Opportunity Issue 108

CONSERVATION
Consumers are confused about
the impact of paper on forests
The Paper Manufacturers Association of South Africa (PAMSA) analyses the results of an
international survey into environmental perceptions and finds that many South Africans
don’t know about the sustainability credentials of the country’s forestry sector.
South African consumers’ views on environmental
perceptions, preferences and attitudes towards print,
paper and paper-based packaging have been included for
the first time in an international survey, which showed that
many are still confused about the relationship between farmed
wood for papermaking and deforestation.
The responses of 10 000 people in 16 countries were
documented by Two Sides in the biennial Trend Tracker Survey.
While 71% of South African consumers agree that it is important to
use paper products from sustainably managed forests, and 36% pay
attention to forestry certification labels when purchasing paperbased
products, the perceptions that a paperless environment is
ecologically friendly and that forestry as an industry contributes
to deforestation, persists.
The survey showed that 35% of consumers believed that
electronic devices were the most environmentally friendly, yet
wood ranked second and paper ranked fourth. On the one hand,
77% of people feel that electronic communication is better than
paper-based media. Then again, 76% acknowledge that planted
forests are not bad for the environment, a clear contradiction.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, agriculture is the
leading cause of deforestation, which occurs primarily in tropical
and subtropical regions of the world and is linked to meat, soya
beans and palm oil. Jane Molony, executive director of the Paper
Manufacturers Association of South Africa (PAMSA), says the forest
and paper sector is misunderstood and thus beleaguered by myths
that are rooted in ignorance and assumption.
“Timber plantations or planted forests make up 7% of the global
forest area, yet provide about 50% of the wood for industrial use
such as pulp, paper and timber for construction,” she says. For this
reason, balancing sustainability with productive and economic
imperatives is high on the forestry sector’s agenda. “Through
biodiversity enrichment, water stewardship and community
support programmes, the forestry sector invests significantly in
reducing its impact on the land it uses,” says Molony.
In May 2023, PAMSA member Mondi South Africa and
Endangered Wildlife Trust announced a three-year partnership
to map Mondi South Africa’s species and ecosystem biodiversity
footprint and identify best practices for biodiversity management
in its local forestry operations.
Sustainable forestry misunderstood
Paper’s core component, cellulose, is a renewable resource. In
South Africa, where almost all indigenous forests and woodlands
are protected, wood for pulp and paper product comes from
sustainably managed forests where the cycle of planting, growing
and regenerating is carefully controlled. The needs of the timber,
pulp and paper sectors are served by 1.4-billion trees planted on
1.2-million hectares, which is 1% of South Africa’s total land cover.
“Forestry companies have nurseries tending to millions of
seedlings every year which go on to replace mature trees once they
have been harvested,” explains Molony. Less than 10% of the total
plantation area is harvested annually and this is replanted within
the same year, which means that more than 111-million trees are
planted every year. “That is, on average, 306 000 trees a day.”
South Africa is naturally a very tree-poor country, with only 0.4%
of the country being covered with indigenous trees. This is one of
the key reasons why only commercially planted trees are used for
wood products, to prevent encroaching on our indigenous forests.
In addition, at least one quarter of forestry-owned land is left
unplanted, allowing biodiversity-rich corridors to flourish with
indigenous fauna and flora in grasslands, wetlands and wooded
areas. Sappi, also a PAMSA member, has seven declared nature
reserves on its landholdings in Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal
provinces with a combined 6 320 hectares including Clairmont
Mountain Nature Reserve which is home to 10 red-data species.
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