Evaluation of Land Restitution Benefits in Commercial Plantations in South Africa

1. "EVALUATION OF LAND RESTITUTION BENEFITS TO COMMUNITIES IN SELECTED COMMERCIAL PLANTATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA" Tshidzumba Ratsodo Phillip Supervisor: Prof. Paxie Chirwa 04th – 05th October 2017 SAFCOL FORESTRY INDUSTRIALIZATION CONFERENCE

2. Background • Land reform topic in South Africa has recently received more political attention and it has also proven to be delicate issue. • At the same time, land reform provided an opportunity to previously disadvantaged rural communities’ who suffered land dispossession under the apartheid regime. • More commercially afforested land under claim poses a serious challenge and threat to timber production. • As such, to ensure the sustainability of the existing land use, the implementation of Public-Private partnership models fully designed by FI has been considered. • The development of such models provided some level of relief to the forestry industry whilst potentially “opening opportunities” to land claimants to participate into forestry business activities. • However, the main question of our study was whether benefits accrual to the beneficiaries has been achieved through these PPP.

3. Forest plantation land area cover statistics

4. Conceptual framework Forestry Industry/ Companies Land Reform (Restitution) – GOVT Forest-Based Public-Private Partnership Land Claimants Are these models able to facilitate accrual of benefits accruing to the beneficiaries ???

5. Surveyed land restitution community beneficiaries TP=220 (n=140) TP = 334 (n=175) Cata community beneficiary (Keiskammerhoek Area - EC): CME Ama-Bomvini community beneficiary (Kranskop Area - KZN) : SLB

6. Model short fall is that partnership terms does not include beneficiation Worrying factor: Poor participation by youth Opportunity for community beneficiary to take over… It favours the private companies Provision of extension services

7. Worrying factor: Poor participation by youth continue….. The success of this model is dependent on continuous post-settlement support i.e. financially and technically from GOVT/NGO This model also gives the beneficiaries more room to decide on alternative land uses without compromising on the existing ones.

8. Beneficiaries perception on existence of benefit-sharing mechanisms • A Total of 15,5% surveyed beneficiaries from Ama-Bomvini perceived that mechanisms for distribution of benefits amongst beneficiaries existed compared to 41.7% from Cata.

9. Reasons for poor performance of Forest-Based partnership models regarding benefits sharing as per findings? • Models are industry centred – e.g. SLB • Exclusion of land beneficiaries when designing of partnership models • Transparency • Trust • Greed for power • Elite capture element • Financial and Technical Skills • No Benefit sharing mechanisms in place • None existence of post-settlement support • Governance • Conflicting views of beneficiaries over the land use priorities

10. Major points of consideration from the study findings • Coordinated research focusing on forestry land reform PPP model’s effectiveness on improving households beneficiaries SES. Understanding land claimants’ desirable modalities to accrue benefits from their land or partnership. • Interdepartmental working relationship need to be strengthened (i.e. different GOVT departments need to contribute support within their specific mandates and expertise to the CB) • Provide M&E as planned. • Provision of Grants timeously to beneficiaries. • This could promote beneficiaries’ interest to venture into forestry industry operations, thereby realizing substantial benefit accrual to all beneficiaries. • Sustainability and/or future of the forestry industry could be assured while mutually benefiting CB. Accrual of Benefits to Community beneficiaries Land Reform PPP Models Research Govt PSS Processing component be part of PPP agreement Skills PGs What is missing in between here???

11. Cont….. • More research is required with regard to forest-based partnership models, especially to understand various benefit-sharing mechanism modalities desirable to the beneficiaries. • To this effect, MSc project is currently underway as a continuation to close the gaps identified in this research. • Research on partnership arrangement would pave a way for meaningful and mutual forest-based models that are inclusive of all partner’s interests. • The future of the forest plantation land use if these issues are not addressed is hanging on the balance. Hence, confronting reality facing us could be the only way out to effectively deal with this challenge. • Information dissemination through workshop training and conference presentation of the findings to the beneficiaries and the industry role players is crucial.

12. INFORMATION DISSEMINATION TRAINING WORKSHOP Traditional leadership Development programme: Implementation of Traditional Leadership Programme for Members of the Makgoba Traditional Council.

13. How can we achieve forestry industrialization with positive impact to the livelihoods of the community beneficiaries through forest-based partnership models??

14. THANK YOU - NDO LIVHUWA!!! ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS For the research funding assistance “The reward of a thing well done is to have done it". - Emerson