NCT Forestry Co-operative Limited has experienced decreased yearly hardwood pulpwood volume sales over the last several years. This indirectly means NCT members have decreased their hardwood pulpwood volume trade to NCT over the last several years. Combined with the general under-supply of hardwood pulpwood from its members, NCT's current systems do not accurately predict the monthly and yearly volumes from its members. This is because many factors play a role and influence the physical volume of hardwood pulpwood supplied during the marketing process from the stump to the mill. Two independent studies have been carried out by NCT, to determine the main factors causing NCT members to under-supply their hardwood pulpwood. Both reports sighted "price" as the major factor and driver in contributing to NCT members making a decision to bank their timber or dispose of it elsewhere. Due to NCT's core business being export orientated, "price" is considered to be "exogenous" by nature or defined as an "uncontrollable variable" as the mill delivered price NCT offers its members is a factor of the macro economic conditions between South Africa, United States of America and Japan. More specifically the "price" NCT offers its members is a factor of the exchange rate between the South African rand and the United States dollar. The second contributing factor which was sighted by NCT members as to why they were under-supplying their hardwood pulpwood was "operational issues". "Operational issues" can be refined to issues pertaining to the stump-to-mill supply chain. "Operational issues" as apposed to "price" can be considered as a "controllable variable" as every component within the stump-to-mill supply chain can be controlled and managed. This paper specifically undertakes to investigate, in more detail, what specific factors within the stump-to-mill supply chain are causing NCT members to under-supply their hardwood pulpwood to NCT. Mitigating research into the stump-to-mill supply chain as an area of concern for NCT is the fact that South Africa is currently and forecasted for the future, to have an under-supply and over-demand of hardwood pulpwood. This factor alone has many knock-on effects within the entire forestry value chain. Combined with the under-supply and over-demand situation for hardwood pulpwood, is the fact that NCT's competitors define the profile of an NCT member, being mainly associated to the medium and small grower category, as the most liquid form of hardwood pulpwood resource available. By understanding the problems the contracting fraternity faces in the value chain, further mitigates the focus on the stump-to-mill supply chain as a problem area for NCT. Research exposes that mainly "second economy" or "informal contractors" work in the environment of medium and small grower categories. For independent contractors, this environment is characterized by failure to reach economies of scale, lack of business skills, poor access to finance and training, difficulties in getting public liability insurance cover and limited help from the large corporate grower organisations. In general, NCT members falling into the medium and small grower categories will invariably experience un-professional service from independent contractors. This causes conflict in the stump-to-mill supply chain and can damage the marketing service NCT provides to its members and markets. The loyalty of NCT hardwood pulpwood owning members will be tested as the sale of hardwood pulpwood moves more and more into a "sellers" market, which will inherently mean an increase in the bargaining power and leverage these members will enjoy. Buyers who position themselves to satisfy these anticipated increased needs of private/independent growers will most likely enjoy competitive advantage. This study has found that competitive advantage partly lies in more control and management of the stump-to-mill supply chain. The study has also recommended that NCT adopt a combined strategy of backward vertical integration with keiretsu (a combined supply chain management strategy that incorporates few suppliers and backward vertical integration in a coalition partnership) in its approach to gain more control of the stump-to-mill supply chain. The study further concluded that the orthodoxy of supply chain management (SCM) emphasises competitive advantage through increased operational control and efficiency combined with market responsiveness from production and distribution processes into the hands of NCT. Further, the paper found that anticipated future competition for NCT would be between the stump-to-mill supply chains rather than between firms. Indirectly this means NCT will have to increase the scope of service to its members and that means increasing its service in the stumpto-mill supply chain. An effective hardwood pulpwood procurement (marketing) strategy rolled out by NCT using a combination of backward vertical integration and keiretsu as supply chain management strategies, in a drive to gain more control and management over the stump-to-mill supply chain was strongly recommended. This strategy will not only increase the control over the volume supplied to NCT but will also increase the sustainability of fibre by creating planned felling schedules. This strategy will also provide a stable environment for the "informal" or "second economy" contractors to work in, while satisfying the increasing needs of NCT members, and in the process creating a competitive advantage by providing a much-needed additional service. By adopting the supply chain management approach of using both backward vertical integration and keiretsu as strategies will allow for benchmarking between the two strategies to take place, while at the same time due to increased planning, economies of scale will be achieved leading to cost savings. Cost savings in the stump-to-mill supply chain will allow NCT more flexibility in defending its mill delivered prices. Hence, the key to unlocking the code to hardwood pulpwood supply from the NCT membership partly lies in the intervention of the stump-to-mill supply chain by adopting a dual supply chain management strategy of both backward vertical integration and keiretsu by NCT in the stump-to-mill supply chain. However, one can capture the hill by using "service" only, but this strategy will not necessary help you hold the hill. A combined strategy of "price" and "increased service" will more than likely allow NCT to capture and hold the hill. / Thesis (M.B.A.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006.

