Project Ozwathini: Sustainable Land Use Through Biodiversity Stewardship and Forest Certification in a Community Forestry Setting on Tribal Trust Land

Grantee Name: NCT Forestry Co-Operative Limited

Hotspot: Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany
Location: South Africa
Amount: $50,000
Dates: Feb 2014 – Sep 2015
Keywords: Access and Benefit Sharing, Buffer zones, Certification, Community-based conservation, Forestry, Private sector, Employment, Poverty

Work with the Ozwathini community and the Hlaganani Timber Association to improve forestry activities on communal property in South Africa. This includes (1) identifying specific wetland and sensitive plots within the area for rehabilitation and protection, a combined 400 hectares of endangered KwaZulu-Natal Sandstone Sourveld; and (2) training of community forest managers to ultimately certify yields in compliance with Forest Stewardship Council standards on 7,000 hectares of production land. Apart from improved environmental management in the production forest, as many as 100 people will benefit from higher incomes due to the sale of certified timber.

Strategic Direction :

2 Expand conservation areas and improve land use in 19 key biodiversity areas through innovative approaches