Sustainability of Commercial Forestry in a Changing Socioeconomic and Legal Environment: A Case Study of South Africa

Commercial forestry is an important industry in South Africa, generating considerable employment and foreign exchange. The industry has grown rapidly after World War II with active government support. However, since the beginning of the transition to democracy in 1991, there have been increasingly vociferous attacks on the industry regarding its urban and big business bias, and its role in damaging the environment. The transition to democracy has brought a change in the structure or makeup of its stakeholders, whose expectations from the industry are diverse. The sustainability of the industry has therefore become a major concern for policymakers, and has to deal with concerns from its different stakeholders and society-at-large. As a result, a need for new institutional or policy reforms has arisen; the current study suggests a set of policy guidelines that might defuse the tension in the industry and set it on a sustainable path.