Timberwatch Information

Timberwatch is a coalition of non-governmental environmental organisations and many concerned individuals. Members share a concern for the ways in which alien timber plantations impact on the environment. Biodiversity, natural landscapes and ecosystems all suffer, as do human communities in areas affected by plantations or pulp and paper mills. Until fairly recently, the government authority responsible for approval of new plantations in South Africa only considered impacts on water resources when considering new applications. As a result large areas of valuable biodiverse naturally vegetated and agricultural land have been converted to timber plantations, with little thought being given to the consequences to the communities in those areas. How do Timber Plantations Affect Communities? Many of the negative impacts on rural communities are not immediately visible: for example, permanent employment is replaced with contract work, which offers only limited economic benefits to workers, but increases corporate profits. Contractors also employ displaced people that come from poor neighbouring countries because they accept lower wages. Loss of access to their land and other natural resources, and poor local pay prospects, encourages local people to migrate to slum settlements outside nearby cities.