An Assessment of Factors Shaping Green Growth Uptake in the Forest Sector at Rural Community Level in South Africa

This paper assessed current mode of forest use and management at rural community level in South Africa with a view to locating space for forest-based green growth initiatives development and factors that might facilitate or hinder uptake of such initiatives. This was done with respect to the need to decouple rural livelihood activities from forest degradation in response to government’s climate change adaptation and mitigation target at rural community level. Vegetation type was used as criteria to select three municipalities (Makhado, Mutale, and Thulamela) out of the four municipalities in Vhembe district. Seven rural communities in each municipality were selected giving a total of 21 rural communities. Using stratified proportionate random sampling procedures in combination with weighted enumeration area (EA) for the selected communities, a total of 366 households were selected and interviewed. Findings showed that the formal forest sectors, e.g. tree plantations and sawmill on the average, make less than 42% contribution to household’s income and livelihood. The formal forest sectors are thus less positioned for immediate delivery of green growth benefit to the rural communities. However, we observed widespread participation in the informal forest sector reaching up to 90% in Mutale municipality. By inference, the informal forest sector is best positioned for immediate delivery of green growth benefits to the communities. Firewood and wild edible insect (Mopani worms) were identified as the priority products for forest green growth initiative uptake. However, issues relating to skill and technical capacity remain a barrier to social inclusiveness in the uptake of green growth initiatives in the community. The study thus recommends capacity enhancement initiatives and forest resource base expansion initiatives via afforestation and reforestation as a means of facilitating forest green growth uptake and delivery of green growth benefits to the study communities.