Toward Sustainable Use of Palm Leaves by a Rural ... - SANParks

Toward Sustainable Use of
Palm Leaves by a
Rural Community in
KwaZulu-Natal.
Steve M c Kean
Steve@KZNWildlife.com

Presentation Structure
• Introduction and background
• Aims and methods
• Results
• Conclusions and recommendations

Hyphaene coriaceae
iLala palm
- Up to 9m high but mainly short stemmed cluster.
- Dioecious. Up to 2000 fruits per branch on female plants.
- Produces 2 - 5 new leaves per stem annually throughout year.
- Occurs on nutrient poor sandy soils.

Uses
- Leaf harvest … craftwork (commercial and subsistence). Unopened
leaves 80cm or longer preferred. Valued for strength and fibre length.
- Sap tapping for palm wine making.
- Edible fruit.

Value
- Vital part of local economy in Maputaland although economic
contribution of leaf harvest not researched.
- Mainly harvest and sale of raw leaves by women with little “value
adding” done in area.
- Subsistence but buffer against poverty.

Management issues
- Harvest request from protected area.
- No clear resource rights or tenure – “open access” and consequent
over-exploitation of iLala outside. Clash with sap tappers.
- Unique opportunity to initiate a co-operative project on sustained use of
a much needed resource with local people.

Research questions
- What effect do different leaf harvest intensities have
on numbers of leaves produced?
- Do different harvest intensities influence the number
of usable leaves produced?
- What is the most suitable harvest intensity to ensure
long term sustainable use of the resource and
simultaneously attempt to satisfy demand?

Study Area

Methods
- Experiment designed in cooperation with harvesters.
- Strategies agreed for control of illegal use. No sap
tapping.
- Harvesters given sole rights to harvest leaves from study
area.
- Shared law enforcement responsibility with conservation
.
agency.
- Harvesters cut leaves at the agreed experimental rates.

Data collection
- Leaves were cut annually during May for four years. At each marked
palm, within each treatment, the following data were collected before
any leaves were cut, and subsequently at four monthly intervals:
- The number of unopened leaves and partially emerged leaf
blades.
- Leaf blade length and length of partially emerged leaf
blades.
- 3 experimental treatments, i.e. control (no leaves cut), one leaf cut
per year and all leaves cut per year. Three replicates of each
treatment, each containing ten palms were randomly located in the
study area and marked with tags.
-Stem density analysis for area.

Results

Usable leaves per stem (mean)
Effect of harvest intensity on leaf
production
• No significant effect of harvest intensity on leaf production.
• Some indication of decline in leaf production at high and no leaf
harvest.
2.5
0 - control 1 - 1 cut 3 - all cut
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
Nov
'92
June '93Dec '93 June '94Dec '94 June '95 Dec '95 June '96 Dec '96
0 1 3 0 1 3 0 1 3 0 1 3 0 1 3 0 1 3 0 1 3 0 1 3 0 1 3
Number of leaves cut per stem

Mean leaf length (m)
Effect of harvest intensity on leaf growth
• Effect of harvest intensity on mean leaf length not significant.
1.2
0 - control 1 - 1 cut 3 - all cut
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
Dec
'92
June' '93 Dec '93 June '94 Dec '94 June '95 Dec '95 June '96 Dec '96
0
0 1 3 0 1 3 0 1 3 0 1 3 0 1 3 0 1 3 0 1 3 0 1 3 0 1 3
Number of leaves cut per stem

“Standing stock” of iLala in harvest area.
• Total density - 865 stems per hectare.
• Of these, 295 stems per hectare (SD = 160), or 34% of the total,
produce leaves of usable size.

Conclusions
• Results, combined with density estimates, an annual
leaf production of approximately three leaves per stem
and a precautionary approach, lead to an initial harvest
intensity recommendation of one leaf per stem per year.
• This represents 34 % of annual leaf production available
for harvest.

- Responsibility of EKZN Wildlife to ensure the sustainable
use of resources from Ozabeni.
- Difficult, if not impossible, to monitor the number of
leaves being harvested from an area of 650 ha.
- During the harvest process, leaves are cut by local
women and tied into bundles of approximately 40. The
number of bundles harvested is possible to monitor.
- Approximately 19.6% of annual production was
harvested annually from the study area by 46 women -
well within researched ecological limits.

But its not quite as simple as that …….
- Ecological problems with attempting to maintain constant harvest
levels of species.
- iLala harvest is most likely to be sustainable when resource
management methods acceptable to both the users and managers
are implemented. These methods need to address the issues of
access rights and responsibility, economic benefit to the users and
impact of harvest on the resource and the system in which it is
found.

Recommendations
- Develop a long term adaptive management strategy with users.
- Baseline of 1 leaf per stem per year harvest but vary over space,
time and build in ecological variability.
- Take changes in socio-economic and ecological factors into account
and use monitoring information to revise management of the
resource when necessary.
- Monitor number of leaves harvested by counting bundles harvested.

Reference
M c Kean, S. G. (2003) Toward sustainable use of palm
leaves in a South African protected area. Economic
Botany 57 (1).