Media
Forestry at the core of flagship Umgano project
SA Forestry magazine, Dec 2011
The Umgano project is a shining example of how commercial forestry can provide a launch pad for sustainable development, setting a poor rural community on a development trajectory that has the potential to transform the lives of many…
Umgano Sawmill taking shape
SA Forestry magazine, Jun 2014
The Mabandla community of southern KwaZulu-Natal, one of the pioneers of community-owned forestry in South Africa, is taking their timber business to the next level with the establishment of a sawmilling business known as the Umgano Timber Company (Pty) Ltd...
Forestry the backbone of development in rural KZN
SA Forestry magazine, Aug 2016
The pioneering Umgano Community Initiative, built on a solid foundation of forestry, has progressed to the next level with the recent opening of a sawmill. The business, started by members of the Mabandla Community near Creighton…
KZN community fights poverty through forestry project
Frmer's Weekly, Oct 2016
A total of 7 000ha was transferred to the Mabandla community in Kwazulu-Natal as part of government’s land reform programme. The community has since established several successful ventures, including a commercial forestry enterprise, on the land…
Training initiative supports economic development in rural KZN
SA Forestry magazine, Jul 2019
Umgano Training Academy secured funding from the Department of Higher Education and Training and the National Skills Fund, for 60 Learnerships in General Forestry and Nature Conservation. These young learners, pictured at Mabandla village, are paid a stipend for the duration of the year-long course…
MPAH case study series: Umgano Project
SANBI Publishing, 2015
Important biodiversity sometimes occurs on community owned land that must also support the lives and livelihoods of rural people. The Mabandla community in KwaZulu-Natal recognises the many benefits that can be achieved through sustainable land management, and has developed a spatial zoning approach…
Forestry, an economic enabler for South Africa’ s rural communities
Ballantyne, J. & Nixon, P., 2015
Peter Nixon & Themba Radebe started working with Communities in South Africa in the mid 1990’s. The communities were assisted to organise into legal entities, & after obtaining the relevant permits started planting trees on their Communal land in the year 2000…
Community-owned forestry as the basis for conservation and development: Miombo woodlands in Tanzania and timber plantations in South Africa
Clarke, J. & Ball, S. 2015
The paper highlights and compares features of a community-owned forestry plantation at Mabandla in South Africa, and village-owned miombo woodland forestry enterprises in Kilwa District, southern Tanzania…
Community-based forestry enterprises – Lessons learnt in South Africa
Howard, M. & Madlala, M., 2015
Community-based forestry enterprise development meets many of the critical requirements for meaningful economic upliftment of rural communities, where land areas with suitable climatic and soil characteristics are available and where these are within economic distances to primary timber processing facilities…
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