weak enforcement of institutional arrangements governing NTFPs use. In recent years, with HIV/AIDS rampant in Zimbabwe, there are indications of a rapid increase in the extraction of NTFPs, mostly from common property resources. Appropriate natural resources policies need to be based on comprehensive research, yet to date scant attention has been paid to understanding the role of NTFPs in mitigating the predicaments of HIV/AIDS-affected households in Zimbabwe. The main objective of this study was to determine the types of and need for natural resource management interventions to help ensure the sustainability of local responses to HIV/AIDS. The research focused on five communities of Sengwe Communal in the Chiredzi district, Zimbabwe. Multistage cluster sampling was used to select ten villages and households for the survey. Two villages from each community, representing the most and the least affected by epidemic were selected for each community using stratified random sampling. A cluster analysis was used to improve understanding of the challenges of rural livelihoods and how households diversify their livelihood strategies to cope with the various constraints. Five dominant groups based on their livelihood diversification patterns were identified : (1) smallholders/unskilled workers; (2) subsistence smallholder/non-timber forestry products harvesters; (3) crop production and non-timber forestry products extraction integrators; (4) commercial smallholders with regular off-farm employment; and (5) specialised commercial livestock producers. Multinomial logit model results showed that the level of education of the household head, the value of physical assets, cattle numbers and income, remittances, NTFPs income and economic shocks were the main determinants of these livelihood choices. Empirical evidence also revealed that households that were statistically significantly affected by HIV/AIDS economic shocks practised ‘distress-push’ diversification by extracting NTFPs. These results suggest that policy makers need to advise rural households on how to improve their risk management capacities and move from geographically untargeted investments in livelihood assets to a more integrated approach adapted to the asset base of individual households. Using panel data from 200 households in 2008 and 2009, regression models revealed that NTFPs extraction is an important ex-post coping mechanism for many HIV/AIDS-afflicted households. The results also revealed that the main determinants of livelihood strategy choices were differences in asset endowment, especially education, land and livestock and the impact of the shock. Asset constraints compelled diversification into lower-return activities such as NTFPs extraction. Findings from a comparative analysis of HIV/AIDS-afflicted and non-afflicted households showed that HIV/AIDS-afflicted households were relatively young, with relatively few physical and livestock assets. A fixed-effect Tobit model indicated a positive significant relationship between HIV staging and quantity of NTFPs extracted. The relatively young, poorly educated households with low household coping capacity in terms of livestock value relied more on the natural insurance of forests in buffering HIV/AIDS economic shocks. These results have important policy implications for development planners, conservationists and non-governmental organisations working in the region. There is a need for programmes that reduce pressure on forest resources, and improved access to education and health care, thus helping the poor to cope with the HIV/AIDS economic crisis. This study also examined the extent to which forest degradation is driven by existing common property management regimes, resource and user characteristics, ecological knowledge and marketing structure. A Principal Component Analysis indicated that the existence of agreed-upon rules governing usage (including costs of usage), enforcement of these rules, sanctions for rule violations that are proportional to the severity of rule violation, social homogeneity, and strong beliefs in ancestral spirits were the most important attributes determining effectiveness of local institutions in the management of Common Pool Resources (CPRs). Empirical results from an ordinary least regression analysis showed that resource scarcity, market integration index, and infrastructural development lead to greater forest resource degradation, while livestock income, high ecological knowledge, older households, and effective local institutional management of the commons reduce forest resource degradation. The results suggest that there is a need for adaptive local management systems that enhance ecological knowledge of users and regulates market structure to favour long-term livelihood securities of these forest-fringe communities. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2010.

This study was designed to capture the complexity of man-to-forest relationships in the endangered, world-renowned tropical rain forests of the Congo Basin in Africa. Their biological complexity and integrity have been challenged by human development and new knowledge is urgently needed to save these forests and the people dependent on them. The scope of the study was enormous because of the complexity of the resource, the diversity of forest-dependent people and actors. The major benefit of this research was in accessing and exposing new and quantitative information in remote settlements of the region by applying innovative methodologies and analytical techniques. These included: 1. The definition of forest-dependency based on detailed annual inventories of sources of households’ incomes, their statistical ranking and interpretation with logistic regressions, and the Kuznets ratio and Gini coefficients as introduced by the World Bank; 2. critical appraisal of the international parks in the region based on auto-financing principles and tested with contingent valuation and tax maximization techniques, such as Laffer’s curves, and leading to the development of new conservation models of financial self-sufficiency and a new formula for practical park management; 3. the critique of poaching by explaining and exposing food insecurities, especially deficient supplies of animal protein and associated malnutrition among the rural poor; 4. assessment of housing inadequacy among forest dwellers and its impact on forest regeneration and resources; 5. clarification of the impacts of timber logging by accessing detailed unpublished information from timber companies; 6. the introduction of survey-based valuation techniques as essential prerequisites to policy formulation and the sustainable management of forests; 7. proposing a flow chart that embraced the resources and stakeholders through the flow of market values and services for further exploration. Contrary to traditional beliefs; the results showed that both poor and wealthy households are equally dependent on forest resources for their livelihoods with no significant difference in consumed forest products between the 25% higher income earners and the 25% lower income households. Forests contribute over 57% of wage income in the region and forest-derived income is of a higher total value than any other source, including agriculture. Among forest foods, wild fruit and bushmeat are by far the most important. Therefore, the clearing of forests for agriculture or instituting conservation policies that completely keep local people away from forests will result in constrained access to resources of immense importance to local livelihoods. However, the findings contradict the commonly propagated views that timber harvesting in the region is directly responsible for deforestation, the loss of forest structure and biodiversity. It was shown that the harvesting of saplings and poles for housing may endanger forest regeneration and species composition of forests neighbouring the villages. The desired financing of national parks should be through internally generated revenues, requiring deliberate investments in facilities and infrastructure. The necessity to satisfy the basic needs of the forest-dependent people remains urgent. The complexity of man-to-forest relationships is beyond one study and needs to be further expanded on, in our quest to sustainable forest management based on participatory principles. Such management needs to provide for and be supported by various stakeholders including the local communities, state agencies, donors, NGOs, and commercial conglomerates. Moreover, the need to understand forest values beyond market principles is required in order to translate the concept of sustainable forest management from a theoretical concept in the Congo Basin to one that can reduce conflicts, deforestation, poverty and famine.