Thesis (MDF)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Developing sustainable forests has been acknowledged to be important, not just as a way of averting deforestation and land degradation, but as another opportunity to contribute positively towards rural development, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Forestry development has, however, not received the recognition it deserves. Its importance to economic development and its potential contribution have not been explicitly communicated and thus remain undervalued. The long rotations required for trees to mature, plus the associated risk from fires, pests and diseases has affected the sector’s ability to attract investment. In South Africa this reluctance is evident in both the public and private sectors alike. Access to finance for forestry remains a challenge, which negatively affects the supply to the processing part of the value chain. The objective of the study is to review current forestry funding mechanisms in South Africa, specifically plantations and their contributions to rural economic development. Using secondary data, the study reviewed the current sector funding from the state, development funding institutions and the private sector. The study also looked at alternative sources used in other countries and how they can be customised to the South African economy. In this study it was found that there are gaps between policies aimed at the development of the sector on the one hand, and the resources allocated to the sector on the other hand. The available schemes fail to support the sector policies’ objectives. These discrepancies can be attributed to the poor design of the current offering, the development of which failed to fully consider the dynamics of the sector. The conclusion of the study was that the government needs to play more of a leading role in developing the sector, especially with the small-scale growers who cannot be catered for by both commercial and development banks. The sector also stands to benefit significantly from better collaboration between the public and private sectors. Policies that create an enabling environment would also encourage the private sector to invest more. The study also suggested that, in view of the dynamics of the sector and its contribution to climate change risk mitigation, there is room to tap innovative funding such as that offered by environmental funding.

Commercial forestry in South Africa was born out of the need to alleviate the growing demand on limited natural resources. From small beginnings, the industry has grown over the years and currently plays a significant role in South Africa's economy. The industry is a source of employment, foreign exchange and it facilitates a number of downstream processing activities. However, with the growth of the industry, there has also been increasing concern from various sectors over the impacts of the industry on the environment, particularly on water and biodiversity. More recently, concern has also shifted towards challenging the social and economic benefits of timber to local communities. As a result of growing pressure, legislation, policies and institutions have been transformed to ensure that environmental and social issues are taken into consideration in carrying out any form of development. The forestry industry has also changed considerably and understanding stakeholders perceptions has also become evident. In 1995 as part of the process to adhere to ISO 14001 international standards, Sappi forests commissioned a study to enable them to have a better understanding of activities, products and services which could have an impact on the environment. The concerns of the stakeholder were incorporated into their management plan. In continued efforts to improve the image of the forestry industry, this study was commissioned in 1999 with the aim of understanding how peoples perceptions of the industry had changed since 1995. The change of perceptions was determined through structured as well as semi structured interviews. A comparison between the responses in this study with those in Murphy et al. 1995 was undertaken to determine how peoples perceptions had changed since 1995. Even though the forestry industry had included some of the concerns raised by stakeholder and improved their management plans since 1995, peoples perceptions ofthe industry were largely negative. External changes leading to increased awareness in the intervening period were seen as the reason for the lack of change in peoples perceptions. Among others the external changes include increased transformation of environmental legislation both internationally and nationally which is more focused on addressing social as well as environmental issues. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2000.

