Summary of Stakeholder Issues and Response by KVTC

1. Summary of Stakeholder Issues and Response by KVTC KVTC Chris Bekker Wildhorus Anne Danby &

2. FSC Principle 4:Community Relations and Worker’s Rights Issues Identified: • Need for an analysis to determine if the needs of both men and women have been taken into account in the planning of KVTC operations and distribution of village funds. • Gender equity. FSC Criterion 4.1 The communities within, or adjacent to, the forest management area should be given opportunities for employment, training, and other services. FSC Criterion 4.4 Management planning and operations shall incorporate the results of evaluations of social impact. Consultations shall be maintained with people and groups directly affected by management operations.

3. KVTC’s Response There is an internal non-discrimination policy in use at KVTC. Minute taking is amended to demonstrate even handedness.

4. FSC Principle 4:Community Relations and Worker’s Rights Issues Identified: • Company commitment in the long term. • Community participation. • Sustaining the social contract:- improvement in villagers livelihoods. • Awareness of long term effects of KVTC in the local community. • Economic impact on communities. • Project has changed social norms, greater importance given to financial status. • Increased access to direct and contractual employment. FSC Criterion 4.4 Management planning and operations shall incorporate the results of evaluations of social impact. Consultations shall be maintained with people and groups directly affected by management operations.

5. KVTC’s Response The very nature and methods of the investment the company is making demonstrates a long term commitment. KVTC has conducted a social survey in its stakeholding villages since the last stakeholders meeting. This study signifies the importance of our people to the company. The company does participate with villages regularly. This is demonstrated by the process by which the social fund is distributed. The company devised, implemented and follows a policy of local empowerment. All the companies forest activities are outsourced. The Social survey done measured the impacts in order to better assess.

6. FSC Principle 4:Community Relations and Worker’s Rights Issues Identified: • Increased HIV risk through association with people with greater finance and power compared with themselves. • Impact of Aids on communities. • A need for KVTC to communicate clearly to district councillors what they are doing for local communities. • Need for closer co-operation with district government. FSC Criterion 4.4 Management planning and operations shall incorporate the results of evaluations of social impact. Consultations shall be maintained with people and groups directly affected by management operations.

7. KVTC’s Response • KVTC has an AIDS awareness programme, and supplies condoms to staff. Field staff are local people, so there is not an issue of importing infection to the area. • Two formal meetings have already been held. The DC of Ulanga did visit the project, a wildlife workshop was held, and the company is currently funding and assisting a Land Use plan in the area. From the above the companies involvement is clear.

8. FSC Principle 4:Community Relations and Worker’s Rights Issues Identified: • Some problem animals have increased either in abundance or in proximity to farmland leading to increased crop damage. • Change in settlement patterns (development of new villages) which further limits game. • Increased distance to medicinal plants, some species decreased or disappeared. • Use of forest by workers; Namawaco; Access to Phoenix reclinata. FSC Criterion 4.4 Management planning and operations shall incorporate the results of evaluations of social impact. Consultations shall be maintained with people and groups directly affected by management operations.

9. KVTC’s Response • We do not have hard evidence of animal increase on farmlands. KVTC does however have research results showing an increase in hartebeest on its landholding. This reflects the level of competition the animals are experiencing on the floodplain. • People are probably increasing in the Valley, reflected in all the newly established farm around our landholding. KVTC cannot however be accountable for the movement of people as it is not the regulator. The development of land use plans will hopefully help. • Loss of Plants. KVTC has done studies to monitor the impact of its operations. More than 50% of the miombo under our management is protected. It was not brought to our attention that any plants are under threat or disappearing on our land in any of the studies.

10. FSC Principle 4: Community Relations and Worker’s Rights& FSC Principle 5: Benefits from the Forest • Reduction of access to bushmeat resource. • Availability of wildlife for hunting. • Some problem animals have increased either in abundance or in proximity to farmland leading to increased crop damage. • Change in settlement patterns (development of new villages) which further limits game. • Conflict resolution system needed to control illegal hunting and harvesting. FSC Criterion 4.4 Management planning and operations shall incorporate the results of evaluations of social impact. Consultations shall be maintained with people and groups directly affected by management operations. FSC Criterion 5.4 Forest management should strive to strengthen and diversify the local economy, avoiding dependence on a single forest product.

