Are Swaziland's timber plantations sustainable?

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Swaziland’s timber plantations have been held up as a model of sustainable forestry management, where other plantations around the world are considered to have had negative environmental and social impacts. However, the authors of this report argue that these plantations are sustainable in the narrowest sense of the term, that of “long-term productivity” rather than “sustainability” as it is understood in a development context.

The authors discuss the social, economic and environmental impact Swaziland’s long-standing plantations which have resulted in:

• displacement of local people, when these were first established
  
• use of land which could otherwise be used for agriculture and food production in a country where one third of the country’s population relies on food aid
  
• employment, where provided, is hazardous and recent use of outsourcing, contracts and retrenchment of labour has kept employees poor and dependent
  
• plantations have been established on the land with the best rainfall and their high water consumption reduces the flow in rivers and streams to other parts of the country. In addition, commercially-used trees such as eucalyptus and pine can affect the rate of replenishment of ground water.
  
• air-borne pollution from pulp and paper mills is affecting people’s health in local communities - particularly children
  
• rivers and streams close to pulp mills are subject to chemical effluent releases and disposal of waste materials from sawmills into nearby mills appears to be common practice
  
• loss of biodiversity through unchecked spread of commercially planted trees is causing displacement of local species through shading, suffocation and dehydration of streams and wetlands.

The authors conclude that plantations in Swaziland have a similar negative impact as has been noted elsewhere and are not an exception to the rule, as expressed by earlier research.