Forest Products, Livelihoods and Conservation

208 The Pterocarpus angolensis DC. based woodcraft industry in the Bushbuckridge district

per annum in 1993 (Shackleton 1996). Desmet et al. (1996) report trade in P.

angolensis carvings and furniture amounting to over R5 million annually for

Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces. Although the industry is small, the impacts

on the resource base and the conservation and development consequences

are no different to other countries, while the situation is made more complex

by the restricted distribution of many of the key carving species.

Annual value Annual value of Annual value of

of South African woodcarvings woodcarvings from

woodcarvings from southern Africa west and east Africa sold

Informal Formal sold in the informal in the informal sector

sector sector sector in South Africa in South Africa

R2.48 million* R4.89 million R5.8 million R23.1 million

Table 1. The South African woodcarving industry in perspective: the value of

the domestic industry relative to imports from elsewhere in Africa

* Note: The authors believe this value to be an underestimate as it was based on a very

conservative estimate of the number of woodcarvers in South Africa. In 1998 US$1 = R6.

Source: Newton 1998.

Regional and national context and production strategies

The Bushbuckridge woodcraft industry is imbedded in a wider, rapidly changing

and complex craft industry that links the formal sector (factories and shops)

with the informal sector (local producers, roadside stalls, flea markets) at

sourcing, production and sales levels (Steenkamp 1999a). South Africa is both

a producer of wood products and an importer, with the volume of imports

increasing dramatically in the last five years following the lifting of trade

embargoes (Steenkamp 1999a). Domestic production varies from low technology

household or group-based enterprises that harvest their own wood (as described

here) to large-scale, urban-based factories that acquire wood via timber

merchants and produce machine made goods. All these businesses and their

products compete for a place in the market.

Within the informal sector, two main categories of woodcraft producers

have been identified based on their production and marketing strategies—

roadside carver vendors and home carvers (Steenkamp 1999a, b). The

Bushbuckridge producers described in this paper fall almost entirely into the

latter category. By contrast, carvers from neighbouring Hazyview and Nsikazi

typically are carver vendors. These two groups differ significantly in their

modes of production, products, marketing strategies and types of wood used

(Table 2) (Steenkamp 1999a).

THE RAW PRODUCT AND RESOURCE BASE

Sources of wood

Bushbuckridge producers obtain their wood primarily from wild populations in

the communal lands, although some illegal harvesting occurs within

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