11. KVTC’s Response • Bush-meat. Contradiction in terms between this point and the increase of game on farms. The issue raised is unclear. • KVTC does not own or control wildlife. The company however has a no hunting policy on its land.

12. FSC Principle 5:Benefits from the Forest Issues Identified: • To allow the local people to collect firewood cut from the teak plantation. • Dependence of local communities on forest products, firewood and medicines etc.. • Need for alternative source of energy for poor communities in order to reduce dependence on firewood. • Communities should get trees cut down during land clearing. FSC Criterion 5.4 Forest management should strive to strengthen and diversify the local economy, avoiding dependence on a single forest product.

13. KVTC’s Response • KVTC encourages the use of firewood by local people from the areas it clears for planting. • KVTC is undertaking studies in the Miombo to make informed decisions. Firewood off-take removes regeneration and destroys the miombo resource if not controlled. We have heard that plants have disappeared in other areas earlier. For this reason KVTC must conclude its research before allowing off-take of plants. • KVTC is looking at finding ways of starting an outgrower scheme. This needs responsible planning, as the impacts could be negative. KVTC is a forestry business, the supply of energy falls without our realm of knowledge. • KVTC has expressed its willingness to participate. It is for the communities to propose how they want to proceed.

14. FSC Principle 5:Benefits from the Forest Issues Identified: • First company to grow teak on a large scale in the Ulanga and Kilombero district. Will other companies follow the trend? • Local communities involvement in outgrower plantations. • Ensure that outgrower schemes really reduce the pressure on the remaining Miombo. FSC Criterion 5.4 Forest management should strive to strengthen and diversify the local economy, avoiding dependence on a single forest product.

15. KVTC’s Response • It is difficult to know what will happen, but we know of an attempt made to plant teak near Kihansi. We know that the attempt was not successful. • Company will develop an outgrower scheme according to FSC principles.

16. FSC Principle 6:Environmental Impact Issues Identified: • Representative conservation of habitat in protected area. • Refuge Areas. • Edge Effect. • Protection of natural woodland: Biodiversity conservation in natural stands. • Prepare management plans for miombo woodlands. • Corridors and migration routes. FSC Criterion 6.2b Conservation zones and protection areas shall be established, appropriate to the scale and intensity of forest management and the uniqueness of the affected resources. FSC Criterion 10.1 The management objectives of the plantation, including natural forest conservation and restoration objectives, shall be explicitly stated in the management plan, and clearly demonstrated in the implementation of the plan.

17. KVTC’s Response • Botanical surveys to identify areas of high conservation value e.g. Raphia swamp. • Edge effect study by Frontier. • Habitat quality monitoring system. • Faunal Surveys. • Wildlife workshop. • Miombo protection, restoration and management system development.

18. Teak Hydrology & Soils Principles 4,5,6 & 10 Issues Identified: • Teak Hydrology. • Soil protection by afforestation. • Avoid planting on steep slopes, valley bottoms and water sources. • Water quality and quantity. • Width of riparian buffer zones. • Width of streamside protection zones: national regulations, policy and environmental impacts. • Investigate distance plantation should be from water source.

19. KVTC’s Response • Hydrological impact survey estimates little effect on water quantity. • ISO14000 system recognises and manages impacts on soil systems. • Implementation of SARS system for water quality monitoring. • Installation of water flow monitoring equipment in streams. • Investigation of appropriate modification to current rule of 20m streamside zone.

20. FSC Principle 6: Environmental Impact& FSC Principle 10:Plantations Issues Identified: • Need for land use planning at landscape scale. • Land use allocation to achieve biodiversity conservation at the landscape scale. • Lack of land use planning around villages where KVTC operates. FSC Criterion 6.1 Assessment of environmental impacts shall be completed appropriate to the scale, intensity of forest management and the uniqueness of the affected resources and adequately integrated into management systems. Assessments shall include landscape level considerations as well as the impacts of on-site processing facilities. Environmental impacts shall be assessed prior to commencement of site-disturbing operations. FSC Criterion 10.1 The management objectives of the plantation, including natural forest conservation and restoration objectives, shall be explicitly stated in the management plan, and clearly demonstrated in the implementation of the plan.