Systematic conservation planning (SCP) relies fundamentally on spatial information about the distribution of biodiversity, and applying the principles of conserving a representative sample of biodiversity pattern that can persist over time, and the translation of conservation objectives into explicit quantitative targets. My thesis focuses on the development of appropriate data sets to include Mpumalanga Province’s indigenous forests (South Africa) within a regional SCP. My aim is to investigate and describe forest pattern and ecological processes at appropriate scales to inform a provincial SCP assessment. A large data set consisting of 506 plots of 20 m x 20 m sampled the indigenous forests in and around Mpumalanga to inform the identification of SCP forest features and conservation targets. The current National Forest Classification (NFC) identifies forest types at a national scale, inappropriate for a regional assessment. I identified a hierarchy of forest subtypes, nested within the NFC based on Flexible beta (β = –0.25) clustering and Bray-Curtis resemblance measure. This classification procedure is selected after a detailed evaluation of available methods to identify a robust numerical classification technique, optimising on statistically identified faithful species. Fourteen forest subtypes are distinguished within three national forest types. I propose that the Wakkerstroom Midlands Forest Subtype be embedded within the Northern Highveld Forest Type, and not the Low Escarpment Mistbelt Forest Type as is currently recognised in the NFC. The proposed forest subtypes are described in terms of dominant plant families and genera, growth forms, seasonality or leaf retention characteristics, and the proportion of forest dependant species. A total of 125 plant families, 375 genera and 619 species are identified to occur in the Mpumalanga forests, with the most abundant species per family being Rubiaceae (33 plant species), Fabaceae (26), Celastraceae (25), Orchidaceae (23), Euphorbiaceae (22), Aspleniaceae (21) and Apocynaceae (20). 76% of all forest plant species are obligate forest species and 80% of all tree cover is evergreen. The identification and understanding of underlying ecological processes is informed by the analysis of three scales of environmental variables and geographic space on forest composition using variation partitioning and ordination. I propose the application of semivariogram analysis to categorise environmental variables into three scales of influence (local, regional and supra-regional scales). The largest fraction of variation is explained by the regional variables (45%), followed by the effects of supra-regional (21%) and local variables (19%). Using the full floristic data, both the environmental and geographic variable matrices accounted for 55% of observed variation. Geographic space (23%) partially explains the important role of dispersal in influencing variation in species patterns across all forest strata, even in the herbaceous stratum where the substantial contribution of dispersal is unexpected. My analysis provides insight into the relative contributions of environmental variables and the scale of their influence, and highlights the importance of dispersal in explaining forest vegetation patterns in Mpumalanga. The use of ecological processes within SCP is still in its infancy, particularly in light of the threat of climate change. I propose a new method based on graph theory that incorporates dispersal distance to identify connectivity importance values for each forest patch based on their contribution towards landscape connectivity. Minimum patch distance is informed through a dispersal range ensuring 75% of flora can disperse between patches. The connectivity analysis supports resilience and persistence in SCP scenarios. Finally I needed to set quantitative targets for the pattern and process features for their inclusion within a SCP. With an overarching goal of ensuring that at least 75% of all species are represented by at least one individual within each forest subtype in a SCP, I utilised the Species Area Relationship (SAR) to determine the slope of the relationship and to estimate the proportion of area required to represent 75% of species. The number of plots in my data set was low for certain forest subtypes, which necessitated an approach of utilising highest values from estimators of species richness and integrating forest subtype targets with those for forest types of a higher level in the NFC. I integrate forest connectivity into pattern targets as a precautionary approach given the vulnerability of naturally disconnected forest patches and the importance of emigration and immigration of plant diaspores in maintaining forest composition across a network of small forest patches. The resulting forest pattern targets ranged between 24.9% and 49.7% for forest subtypes, with a mean value of 34.8%. I also propose forest process targets for more spatially fixed processes, such as the important forest patches supporting connectivity, as well as the spatially flexible buffers around each priority forest patch. Spatially fixed forest process targets are set at 100% and for spatially flexible forest processes the targets are set at 60% of original extent. Consideration also needs to be given to design criteria that can assist in developing a framework for prioritising conservation actions based on vulnerability and irreplaceability.

