A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy
Johannesburg
29 September 2017 / As in other developing countries in Africa, unsustainable harvesting of fuelwood in South
Africa has become a matter of concern among policy makers and researchers. This is despite
the country having the highest electrification access in the continent, because the majority of
rural households in communal woodland areas cannot afford to cook on electric stoves, due
to high levels of poverty and unemployment,. Moreover, relevant institutions do not have the
capacity to monitor compliance with harvesting rules, resulting in resource users harvesting
livewood due to the scarcity of deadwood with almost impunity, despite this constituting an
illegal activity under the traditional management rules. Other interventions such as woodlots
have largely been unsuccessful in addressing the unsustainable harvesting problems. Thus,
researchers have recommended that rotational coppice harvesting be implemented by the
local institutions in partnership with local resource users as a potential strategy to sustainably
provide fuelwood, while addressing incapacity problems in terms of the shortage of physical
and human resources in the relevant institutions. The majority of South Africans using
fuelwood reside in the savanna biome which covers 34% of the country. Savanna tree species
generally coppice (resprout) easily and this provides an opportunity for rotational harvesting
strategies, involving local resource users.
Although ecological data suggest that rotational harvesting of coppice regrowth can be
sustainable, rotational harvesting of coppice has not gained popularity in South Africa,
because of tenurial and institutional challenges in communal areas. Thus, whether or not
rotational harvesting strategies are feasible in communal woodland is yet to be established.
This thesis reports the findings of a study that assessed the implementation of a rotational
harvesting scheme in selected rural communities. In order to investigate the ecological and
socio-economic feasibility of community-based coppice management (CBCM), four
communities across Limpopo and Mpumalanga Provinces (Thorndale, Peninghotsa, Homu
and Makhuva) in South Africa were selected based on a set of criteria, and involved in a
coppice management trial. The harvesting trial was implemented over a one year period by
the local traditional leadership in partnership with local resource users and relevant
government institutions, facilitated by the researcher. The trial was successfully piloted
through one iteration of the adaptive management cycle in the first two villages. The
intervention entailed rotational harvesting of specified stem size classes and species in blocks
(coupes), according to consensus-based rules that were enforced by local institutions in
cooperation with resource users. The study period was not long enough to monitor the
rotational harvesting of coppice per se, but enabled the creation of coppice stools and a
community-based system for rotational harvesting of wood resources.
Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used in this action research study to assess
fuelwood harvesting and use patterns, ecological sustainability, social feasibility, and the
adequacy of local resource-governance systems to implement CBCM, over the course of the
first year of the intervention. Data such as energy mix used in the households, time spent
acquiring fuelwood, compliance with harvesting rules, perceived cooperation between
institutions, and socio-economic information were collected using questionnaires. Data were
collected in two survey periods, the first occurring in early January 2014 before the trial
started, and the second one from April 2014, after it had started, to January 2015. The
fuelwood resource base, coppicing, and wood harvesting patterns in the village communal
woodlands were assessed before and during the trial in fixed 100 m2 circular plots.
Allometric equations were used to convert the observed density of stems and coppice shoots
into wood biomass. The measured growth rates of coppice shoots were used to estimate the
amount of time that would be required for shoots to reach the allowable harvest diameter of
4–9 cm, and hence the number of years required for one harvest rotation between coupes.
These data, along with the measured rates of self-thinning of shoots and village wood
demand, were used to make projections of fuelwood supply by coppice and unharvested
stems in the village coupes over a number of harvest rotations. The effectiveness of
management under traditional management rules and that of CBCM were assessed in focus
group discussions, interviews and questionnaires with the local traditional leaders and key
informant interviews with government rangers before and during the trial.
Levels of compliance by resource users with the agreed CBCM rules were high in Thorndale
and Peninghotsa because they were given an opportunity to decide and agree on harvesting
rules that were conducive to their harvesting practices. Although the intervention did not
change the energy use patterns in the households in these villages, local resource users spent
significantly less time acquiring fuelwood than they did prior to the intervention, thus
reducing the opportunity costs of wood harvesting. There was a noticeable decline in the
incidence of illegal harvesting of fuelwood by “outsiders” due to greater vigilance by
resource users and community-based monitors as a result of the successful implementation of
CBCM in these villages. Based on the growth rate data averaged across species, coppice
shoots would reach the harvestable diameter of 4 cm in 3 years in Thorndale and 4 years in
Penninghotsa. The difference may be explained by species differences in these villages, e.g.
Terminalia sericea which coppices vigorously was one of the predominant species recorded
in Thorndale. The successful implementation of the trial in Thorndale and Pennighotsa in the
first year of the intervention is attributed to a number of socio-economic factors, including
relatively small and homogenous populations, innovative and adaptive local TAs which were
flexible and had encouraged community participation and supportive resource users who had
positive perceptions of their leadership and the project. This is in contrast to Homu 14B and
Makhuva which were characterised by larger, more heterogeneous populations, inflexible
leadership who were incapacitated by lack of physical resources, lack of transparency by the
leadership, and negative attitudes and perceptions of resources users. This study demonstrates
that community-based coppice management is potentially applicable and feasible for
sustainable provision of fuelwood in communal areas, and identified under what conditions it
is most likely to succeed. / MT2018
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/24169 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Mathebula, Norman |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | Online resource (xvii, 263 leaves), application/pdf, application/pdf |
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