Going beyond the trees: Supporting communities through forestry
The vital role of both indigenous and planted forests in sustaining people and the planet took centre stage on the 21 March, 2025, the International Day of Forests. This year’s theme focused on forests and food, emphasising their importance in food security, nutrition, and livelihoods.
Forestry South Africa (FSA) views this annual celebration as an opportunity to recognise the interconnection between our sector and the rural communities it supports.
Positioned in remote areas across Limpopo, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, and Western Cape, the South African forestry sector empowers some of the country’s most impoverished communities. Beyond providing employment and boosting the rural economy, it invests significantly in social initiatives that address socio-economic and environmental challenges, including food security. By supporting small-scale farmers, promoting agroforestry, and facilitating market access, the sector fosters self-sufficiency and long-term sustainability, contributing to food security and economic growth.
EMPOWERING THROUGH COMMUNITY AGROFORESTRY ENDEAVOURS
Across the forestry landscape, hundreds of hectares of forestry landholdings are being accessed by community members tending and planting a variety of vegetable and commodity crops between the rows of commercial trees.
Over the last few decades, timber company Merensky Timber allocated extensive areas for more than 1,682 community beneficiaries to grow groundnuts among their planted trees. After four months of hard work in a year, each beneficiary harvested between 50 and 80kg of nuts for personal consumption and to sell in informal markets. Merensky is not alone; Sappi, SAFCOL, MTO Group, and Mondi have similar programmes that include business skills training for beneficiaries, helping them access formal markets like the peanut butter industry.
Merensky’s Rooikoppies Community beneficiary, Roy Finley asserts that growing your own food is like printing your own money.
The importance of this statement cannot be overstated, with many of the individuals involved in these agroforestry endeavours being previously unemployed and living in rural communities with some of the highest unemployment rates in South Africa.
By investing in sustainable agroforestry enterprises the forestry sector is not only addressing the issue of food security; it is also enabling these communities to open doors for the next generation. As Ms Ntombiyenkosi Mbuyazi from the Shikishela community explains, “With the money from planting groundnuts, we pay our children’s school fees.
GROWING TOGETHER: COMMUNITY VEGETABLE GARDENS
Agroforestry is flourishing beyond the planted compartments, as Nomvuyo Mehlo from the Eastern Cape explains, “The 11 hectares provided by PG Bison for vegetable farming has put food on the table for 24 families who previously had very little.”
Across the country, corporate and medium-scale forestry enterprises have donated land, equipment, expertise, irrigation, and seeds to create vegetable gardens, the produce of which supplies nutritious food to families, vulnerable individuals and schools.
These gardens are doing more than simply addressing the food security needs of the individuals involved, they are enabling communities to care for and support the most vulnerable amongst them. Isak Meshaka, Headmaster at Storms River Senior Primary School, explains, “We use the gardens to teach learners responsibility, and the veggies support our school feeding scheme, especially as many parents in our area are unemployed.”
NURTURING ENTREPRENEURIAL ENDEAVOURS: BEEKEEPING COOPERATIVES
While addressing immediate food security challenges is essential, the long-term solution lies in growing the rural economy, stimulating jobs and reducing unemployment and poverty. The forestry sector empowers small, medium, and micro-enterprises (SMMEs) through targeted training, mentorship, and financial support. Entrepreneurs like Lenius Malapane from the Mambiteni Bee Keeping Cooperative, expresses their gratitude to SAFCOL for developing the cooperative and allowing them access to the SAFCOL plantations, as this has enabled cooperative members to provide for their families.
These initiatives illustrate just some of the ways in which the forestry sector is transforming lives and communities through social investment. More examples can be found on the Forestry South Africa website, featuring an interactive map showcasing various social programmes.
In terms of social investment, whether alleviating food insecurity or addressing other social divides, the forestry sector embraces the philosophy:
“If you give a man bread, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to farm, you feed him for a lifetime.” FSA is proud of its members’ commitment to investing in social initiatives that foster positive, lasting change.
Source: FSA – Forestry in Focus (Page 8 – 9)
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