African Wildlife and Environment Issue 66

CONSERVATION

CONSERVATION

plots with no plantings. Data on all plot interventions has been kept. This includes number and species of trees planted in each plot, date of planting, and whether organic fertiliser was used or not. After four years of growth each plot was audited to establish which trees had died, which were not doing well, and which were doing very well. Any additional trees planted were also recorded. Our next experiment was to compare plots where alien invasive plants were left to grow in the plots, and those where the alien invasives were removed. Finally, every plot was photographed from a fixed point and re-photographed from the same position each year thereafter. This will continue for some years to come. The photographed results of our project are a good means of gauging the progress we have made, since the project began on 30 October, 2009. Some of the results are depicted in our Figures 1 to 4 (see figure 1 on previous page). Although it is still too early to draw any definite conclusions, and especially the debate regarding the removal of alien invasive plants from some of the plots as opposed to allowing them to remain. From what we have been able to establish, it appears that during the early stages of plot establishment, the fast growing alien invasives do provide shade and reduce wind desiccation to the planted trees which is of benefit to them. At a later stage however some of the alien invasive species do compete with the planted indigenous species and if removed, that can be beneficial to the growth of indigenous species. Therefore once the indigenous species are well established, it is advisable to remove or systematically eradicate all the alien species. With respect to the issue of fencing or not fencing of plots, our results show that fenced plots are more successful than unfenced plots. Some of our planted trees and in particular the Black Stinkwood Ocotea bullata are heavily browsed by both Bushbuck and Grey Duiker. This usually results in the death of those trees. Others that suffer badly from excessive browsing include Celtis africana, Halleria lucida, Prunus africana and Vepris lanceolata . Someof theplanted trees in theplots beganflowering and fruiting after four years of growth and so started to seed areas outside the plots. This began the process of speeding up or of ‘filling in’ areas that were not planted. Together with natural regeneration of forest, the whole process of succession was thus accelerated. So now, after only seven years of working with nature and performing assisted plantings, a new forest is rapidly taking shape (see photos). We estimate that in less than twenty years a complete forest cover will be established. Although this will be a low forest cover, it will contain several climax species that will push the canopy up and attain maturity quicker than if we had not created the plots. In particular we have successfully re-established Black Stinkwood trees in a forest where they had become extinct. We hope too that this intervention will help provide a larger habitat for other species of fauna and flora that have suffered as a result of the steady depletion of indigenous forest in South Africa. Here at Mbona Private Nature Reserve we think

of water they draw out of the ground. In some of the important river catchments like the uMngeni and uMvoti, no new permits are being issued by the State for new timber plantations. In fact it has been suggested that in some areas timber plantations will have to be reduced, as the value of water they use will soon be more important to the people of South Africa than the value of the timber in these catchment areas. It has also been suggested that where industrial timber plantations have been phased out in favour of water production, indigenous hard-wood forests could be established to off-set the loss of fast-growing industrial timber plantations since water and indigenous forest (i.e. medicinal plants), together with their biodiversity will be more valuable to the people of South Africa than the industrial timber plantations. If the above scenario comes to pass, then our indigenous Forest Rehabilitation Project will be a useful model for saving our Water Resources and Biodiversity. Mbona Private Nature Reserve enjoys a high rainfall (± 1600 mm) per annum. The Reserve has established nine dams and large areas of wetlands to store part of this huge volume of rain-water. The dams and wetlands also help to recharge the subterranean aquifers, and so enable the numerous streams that have their source on the Reserve to keep flowing throughout the year. The dams, wetlands, grasslands and indigenous forests also help to slow-down the rapid run-off following heavy rainfall. Mbona Private Nature Reserve is thus a veritable ‘water factory’ and a huge asset to the growing population of Homo sapiens in South Africa. Mbona Private Nature Reserve also provides a research facility for university students, as well as providing a model to teach future generations about the huge benefits of natural resource conservation. After all, our future survival depends on such knowledge and its practical implementation!

In seeking permission from the Board of Directors of the Mbona Private Nature Reserve to undertake this project, I emphasized the need to bring back the endangered Black Stinkwood tree Ocotea bullata , which had become extinct in the large, but heavily exploited Holbeck Forest, part of which fell within the boundary of Mbona Private Nature Reserve. Following the advice of my good friend and colleague Dr Coert Geldenhuys, I set about creating a number of forest plots or clusters. In this task, I was greatly assisted bymyneighbour atMbona, Dr RichardBooth. Inselecting the species to plant in the plots, we were guided by what was already growing in the adjacent Holbeck forest, by what species were rare or endangered in the area, by what species may in the future have certain commercial value, and by what species were available from local nurseries or were propagated by ourselves. It was also felt that there should be a mix of pioneer species as well as climax forest species. The pioneer species at Mbona Private Nature Reserve were Halleria lucida, Maesa lanceolata, Buddleja salviifolia, and Nuxia floribunda . Climax species included Podocarpus henkelii, Podocarpus latifolius, Podocarpus falcatus, Prunus africana and Calodendrum capense . By far the largest trees growing in the Holbeck Forest were P. henkelii and these were close to their northern-most limit of distribution in Africa. Each plot had a circumference of approximately 60 metres. Most of the plots were fenced with weld mesh fencing which was 1.2 metres in height. This was necessary as the two most common browsers in the area were Bushbuck and Grey Duiker, both of which had a great liking for some of our planted trees. However, to gauge the extent of browsing by the animals, some of the plots were not fenced. At the start of the project, the first four plots were planted during October, 2009. There are now 18 plots in total. Four of these plots are control plots and have not had any trees planted into them. Of these four, two have been fenced and two unfenced. This was done so we could compare planted plots with unplanted plots and fenced plots with unfenced

A picture of the same area as Plate 1 Photo taken in January, 2016 (6 years after Plate 1)

particularly of the Cape Parrot, Eastern Bronze-naped Pigeon, Blue Duiker, Tree Hyrax, Dwarf Chameleon and several others. All have suffered as a result of forest extirpation. We believe that this example of Forest Rehabilitation was also successful because we undertook it in an area that was once part of a much larger Holbeck Forest, but had been reduced by forest clearing for agriculture (early human interventions), over-exploitation of timber and other trees by early European settlers, and burning of grasslands adjoining indigenous forests to increase the grassland biome for domestic stock grazing. All these activities in the Midlands of KwaZulu-Natal have resulted in a steady decline of natural forest and an increase in Mist Belt Grasslands.

Richard Booth planting in Plot 5 Photo Taken in November 2010

Unfortunately this Mist Belt Grassland was the preferred land for industrial timber plantations and so these Grasslands are now under greater threat than the indigenous forest, which still survives in small patches through the Mist Belt region of KwaZulu-Natal. However the real threat that these industrial timber plantations pose to the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands are the amount

A picture of the same area as Plate 1 Photo taken in January, 2015 (5 years after Plate 1)

Keith H. Cooper TBA TBA

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