When money does grow on trees
The old adage “money doesn’t grow on trees” has been challenged by Sappi Khulisa.
A growing number of participants of the tree-farming scheme, established by Sappi 35 years ago, are literally earning hard cash from their small plots of trees. In what turned out to be a bumper year, more than 4,000 small growers working more than 33,000ha of land, harvested and delivered timber to Sappi and earned R362m in 2017, according to Mbeko Nkosana, senior area manager at Sappi Khulisa.
What started out in 1983 as a tree-farming scheme aimed at subsistence farmers — known as Project Grow — and which involved only three farmers working eight hectares of land, is now a successful supplier and entrepreneurship development model contributing towards sustainable livelihoods in rural areas.
Khulisa (meaning “grow”) was started by Sappi in KwaZulu-Natal, covering the area from Manguzi near Kosi Bay in the north to Port Edward in the south and inland as far as Ixopo and Nongoma.
Since starting up, Sappi Khulisa has also expanded to include community forestry projects and forestry projects handed to land-reform beneficiaries, with projects in the Eastern Cape near the towns of Bizana and Lusikisiki.
“It has come a long way since the early days when this programme was a corporate social investment initiative for the company. Today, Sappi Khulisa is creating shared value by focusing on, and enhancing, the economic and social conditions of the communities in which it operates, while enhancing its own competitiveness,” says Nkosana.
“With a significant volume of its timber supply now supplemented by the fibre it sources from the Sappi Khulisa Growers — 14.7% of Sappi KwaZulu-Natal’s hardwood supply — it is important for Sappi to ensure the continued sustainability and future prosperity of these suppliers.”
Nkosana says although the programme has been around for many years, Sappi has recently embarked on a “reengineering” drive of this successful extension programme, which has earned more than R1.6bn in cash for its participants since its inception.
“This re-engineering drive is aimed at ensuring more people are able to enter and benefit from the forestry value chain, through collaboration and partnership with Sappi, and that those already part of this chain are maximising their yields.
“Sappi is reorganising the ways in which it engages with its growers, encouraging group meetings and collaboration, using technology to greater benefit to streamline payments and admin, and introducing large-scale knowledge and skills upliftment for contractors and growers through its Khulisa Ulwazi (“Growing Knowledge”) training programme.”
The moisture-rich area of Dokodweni situated near the coastal side of the Mandeni Municipality was one of the first plantation areas identified under the Sappi Khulisa project in the 1980s. Back then, Sappi Khulisa had a forestry team assisting families with their crops and advising them on good planting practises. The conditions of the land and the eagerness of the community members to plant trees fuelled interest in the programme. Says Nkosana: “In recent years, most families in the Dokodweni area decided to venture into planting sugarcane on portions of their land, citing quick turnaround times in profits as the main reason
“However, the wiser older generation, continued planting trees — duly assisted by Sappi — and have been reaping the rewards over the years.
“With the re-engineering of the Sappi Khulisa programme, and with talk about new developments taking place, the Khulisa team in Mandeni has been receiving numerous calls from community members requesting assistance in the reestablishment of their plots and people from the area wanting to join the programme.”
The Khulisa team has been interacting with these growers and fielding calls from community members excited about the prospects of entering and benefiting from the forestry value chain. “We are engaging with the growers to provide support to improve their productivity and profitability. The focus is in two key areas: improved silviculture practices and streamlining the supply chain (including transport and logistics),” says Nkosana.