Forestry and Wood Products

• Develop 30,000 hectares of new plantations.
• Rehabilitate 10,000 hectares of existing state plantations.
• Establish downstream wood processing facilities at Mthatha.

• Building joinery: Black owned saw-millers can diversify into doors, frames, flooring, planks, mostly in pine. Export potential.
• Charcoal: Small wattle plantations can be used to produce high quality charcoal. Can develop from the ‘Working for Water’ campaign
• Community forestry: Transfer small plantations to community trusts to form community public private partnerships with sawmills and other wood processing companies.
• Improved wood quality: Training saw millers in wood processing, especially pine.
• Increase forestry area: The Eastern Cape is the only province that can increase its forestry area. An estimated 120 000 hectares can be planted, mostly in the former Transkei.
• Indigenous plantations: Small plantations of indigenous hardwood (yellowwood, blackwood) can be harvested to a limited extent.
• New hardwood plantations: Need for increased availability of eucalypts (saligna) and wattle.
• Paper and pulp mill: Long-term potential for a paper and pulp mill at Mthatha once forestry area has expanded.
• Treated poles: Potential for a plant in Butterworth. Uses in agriculture and transmission poles.
• Wood-chipping plant: The East London IDZ can host an export wood-chipping plant, railing timber from Mthatha.