A large sector of the forestry industry of South Africa comprises Eucalyptus species, covering approximately 49% of the forestry plantation area. Polyploidy induction has become an attractive tool to increase yield and reduce invasiveness in forestry species. Polyploidy induction in Eucalyptus using colchicine treatments on seed and axillary buds was undertaken to produce tetraploids that could be used in breeding programmes; specifically to increase yield and decrease species invasiveness through the production of triploids after crossing with diploid parents. Eight seedlots of E. urophylla and seven of E. grandis were treated with four colchicine concentrations (0.00, 0.01, 0.03, 0.05%) at two exposure times (18 h and 24 h), treating two seeds per treatment, repeated eight times. For axillary bud induction, 20 buds of two E. grandis clones and three E. grandis × E. urophylla hybrids and one E. grandis × E. nitens hybrid were treated with four colchicine concentrations (0.0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5%) for three consecutive days. A known tetraploid hybrid E. grandis E. camaldulensis and its corresponding diploid were included as reference material. Seedlings and bud sports were pre-screened by determining stomatal guard cell lengths. Seedlings and bud sports displaying cell lengths significantly (p<0.0001) larger than the diploid were selected as putative polyploids. Polyploidy was then confirmed by quantifying the DNA content using flow cytometry. Stomatal frequencies and guard cell chloroplast frequencies were also determined in the induced tetraploid seedlings to evaluate their suitability to discern between ploids. All putative polyploidy seedlings, identified in the pre-screening process, were confirmed, using flow cytometry, as either tetraploids or mixoploids. Of the 17 E. urophylla putative polyploids, from various seedlots, six were tetraploid and 11 mixoploid. In E. grandis one of the five putative polyploids, from various seedlots, was tetraploid and four mixoploid. Pre-screening of bud sports was less accurate; only four of the 12 E. grandis hybrid putative polyploids were mixoploid and only three of the six E. grandis putative polyploids were mixoploid. E. urophylla seedlings were more sensitive to colchicine than E. grandis seedlings displaying a lower survival rate (52%) than E. grandis (63%). Extreme treatments that caused the lowest survival rates were also responsible for most of the polyploidy successful inductions; 0.05%/18 h and 0.05%/24 h for E. urophylla and 0.03%/24 h and 0.05%/24 h for E. grandis. Phenotypic effects of colchicine included shorter, thicker roots and hypocotyls; darker leaves; longer and narrower leaves in some tetraploids; and asymmetrical leaf margins in many mixoploids and tetraploids compared with the controls. In the tetraploids, stomata were significantly larger (p<0.0001) and less frequent (p<0.001). A significant (p<0.001) increase in the number stomatal chloroplasts was also ascertained. Confirmed mixoploid seedlings all displayed tetraploid leaves based on stomatal size and thus classified as periclinal chimeras. In bud sports, only leaves with islands of diploid and tetraploid stomata in the confirmed mixoploids were encountered. Mixoploid bud sports were thus either sectional or mericlinal chimeras. Stomatal size proved to be a suitable pre-screening method, especially in polyploidy induction in seedlings. Additionally confirmed tetraploids exhibited significantly different stomatal frequencies and stomatal chloroplast frequencies compared with the diploids, thus proving to be suitable detection methods for polyploidy screenings. Polyploidy induction in seed was effective, however, less effective in axillary buds which requires further research to refine methods. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2008.

