Forestry, at Craft Mania 2007
28 September 2007
Mayor
Councillors
Honoured guests
Programme Director
Ladies and gentlemen
Introduction
I am pleased to be here tonight and to show my support for this important
event. I have been associated with Craft Mania for a number of years now and in
the various portfolios that I have held. In all three departments that I have
been deployed in, I have found that there is a relationship with the craft
industry.
In my current portfolio as Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, I have
found a very strong link between the craft industry and the work that we do in
the forestry sector as well as in clearing alien invasive species in our
Working for Water programme. Earlier this year I addressed a Forestry Summit in
Mthatha where I said: "what is clear to me is that forestry and the associated
industry is vital for the rural economy and in contributing towards sustainable
livelihoods in rural communities - a goal that we should all be working
towards."
I then went on to say, "forestry plays a major part in the lives of South
Africans - in both the first and second economy. From the rural areas where our
forests are located, to the well developed, highly capital intensive and
internationally recognised timber processing, and pulp and paper sector. This
sector employs close to 170 000 people and contributes more than R16 billion
annually to the South African economy. Our job now, is to see how we can grow
this sector and in particular expand the downstream opportunities that
exist."
The support provided by Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (Dwaf) for
Craft Mania and this event tonight is part of my commitment to expanding these
downstream opportunities.
Support for forestry enterprise development in Eastern Cape
Programme Director, already my department has a number of projects where we
are supporting the development of forestry enterprises in this area. Arising
from the National Forest Act which promotes the sustainable management of
forests we have provided for participation in forest management, which in this
area led to the establishment of Izeleni Participation Forest Management
Committee.
Many forest related projects were identified by the committee, and my
department was able to fund two projects, namely the Phaphani Medicinal Plant
Garden and Ndakana Bee Keeping. These projects were funded with assistance from
the Danish government with an amount of R300 000.
The Phaphani Medicinal Plant Garden was funded in 2003, by the Danish
government to support a group of seven forest users who are the members of
Izeleni community. These people showed a great passion in promoting sustainable
forest management by establishing Phaphani Medicinal Plant Garden with the
purpose of growing medicinal plants to support local traditional healers and
the community as well as to alleviate pressure on excessive use of medicinal
plants from the local pristine indigenous forests in area. The project has
expanded by growing vegetable crops as well as seedlings for the forestry
industry such as pines and gums, and now they are looking at growing fruit
trees.
The other project, the Ndakana Bee Keeping Project was also started in 2003
and has supported a group of seven people at Ndakana. This group have been hard
at work and is one of the most successful small bee keeping projects in the
Eastern Cape.
For the future we are looking at supporting the establishment of a medium
sized factory to manufacture wooden toilet seats covers in this area. This
factory would use alien vegetation that is being removed by our Working for
Water programme. We would like to target women and the youth from this area,
and support their training to ensure that they acquire relevant technical
know-how to manufacture goods from timber based products. We will need support
from our partners in forestry such as Amathole Forest Services to make
available the required raw material for this project to be sustainable.
Working for Water and crafts
For those of you who are not aware our Working for Water programme was
established to remove alien invasive plants and trees that cause damage to the
environment by using too much water and pushing out indigenous plants and
trees. In addition to the benefits of this programme in increasing our water
availability and making land more productive, we are creating a number of
employment opportunities â particularly for poorer communities.
Once the alien invasive species such as wattle have been removed we are then
able to use it for the manufacture of products such as crafts. An example of
whether is already done include:
* Planet Wise Products, which has successfully established itself as a home
and garden enterprise employing 94 people in the operations of clearing,
harvesting and production. They supply nurseries and garden centres with
hand-crafted fencing, screens and ornamental works
* Genadendal Natural Products started by Malie Roberston in 2004 and now
employs a team of eight which includes welders, weavers and contractors. They
use the black wattle of the nearby river to create beautifully handcrafted home
decor, which is designed by her
* Invader Craft, which is a small manufacturing company that makes bathroom
accessories, crafted from black wattle, blue gum and American bramble harvested
from the nearby riverbanks.
There are also other exciting craft products that people are making from
these invasive species â these include the memory sticks that are made from the
branches of invasive plants by five previously unemployed crafters in a small
town in the Northern Cape.
These projects have taken material that was no longer needed â and a problem
for the environment, and they have used it to produce items that are more than
just ornamental crafts but are products that are used by people every day.
Through their creativity they have turned everyday items that people need in
the office, at home or in the garden into a 'functional' craft - and in doing
so created business opportunities and employment.
Craft Mania
Programme Director, ladies and gentlemen, we are inspired by such creativity
as are we inspired by the creative and excellent crafts that we saw at the
exhibition today.
When we started Craft Mania we recognised the real benefits that would be
brought to this community by creating a marketplace for their crafts and by
assisting crafters from this region to tap into a much broader â and quite
lucrative craft market. I recall that when I addressed Craft Mania as far back
as 2003 I spoke about the global craft market being worth over $45 billion
dollars.
We have seen that by supporting crafters we are able to empower people,
improve their skills and open up new opportunities for them. The economic boom
that our country is going through is having a positive impact on the domestic
craft industry and I am interested to hear from our crafters who are present if
they are seeing that growth, and have been able to take advantage of the
increase in tourists, the global interest in South African crafts, and the
increased demand for crafts by our own people.
Trees
Ladies and gentlemen, to ensure that we have sufficient raw material for
crafts â we need to plant trees and forests.
Today I was planting trees in Kologha as part of our campaign to plant at
least one million trees per year, the majority of them fruit trees. This
campaign was launched by President Mbeki during Arbor Week earlier this month,
and will be contributing to improving the livelihoods of our people as well as
greening our environment. Stutterheim is one of the first towns in the Eastern
Cape to have received trees under this programme and already 500 orange and 200
peach trees were planted in the Kologha RDP houses earlier this week. For this
province, we have a target of planting 125 000 trees annually under this
programme.
When we look at economic opportunities for this community, the establishment
of community nurseries for trees is an area that is viable, and will also
assist us in our massive tree planting exercise that is going to take place
over the next few years. Trees that will provide fruit, shade, a beautiful
environment, protect the soil, and a number of other benefits, including wood
for our crafts.
Conclusion
To conclude Ladies and gentlemen, the craft industry has come a long way
since we started with our Craft Mania. There are a number of areas that need to
be addressed if we are to have a successful craft industry in Amahlati and
Amathole, areas such as training, equipment, information, finance, sufficient
raw materials, space to work from, quality control, and access to markets all
need to be addressed.
The future of the craft industry looks very bright â with the spotlight on
South Africa during the 2010 World Cup soccer, and the growth in our tourism
market, as well as the general growth of the economy â we cannot but see the
craft market growing. What is important is that we provide proper support to
this industry so that the crafters are in a position to take full advantage of
these opportunities.
Craft Mania remains an important vehicle to place the crafters of this
region on the map, and I congratulate all those involved for once again putting
together a successful event.
I thank you
Issued by: Department of Water Affairs and Forestry
28 September 2007
