Water Wheel Jan/Feb 2024: Water And Forestry

Abstract

Forestry – Boon or bane for the Western Cape? More than 20 years ago, environmentalists in the Western Cape were overjoyed when government announced in September 2000 that its pine plantations in the province would be phased out. The region was experiencing a drought at the time, and commercial forestry was under renewed scrutiny, having been accused for decades of reducing runoff and then declared a streamflow reduction activity in the National Water Act just two years previously. And since the launch of Working for Water in 1995, the threats posed by invasive plants in the Cape Floristic Region – in terms of their water use, fire risk and biodiversity impact – had been repeatedly highlighted. Pine trees were by no means the only culprits, but vast tracts of mountain fynbos had been invaded by plantation escapees. Fast forward to the end of 2022, when the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) issued a call for proposals from investors to lease plantations in the Western Cape representing half of the total area originally intended to be phased out.

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