South Africa has a fragmented past. Attempts to redress inequalities must acknowledge and understand the context of rural South Africa in terms of natural ecosystems. We are used to be being told that forests are good for us all. Certainly, the range of benefits that can be derived from forests, specifically natural woodlands are legion. The woodlands in South Africa are essential in the lives of many South Africans. It is for this reason that woodland resources are regarded as extremely important, not only for the maintenance of rural livelihoods but also as a potential contributor to the national economy. The woodlands are a diverse resource, extending over a vast area of the country and across several provincial boundaries. This as well as varied tenure systems as well as management objectives which exist, make the woodlands of South Africa a complex, yet essential resource to manage, monitor and sustain on a national level. Policy should therefore be able to ensure some kind of balance so that woodlands can be conserved, developed and sustainably managed in the most suitable ways possible. The findings of previous studies conducted on the woodland biome have highlighted the lack of sufficient knowledge of community perceptions with regards to the policy issues. This has been the catalyst in promoting informed reviews of current policies, in effect, which are affecting woodlands in African communal rural areas in South Africa. This particular study illustrates that there are a range of policies, both national and international, that impact either directly or indirectly on the woodlands in South Africa. The research identifies some of the key limitations in the various existing policies. Furthermore, the key concern raised is that current policies remain fragmented and are not in synergy with each other. Additionally, the ability to translate policy intentions into practice (that is, the implementation of policy directives) remain problematic. The gaps in the policy environment as well as the failure to implement are the key threats to ensuring the effective use of policy in promoting the sustainability of the woodlands in the South Africa context. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Durban-Westville, 2002.

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.

Ectomycorrhizal (ECM) associations are important elements of forest biomes, connecting and transferring nutrients through an intricate and complex system of hyphal networks, ensuring plants of the nutrients they require, in nutrient poor soil. ECM research and particularly investigations into the diversity of the fungal partners has not received much attention in South Africa, hindering the advance of research in this field. This has been attributed to the difficulty of identifying the mycobionts involved in the symbiosis. The objectives of this study were to examine the ECM fungal diversity associating with Pinus patula, in selected forest plantations in Mpumalanga, South Africa. Both morphological and molecular techniques were used to identify specimens of both sporocarp collections and ECM root tip morphotypes. Morphological analysis of the ECM root tips involved characterisation of root morphology such as colour, branching and texture, and anatomical analysis examined hyphal arrangement in the root mantle and rhizomorphs. Molecular analysis involved sequencing of the Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) region and comparative BLAST analysis. Twenty-four sporocarp species were identified from 13 genera, namely: Amanita, Boletus, Clavulina, Inocybe, Lactarius, Rhizopogon, Russula, Scleroderma, Suillus, Tricholoma, Thelephora, Tomentella and Xerocomus. ECM root tip analysis led to the characterisation of 7 wild-type morphotypes identified as an Albatrellus sp., 2 Amanita species, a Rhizopogon sp., Thelephora terrestris, a Tomentella sp. and Scleroderma citrinum. A secondary objective was to determine whether fertilisation treatments within the study sites were responsible for differences in fungal species community structure. No evidence of a change in species diversity or shift in species composition was encountered. It is envisaged that these comprehensive ECM descriptions will be used as reference material to stimulate continued research in this field in South Africa.