21. KVTC’s Response • The company is currently funding the development of land use plans on the land of seven villages in the area.

22. Fire Management FSC Principle 6 & FSC Principle 10 Issues Identified: • Fire management, in particular timing. • Fires must be managed as cool burns. • Firebreaks should be burnt at start of dry season. • The width of firebreaks to be more accurately controlled in particular in riparian areas. • A fire break should surround the entire planted block to prevent fire from entering the plantations. FSC Criterion 6.3 Ecological functions and values shall be maintained intact, enhanced, or restored, including: a) Forest regeneration and succession. B) Genetic, species, and ecosystem diversity. C) Natural cycles that affect the productivity of the forest ecosystem. FSC Criterion 10.2b Wildlife corridors, streamside zones and a mosaic of stands of different ages and rotation periods, shall be used in the layout of the plantation, consistent with the scale of the operation. FSC Criterion 10.7 Measures shall be taken to prevent and minimise outbreaks of pests, diseases, fire and invasive plant introductions. Integrated pest management shall form an essential part of the management plan, with primary reliance on prevention and biological control methods rather than chemical pesticides and fertilisers. Plantation management should make every effort to move away from chemical pesticides and fertilisers, including their use in nurseries.

23. KVTC’s Response • With the development of the ISO 14001 system the issues around fire-management were addressed, best operating practices were developed and are in place. They will ensure that the policy and recommendations made are in carried out in practice.

24. FSC Principle 8:Monitoring and Assessment Issues Identified: • Need for monitoring FSC Criterion 8.2c Forest management should include the research and data collection needed to monitor: The composition and observed changes in the flora and fauna.

25. KVTC’s Response ISO 14001 system was developed.

26. FSC Principle 10:Plantations Issues Identified: • The percentage of natural vegetation to plantations of teak and other species. • More species should be grown in plantations, in particular there is a need for fast growing species to meet immediate demands of the local communities. FSC Criterion 10.5 A proportion of the overall forest management area, appropriate to the scale of the plantation and to be determined in regional standards, shall be managed so as to restore the site to a natural forest cover. FSC Criterion 10.3 Diversity in the composition of plantations is preferred, so as to enhance economic, ecological and social stability. Such diversity may include the size and spatial distribution of management units within the landscape, number and genetic composition of species, age classes and structures.

27. KVTC’s Response KVTC expects to plant approximately 7,000ha of its landholding to teak (25%). Planting of a second species and what that species would be is being researched. KVTC will not convert more that 50% of its land to plantation and will convert less than 50% of the Miombo Woodlands that it controls. Teak is planted extensively by the local population, with only 6% of the interested people having problems in finding planting material. KVTC is exploring Outgrowers, but this will have to evolve within the standard of FSC.

28. FSC Principle 10:Plantations Issue Identified: • Clearance of miombo to plant teak FSC Criterion 10.9 Plantations established in areas converted from natural forests after November 1994 normally shall not qualify for certification. Certification may be allowed in circumstances where sufficient evidence is submitted to the certification body that the manager/owner is not responsible directly or indirectly for such conversion.

29. KVTC’s Response • KVTC by its social study shows that it has reached 43% of the people working in its stakeholding areas directly. Operations at KVTC are at a peak in terms of man/day requirements during the poor months in the valley, putting money in the pockets of the communities when it really matters. The local economic empowerment exercise and the long term of the companies involvement contributes to a significant positive social impact in the valley. • KVTC has since its inception been a green company. The company approached the conversions with great care. The FSC certificate will, further demonstrate the companies commitment. Vegetation and miombo studies plus extensive wildlife studies serve the company as management decision making tools. A system of evaluation based on monitoring has recently been developed in order for the company to monitor impacts. • Considering the companies commitment to the protection of more than 50% of the miombo on KVTC land and the quality of that management is of further value, impacts are already visible when entering landholdings.