Thesis (MScFor)--Stellenbosch University, 2002. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The Government of South Africa is faced with a mammoth task of redressing the imbalances of the past apartheid policies in the rural areas of the country. The Government has developed policies and programmes aimed at alleviating poverty in these areas. The Government has also realised the vital role that natural resources play in the livelihoods of rural people. The vision of Community Forestry as stated in the Forestry White Paper (GOSA, 1996), is to contribute to social and economic upliftment of all people, especially those in the rural areas, by promoting the sustainable utilisation of natural resources. The study was conducted in three rural villages in the Northern Province of South Africa. The three villages were chosen because of their closeness to the Kruger National Park, their remoteness and lack of infrastructure that could provide employment to the villagers. The villages were investigated using Rapid Rural Appraisal techniques and semi structured interviews with households and key-informants. The study reports on the pattern and structure of livelihoods and institutions that govern access to and control of natural resources in the woodlands that surround the three villages. It reports on the vital contribution that natural resources generate to livelihoods of the village communities by providing goods for fuel, shelter, food and medicines which are unavailable or unaffordable elsewhere for many households. The study also reports on the decline in the dependency of the communities on natural resources and the lack of cooperation between village communities and the Kruger National Park authorities, which may lead to serious management problems in the area. Lastly, recommendations based on the study findings, that may bring about possible economic and social upliftment of the communities in the three villages are put forward. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die Suid Afrikaanse Regering staan voor die reuse taak om ongelykhede wat in die verlede onder die apartheids beleid in die landelike gebiede van die land tot stand gekom het, te herstel. Die huidige Regering het 'n beleids en programstelsel ontwikkel met die doelom armoede in die gebiede te verlig. Verder het 'n besef ontwikkel van die integrale rol wat natuurlike hulpbronne in die lewensonderhoud van mense uit landelike gebiede speel. Die visie van gemeenskaps bosbou, soos uiteengesit in die Forestry White Paper (GO SA, 1996), is om deur middel van die bevordering van volhoubare gebruik van natuurlike hulpbronne, 'n bydrae te lewer tot die sosiale en ekonomiese opheffing van alle mense, maar spesifiek die in landelike gebiede. Die studie is uitgevoer in drie landelike dorpies in die Noordelike Provinsie van Suid-Afrika. Die spesifieke dorpies is gekies a.g.v. beide hulle nabyheid aan die Nasionale Kruger Wildtuin sowel as hul afsondering en tekort aan infrastruktuur, wat werksgelenthede aan die inwoners kan verskaf. Die dorpies is bestudeer m.b.v. die Rapid Rural Appraisal tegniek en semigestruktureerde onderhoude met huishoudings en sleutel-informante. Deur middel van die studie word verslag gelewer op die lewensonderhouds patroon en strukture van huishoudings, sowel as die instellings wat toegang tot en gebruik van natuurlike hulpbronne beheer in die boslande rondom die drie dorpies. Dit dui die lewensbelangrike ondersteuning wat natuurlike hulpbronne aan huishoudings in die gemeenskap verskaf aan. Die ondersteuning word gevind in die vorm van materiaal vir vuurmaakhout, skuiling, kos en medisyne wat elders onbeskikbaar of onbekostigbaar is vir baie huishoudings. Verder word verslag gelewer oor die dalende afhanklikheid van gemeenskappe van hierdie natuurlike hulpbronne en die tekort aan samewerking tussen dorpsgemeenskappe en die bestuur van die Nasional Kruger Wildtuin. Dit mag wel tot bestuursprobleme in die nabye toekoms lei. Laastens word voorstelle, gebaseer op die bevindinge soos bespreek in die studie, gemaak wat mag lei tot die moontlike sosiale en ekonomiese opheffing van die gemeenskappe in die drie dorpies.