Zululand’s green jewels in jeopardy — indigenous forests under threat from poaching, grazing, budget cuts

Like tiny jewels on a necklace, five small patches of thick green forest are strung out in a thin semicircular line in the hills of Zululand, home of the “people of heaven”.

This increasingly frayed necklace of high-rainfall forests close to the coast stretches for roughly 120km, the remnants of much denser natural forests that have been gradually cleared away by fire, timber cutters, human settlement, sugar cane and other cash crop plantations.

It is here that the songs of many rare and brightly coloured birds such as the Knysna Touraco, Narina Trogon, Green Barbet or Delegorgue’s pigeon can still be heard, along with the occasional, booming call of the Southern Ground-Hornbill.

These five forests – Nkandla, oNgoye, Entumeni, Dlinza and Qudeni – are among the last remaining indigenous forests of Zululand, fragments of a unique habitat that now covers just 0.4% of the land surface area of South Africa.

In places, some of the trees still reach heights of more than 30m, forming a thick canopy that serves as a safe refuge for numerous forest-dependent life forms – including several species that are found nowhere else in the world.

The forests are also linked deeply to the history of the Zulu people. Quite apart from providing timber and other free natural resources for centuries, the forests have provided vital refuge in times of trouble.

King Shaka, for example, is said to have hidden his wives and children in the Dlinza Forest near Eshowe when he came under attack by Zwide kaLanga of the Ndwandwe clan in 1818.

King Cetshwayo kaMpande, who defeated the British at the Battle of Isandlwana, later sought refuge in the thick forests near Nkandla when his capital at Ulundi was attacked by Chief Zibhebhu in 1883. A year later Cetshwayo died and was buried within sight of the forest, near the Nkunzane River.

Later, Chief Bhambatha kaMancinza led a rebellion against the British invaders and sought refuge with Sigananda kaZokufa in the Mome Gorge section of the Nkandla forest in 1909, where the Zulu forces were encircled and crushed and Bhambatha was reputedly shot and beheaded.

Given their historical and natural value, the five forests have enjoyed legal protection for several decades – on paper at least.

But there is a different picture on the ground.

Budget woes, poaching increase

Over recent years, budget cuts have decimated the conservation capabilities of Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, the official custodian of these mostly remote forest reserves.

Due to a growing population and unemployment in the surrounding areas, there has also been a marked increase in poaching of small mammals and rare plants, while more and more cattle are being grazed in the adjoining grasslands.

Shortly after the Covid-19 lockdown Ezemvelo decided to dig up several adult specimens of a unique plant species in the oNgoye forest near Empangeni and shifted them to a secure location – hoping to return them to oNgoye “when conditions improve”.

In 1895, botanist James Medley Wood discovered another rare plant in oNgoye and some of these stems were brought to Durban – but that plant (Wood’s Cycad) is now extinct in the wild, even though it survived the age of the dinosaurs and five ice ages.

Before being protected in 1912, large volumes of indigenous timber around the 3-900-hectare oNgoye reserve were chopped down to provide mine props for the Witwatersrand gold mines or saw-logging industry in Pietermaritzburg.

The oNgoye reserve also includes more than 1,200ha of grassland, now increasingly used by subsistence cattle farmers, as grazing land becomes increasingly scarce in the region.

While small numbers of cattle aren’t a major problem, the hooves of large numbers of these animals and heavy grazing pressure can damage grasslands at the edge of the forest – a problem exacerbated by the deliberate setting of fires to encourage the growth of fresh grass shoots after the dry winter months.

Tourism ‘potential’

A local birder familiar with the five forests believes that Ezemvelo is “trying the best they can”, but also suggests that local communities have become frustrated by the lack of job and economic opportunities from ecotourism and conservation.

“There is so much potential for tourism-based opportunities, but there is no overnight accommodation facility in or next to Nkandla, oNgoye or Qudeni – not even any toilets for day visitors,” said the birder, who did not wish to be named for fear of recrimination during future visits.

“Ezemvelo staff are facing many challenges to protect these forests because of their limited resources – but I also think that some of the senior officials have run out of ideas on how to turn this situation around,” he said.

He believes there are major opportunities to establish private or community-owned hotels, lodges, campsites and other visitor amenities inside or adjoining the forests, catering especially for foreign and local birders or hikers.

“Many people in the surrounding areas seem to have lost hope. These reserves have not created significant employment, apart from a limited number of EPWP (Expanded Public Works Programme) jobs clearing invasive plant species.

“So, if people don’t see any value or tangible benefits, they start to lose respect for such areas. Unfortunately, there will be nothing left of these forests if there are no benefits for the people who live next to them. To rescue these forests there must be jobs,” he argues.

Ezemvelo acknowledged several of these problems in its most recent annual reports.

For example, the provincial conservation agency reported in 2023 that most of its remaining budget was spent on staff salaries, with just a small fraction allocated to maintaining facilities.

“The management of protected areas is becoming increasingly difficult, with no budgets available to carry out day-to-day tasks including maintenance of buildings and other assets.

“This gave rise to a heavy reliance on nongovernment organisation (NGO) assistance in order to make ends meet.”

The theft of boundary fencing around many of its 112 reserves was another big challenge, leading to a continual increase of livestock entering protected areas, especially the Amatikulu, oNgoye, Dlinza and Entumeni reserves.

