04 Aug 2024

The Agricultural Resources Conservation (Utilisation of Veld Products) Regulations allow harvesting of one tonne of dry firewood for domestic use. 

Addressing the North East District full council meeting recently,Principal Forestry Officer II, Ms Gloria Komanyane  said cutting of living plants for firewood was against the law, adding that the wood could be confiscated, and the offender fined a minimum of P1 000 or both. 

This, she said, would be done in the presence of the police officer as the Forestry Department Officers were not empowered to execute fines on offenders. 

“Our responsibility is to monitor and ensure that people abide by the regulations to safeguard the environment,” she said. 

Ms Komanyane said if the harvester intended to exceed one tonne of load, the harvesting would be regarded as doing business and a permit costing P5 should be obtained followed by dealer’s permit at P110. 

At that stage, the kgosi would have issued a letter that allowed harvesting of firewood by the harvester, said Ms Komanyane adding that Dikgosi and the Village Development Committees (VDC) assisted the department to ascertain that harvesting was done properly without destroying the environment. 

She said dikgosi, VDCs and community members assisted in monitoring that harvesting of firewood and untreated poles was done lawfully. 

Regarding harvesting of untreated poles, the law states that a person can collect less than 500 poles without a permit. 

Ms Komanyane stated that the law allowed harvesting of 500 untreated poles per household each year. Farmers who want to fence their farms so that they benefit from Temo Letlotlo are sometimes given a waiver having the letter from Kgosi that allows harvesting. 

Upon receiving a letter from kgosi, she said, the forestry department officers would conduct an assessment before issuing a permit. 

As a way of monitoring, she said they would take a list of those registered with Temo Letlotlo at Ministry of Agriculture as the list would help in verifying the collection and could be assisted accordingly. 

Noting that there were rivers in the North East region, Ms Komanyane said there was need to protect the riverine system as gullies were forming everywhere. 

She advised that harvesting on the proximity of rivers was against the law and as such, they should harvest more than 10 metres away from the river. 

However, she advised on selective harvesting, indicating that firewood was considered dry trees not living ones. 

She urged those using big chain saws to avoid cutting big trees, which helped to remove carbon dioxide from the artmosphere. Ends