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A tale of two villages: assessing the dynamics of fuelwood supply in communal landscapes in South Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 September 2012

RUWADZANO MATSIKA ,
BAREND F.N. ERASMUS  and
WAYNE C. TWINE
RUWADZANO MATSIKA*
Affiliation:
School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, WITS 2050, South Africa
BAREND F.N. ERASMUS
Affiliation:
School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, WITS 2050, South Africa
WAYNE C. TWINE
Affiliation:
School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, c/o Wits Rural Facility, Private Bag X420, Acornhoek, 1360, South Africa
*
*Correspondence: Ms R. Matsika Tel: +27117176408 e-mail: ruwadzano@gmail.com
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Summary

Fuelwood is the dominant source of energy used by most rural households in southern Africa to meet daily domestic energy requirements. Due to limited financial resources, most rural households are unable to make the transition to electricity thus they remain dependant on the woodlands surrounding their settlements as a source of cheap energy. Unsustainable fuelwood harvesting due to increasing demand as a result of growing human populations may result in environmental degradation particularly in the high-density, communal savannah woodlands of South Africa. Evaluating the sustainability of current fuelwood harvesting patterns requires an understanding of the environmental impacts of past logging practices to establish patterns of woodland degradation. This study evaluates impacts of fuelwood harvesting from 1992–2009 on the woodland structure and species composition surrounding two rural villages located within the Kruger to Canyons Biosphere Reserve (Mpumalanga Province, South Africa). Both villages (Welverdiend and Athol) were of similar spatial extent and exhibited similar socioeconomic characteristics. The total wood stock in the communal woodlands of both villages declined overall (with greater losses seen in Welverdiend) and, in Welverdiend, there were also changes in the woodland structure and species diversity of the species commonly harvested for fuelwood over this period. The woodlands in Welverdiend have become degraded and no longer produce fuelwood of preferred species and stem size in sufficient quantity or quality. The absence of similar negative impacts in Athol suggests more sustainable harvesting regimes exist there because of the lower human population and lower fuelwood extraction pressure. The Welverdiend community has annexed neighbouring unoccupied private land in a social response to fuelwood scarcity. Athol residents behaved similarly during drought periods. The potential for future conflict with neighbouring conservation areas within the Kruger to Canyons Biosphere is high if current land uses and fuelwood extraction patterns are maintained.

Keywords

African savannahsrural communitiessustainable harvestingwoodland structure
Type
Papers
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 40 , Issue 1 , March 2013 , pp. 71 - 83
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 2012

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