At Nkandla forest (which includes seven different sections) there had been several cases of vandalism and arson.

“On the 26th of October 2022, the Department of Labour (DoL) issued a compliance notice letter to the Nkandla Forest Reserve Conservation Management in relation to a certificate of temporary closure of the Nkandla Forest Reserve.

“All staff were instructed as per the compliance notice to vacate the station. It is after the staff had all vacated the station and redeployed to other protected areas that Nkandla Forest reserve infrastructure was severely vandalised and damaged.

“This resulted in this protected area being very vulnerable to poaching and illegal harvesting of indigenous timber from the forest. The illegal setting of fires within the protected area has also become a major issue.”

Much of the remaining staff accommodation at Nkandla was leaking and dilapidated, or unfit for human occupation, leading to managers having to live outside the areas they were charged to protect.

Similar problems are also evident at Ezemvelo’s main headquarters at Queen Elizabeth Park in Pietermaritzburg, where several staff are now working from home after a building housing the human resources, finance, scientific services and procurement sections was condemned more than a year ago due to leaking roofs and other structural problems.

Ezemvelo has also reported that “the condition of vehicles throughout the organisation is dire”, with car, truck and tractor shortages having a negative impact on operations.

When Daily Maverick visited four of these reserves this month, the main reception and staff camp at Nkandla had been all but demolished, while vehicle access was limited in several places due to poor road maintenance.

Ezemvelo game capture operations and sales around the province have also been heavily curtailed, and external funds had to be sourced to conduct aerial game surveys in several reserves during 2023.

Shimmer of hope

Thankfully, things are quite a bit brighter at Dlinza, a tiny 250ha indigenous forest surrounded by the town of Eshowe.  

Due to its proximity to this historic town and its numerous bed-and-breakfast establishments, the Dlinza Forest Reserve has become a popular destination for local and foreign birders.

The forest also features several hiking trails and a 127m aerial boardwalk that allows visitors to walk 10m above the forest floor. The boardwalk ends at a 20m-high observation tower that affords magnificent views above the forest canopy.

Though the reserve is managed and patrolled by Ezemvelo, the boardwalk is maintained by a local nonprofit organisation committed to providing forest conservation and environmental education outings to rural schools in Zululand.

Nola Ludwig, who manages the boardwalk project, notes that more than 10,000 local schoolchildren and 500 teachers have taken part in sponsored day trips to Dlinza in recent years, though funding bus transport, meals and educational material for the children requires urgent financial support.

After three years of negotiations with Ezemvelo ecologists, the first Park Run was held in Dlinza in December 2023 and the 5km forest run has become a weekly feature, helping to raise public awareness and also boosting gate revenue for forest conservation.

Before the event was approved, however, ecologists conducted detailed assessments focused on the impact of a weekly run on the Spotted Ground-Thrush, a globally endangered forest bird and one of South Africa’s rarest and most geographically restricted breeding species.

Studies had shown that the breeding success of this ground-nesting species had declined by almost 80% in the oNgoye, Dlinza, Entumeni and Nkandla forests, necessitating an intensive monitoring project over two breeding seasons and the rerouting of the Park Run to minimise disturbance to these unique birds.

While the recent successes at Dlinza are encouraging, funding the future conservation of the more remote forest areas remains in jeopardy.

Hugh Lee, an 83-year-old sugar farmer and conservationist who developed some of the first hiking trails in the nearby Entumeni and Nkandla forests, is hoping that wealthy philanthropists will step forward to support a new conservation trust dedicated to supporting the protection of these disappearing forests.

Lee, a former IFP member of the KwaZulu-Natal parliament who played an integral role in ensuring their protection by the former Natal Parks Board and KwaZulu Bureau of Nature Conservation, put hís money where his heart was back in the early 1990s. He opted to set aside 150ha of his own commercial farm as a privately protected indigenous forest and grassland reserve.

What is being done about it?

Responding to queries from Daily Maverick, Ezemvelo said several measures and plans are being introduced to address these challenges.

“First, efforts are being made to diversify funding sources by seeking partnerships with both public and private sectors, as well as NGOs, to secure more stable financial support… Some reserves are also turning to community involvement and citizen science programmes to enhance monitoring and engagement, empowering local populations to take an active role in conservation.”

Ezemvelo was taking proactive steps to address illegal cattle grazing inside or close to the forests.

“We are collaborating with local communities, through amaKhosi and Izinduna, to regulate this activity.

“Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife recognises the significant threat posed by wildfires and arson, particularly their impact on forests, grasslands and water catchment areas.

“Most of the arson fires are initiated outside of our protected areas at night or when the weather conditions are dangerous, resulting in these fires entering the reserve, causing the forest margins to be singed. 

Ezemvelo said it was also working closely with law enforcement agencies, traditional health practitioners and local communities to strengthen the fight against poaching, including the demand for illegally traded species.

Regarding vandalised staff accommodation at Nkandla and oNgoye, the conservation agency said staff were removed because of unsafe drinking water supplies.

“Whilst Ezemvelo awaits the allocation of budget in the new financial year, it remains committed to providing a safe and supportive environment for our staff, who play a crucial role in conservation efforts.”