Forest Products, Livelihoods and Conservation

78 The informal trade of Cassipourea flanaganii as a cosmetic in South Africa

that C. flanaganii is a generalist in where it grows within the south-facing

Afromontane forests, being present in a variety of canopy heights and forest

types. The coppicing potential of C. flanaganii appears to be limited as all

ring-barked trees were dead.

It has been reported that between 1986 and 1989, at the peak of the trade

in C. flanaganii, uncontrolled harvesting was undertaken on a large scale in

Pirie State Forest resulting in an almost total loss of adult trees (C. Kameni

personal communication). Within the study site all C. flanaganii material is

harvested from Pirie Forest. There are no managed or cultivated populations

and there are no recognisable trends towards domesticating or cultivating the

species. In addition to C. flanaganii, 11 other species are regularly harvested

for their bark for the medicinal plant trade. These are Cassine papillosa

(Hochst.) Kuntze, Curtisia dentata (Burm.f.) C.A.Sm., Harpephyllum caffrum

Bernh. ex Krauss, Hippobromus pauciflorus (L.f.) Radlk., Pleurostylia capensis

(Turcz.) Loes., Protorhus longifolia (Bernh.) Engl., Ptaeroxylon obliquum

(Thunb.) Radlk., Rapanea melanophloeos L. Mez, Schotia latifolia Jacq.,

Scolopia zeyheri (Nees) Harv. and Strychnos henningsii Gilg. It has been

established that approximately 4 tons of forest-harvested plant material, with

a value of approximately US$9,000 is harvested annually from the Pirie State

Forest. Just over 50% of this is derived from the bark of these 11 tree species

with a street market value of approximately US$4,000 (Cocks and Dold 2000).

An ecological survey was undertaken to determine the density of, and

assess harvesting damage to, the populations of C. flanaganii in Hobo and

Cwengcwe forests. These two forests form part of the larger Pirie State Forest

(Figure 1). The survey sampled two representative areas of Hobo and

Cwengcwe. Two 1,000 m transects were plotted and random 100 m^2 quadrates

sampled along the transects; in this way reliable density estimates where

made. In total, 156 quadrates comprising 249 C. flanaganii trees were sampled.

The parameters recorded for each tree were the diameter at breast height

(DBH) where applicable, total height and level of bark damage to the tree

following Cunningham’s (1988) seven-point scale.

Hobo forest has a density of approximately 125 C. flanaganii trees per

hectare; 76% of these are seedlings (0 mm–10 mm in diameter); 19.7% are

saplings (10 mm–46 mm in diameter) and only 4.3% are above 46 mm DBH, the

minimum reproductive diameter encountered in the study. Cwengcwe forest

has a density of approximately 210 trees per hectare, 94.4% of which are

seedlings and 5.6% saplings. No reproductive or potentially reproductive trees

were found.

Plots of comparable sizes in inaccessible areas of Pirie forest, with

consequently low intensity harvesting, revealed tree density to be

approximately 588 individuals per hectare with 35.5 trees per hectare above

the minimum harvesting size, whereas in Hobo only 5.2 harvestable trees per

hectare were recorded while in Cwengcwe none were found. In the survey of

Hobo and Cwengcwe all sampled trees were undamaged as only 2.1% of the

trees had a diameter greater than 41 mm. Furthermore only a single

reproductive tree was found with a DBH of 46 mm.

No data were found in the literature reviewed on the reproduction of the

species, and therefore the reproductive size is unknown. One individual of

05cassipourea.p65 78 22/12/2004, 11:04