Community-company partnerships in forestry in South Africa – An examination of trends

Abstract

Partnerships between communities and private companies have been tried and tested in various regions within Africa and the world. Community-Private-Public Partnerships exist in various sectors such as mining, agriculture, tourism and forestry. These relationships are often attempts to promote equity of benefits accruing basically from land-based resources between the private sector, and/or government and communities. In Africa and in southern Africa, various tests and trials have involved natural resources and more specifically, Community-Based Natural Resource Management hence partnerships have mostly been discussed in the context of CBNRM (Katerere, 1999). Players in partnerships are often motivated differently by such ventures depending on the needs and aspirations of each party in the particular region. Partnerships are also influenced by national policies. The government, the private companies and the communities all have distinct roles to play. The main focus of this report will be to examine partnerships in the private forest sector in South Africa. However, similar ventures existing in sectors such as tourism and agriculture within South Africa will be examined as well as in other regions of Africa and elsewhere