MAKHOTSO SOTYU | Let's protect our forests to boost economy, fight climate change

Trees and forests are often referred to as our green heritage because of their contribution to a healthy environment.

Indigenous trees, forests and woodlands help prevent veld fires, can mitigate against climate change, save water and contribute to food security through the availability of fresh fruit.

September is not only Arbor Month in SA. It is also a month in which we celebrate our heritage. Thus the inclusion of the Sophiatown Oak tree and the Sagole Baobab tree in Limpopo in the champion trees to be celebrated for their culture significance.

The Sophiatown Oak is the first tree to be declared a champion tree in SA, for being the only tree that survived the demolition of Sophiatown in the 1950s.

The Sagole Baobab in Tshipise, Limpopo, is the largest baobab tree in SA. It boasts a trunk of more than 10.47 metres. It takes about 20 people to encircle this enormous popular tourist attraction.

The 2022 Tree of the Year is the Pompom tree, commonly known kabannas or  intozani in Xhosa and intozwane-emnyama in Zulu, is one of the best known and loved indigenous trees in SA. This tree is tough enough to be used as a street tree and small enough to fit into most gardens. When it's in bloom at Christmas time, it looks like a giant candy floss as it transforms into a cloud of soft pink balls. Its natural home is the eastern part of SA where it grows on the margins of forests, wooded hill slopes and in stony kloofs.

This year's Arbor Month is being celebrated under the theme “Forests and Sustainable Production and Consumption”, which aligns with the sustainable development and conservation ethos of our forestry resources outlined in the National Forest Act.  

SA does not have many natural forests. We live in a country where both natural and plantation forests do not exceed 1.25-million ha of the total land surface of the country. Because of this, we need to ensure that there is little impact in terms of reduction of the resource either by proposed land uses changes, fires or natural disasters.

We need to protect our forests. This is a national resource that contributes about R36.34bn to the economy – about 0.6% of gross domestic product.

That is why the national forestry masterplan, approved in 2020 to ensure transformation, growth and development in the sector, is so important. It is a plan which focuses mainly on interventions that will improve investments and transformation in the sector and includes the transfer of plantations to allow the government to focus on policy and regulation in efforts to let it strive.

Through the forestry masterplan we hope to attract an investment of around R24.9bn in the sector and create 100,000 jobs in the five-year implementation period, while government facilitates and coordinates the recapitalisation of state-owned plantations and opportunities that exist for New Afforestation in partnership with communities.

Forests have another important role to play in our daily lives as they act as carbon sinks – areas that absorb the equivalent of about two billion tonnes of carbon dioxide each year. This contributes to a reduction in greenhouse gases.  

But, deforestation is the second leading cause of climate change after burning fossil fuels accounting for nearly 20 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions – more than the world’s entire transport sector. Effective forest management can strengthen resilience and adaptive capacities to climate-related natural disasters, underscoring the importance of integrating forest-based measures into national disaster risk reduction strategies.

It is for this reason that the department of forestry, fisheries and the environment, through a directive from the presidency, is leading the roll-out of the Ten Million Trees Programme that saw 850,000 trees being planted in the first year. The aim of the programme is to plant at least two million trees countrywide each year for five years through a coordinated effort by the government, non-government organisations, community-based organisations, the corporate sector and the general public.

Sotyu is the deputy minister of forestry, fisheries and the environment