The subtropical forests located along South Africa’s Wild Coast region, declared as one of the biodiversity hotspots, provide benefits to the local and national economy. However, there is evidence of increased pressure exerted on the forests by growing population and reduced income from activities not related to forest products. The ability of remote sensing to quantify subtropical forest changes over time, perform species discrimination (using field spectroscopy) and integrating field spectral and multispectral data were all assessed in this study. Investigations were conducted at pixel, leaf and sub-pixel levels. Both per-pixel and sub-pixel classification methods were used for improved forest characterisation. Using SPOT 6 imagery for 2013, the study determined the best classification algorithm for mapping sub-tropical forest and other land cover types to be the maximum likelihood classifier. Maximum likelihood outperformed minimum distance, spectral angle mapper and spectral information divergence algorithms, based on overall accuracy and Kappa coefficient values. Forest change analysis was made based on spectral measurements made at top of the atmosphere (TOC) level. When applied to the 2005 and 2009 SPOT 5 images, subtropical forest changes between 2005-2009 and 2009-2013 were quantified. A temporal analysis of forest cover trends in the periods 2005-2009 and 2009-2013 identified a decreasing trend of -3648.42 and -946.98 ha respectively, which translated to 7.81 percent and 2.20 percent decrease. Although there is evidence of a trend towards decreased rates of forest loss, more conservation efforts are required to protect the Wild Coast ecosystem. Using field spectral measurements data, the hierarchical method (comprising One-way ANOVA with Bonferroni correction, Classification and Regression Trees (CART) and Jeffries Matusita method) successfully selected optimal wavelengths for species discrimination at leaf level. Only 17 out of 2150 wavelengths were identified, thereby reducing the complexities related to data dimensionality. The optimal 17 wavelength bands were noted in the visible (438, 442, 512 and 695 nm), near infrared (724, 729, 750, 758, 856, 936, 1179, 1507 and 1673 nm) and mid-infrared (2220, 2465, 2469 and 2482 nm) portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. The Jeffries-Matusita (JM) distance method confirmed the separability of the selected wavelength bands. Using these 17 wavelengths, linear discriminant analysis (LDA) classified subtropical species at leaf level more accurately than partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLSDA) and random forest (RF). In addition, the study integrated field-collected canopy spectral and multispectral data to discriminate proportions of semi-deciduous and evergreen subtropical forests at sub-pixel level. By using the 2013 land cover (using MLC) to mask non-forested portions before sub-pixel classification (using MTMF), the proportional maps were a product of two classifiers. The proportional maps show higher proportions of evergreen forests along the coast while semi-deciduous subtropical forest species were mainly on inland parts of the Wild Coast. These maps had high accuracy, thereby proving the ability of an integration of field spectral and multispectral data in mapping semi-deciduous and evergreen forest species. Overall, the study has demonstrated the importance of the MLC and LDA and served to integrate field spectral and multispectral data in subtropical forest characterisation at both leaf and top-of-atmosphere levels. The success of both the MLC and LDA further highlighted how essential parametric classifiers are in remote sensing forestry applications. Main subtropical characteristics highlighted in this study were species discrimination at leaf level, quantifying forest change at pixel level and discriminating semi-deciduous and evergreen forests at sub-pixel level.

Correlated curve trend (C.C.T.) experiments in Eucalyptus grandis on the Zululand coast of South Africa were analyzed. Growth parameters were described as functions of age using Schnute’s generalized growth function and parameter estimates were described as functions of stand density. Growth attributes were used as moments of a probability density function to describe a diameter distribution model for the species. Time trends in the relationships between growth parameters and stand density were scrutinized with multiple comparisons of paired means. It was shown that diameter growth in lower size classes ceases under conditions of extreme suppression while growth continues unabated in the larger size classes, resulting in greater dispersion in diameter. Competition mortality was to a large extent confined to the lower size classes and severe mortality results in an apparent increase in mean diameter which precludes use of growth functions which impose an asymptote. Allometric growth was investigated on two different sites and growth trends were shown to be anamorphic between sites. This permits a ratio approach to the estimation of growth and yield on one site based on experimental evidence from another. Thinning effects in terms of diameter and height changes were estimated from simulated thinnings using data from unthinned stands while the results of long-term thinning studies were compared in terms of cumulative volume yields. The age at which mean annual increment culminates was determined and a model for the estimation of m.a.i. as a function of age and stand density was constructed. A critical examination of spacing indices revealed that the slopes thereof were much steeper than those for many other species. The better-known indices of Reineke and Yoda were found to be dependent on age. / Ph. D.