Hikers, runners and dogwalkers making their way through Newlands Forest will soon come across the sight of groups of contractors painting trees.
Earlier this month, South African National Parks (SANParks) announced that to curb illegal bark-stripping activities in Newlands Forest, mature and seed-producing trees would be painted with grey water-based PVA paint in the coming months.
The painting of trees will be conducted as a joint venture between Table Mountain National Park (TMNP) and the Newlands Forest Conservation Group.
Founded four years ago, the conservation group is focused on preserving Newlands Forest and the indigenous forest on the eastern slopes of Table Mountain.
According to Willem Boshoff, co-founder of the community-based group, their mission is to create public awareness around and track the bark-stripping problem.
When People’s Post last spoke to Boshoff, he warned that if SANParks and the community did not stay vigilant, incidents of bark stripping would escalate.
Now a year later, Boshoff says bark stripping has continued at an alarming rate.
“It’s hard to say if it’s more or less than a year ago, but it remains severe. We have occasions of one or two trees being stripped, and other cases, like two weeks ago, when a large group came into Newlands Ravine and stripped more than 25 trees in one night.”
Boshoff says while it is difficult to give an exact number for how many trees are being bark stripped a month, an educated guess would be more than 50 mature trees. The indigenous trees that are commonly targeted and stripped of their bark are the Cape Beech, Cape Chestnut, Wild Peach, Assegai, and Stinkwood. Once stripped of their bark, trees die a slow death due to the interruption of the nutritional transport system.
“The guys operate late at night; between 23:00 and 04:00. Incidences are seemingly random – they happen any day of the week,” says Boshoff.
The Newlands Forest Conservation Group’s website describes bark stripping as the illegal harvesting of tree bark for private use by individuals.
The website explains that the tree bark is widely used in South Africa by traditional healers in medicines and potions (“muti”). However, it is not traditional healers who are doing the damage but independent harvesters who sell to traditional healers. Boshoff says the painting of trees has been practiced successfully in urban areas to deter bark strippers from harvesting from targeted tree species.
“The paint contaminates the bark and makes it less desirable. It’s not a fail-proof safeguard but certainly helps to protect trees from being stripped,” he says.
He says the strategy is to first try and save mature/large specimens of the targeted species.
“Especially endangered trees like the Assegai and Stinkwood. We’ll also paint trees in heavily stripped areas to try and save the remaining trees and so preserve the forest canopy.”
While it is still being decided on which areas to prioritise, Boshoff says the large-scale project will take several months to complete.
“The Sugarbrid Trust has committed funding for us to employ a team of painters for two to three months and buy the paint and equipment. We’ll have to assess the success and perhaps consequent expansion of the project as we go along, but I hope that we’ll be able to paint 2 000 to 3 000 trees in this initial phase.”
So far, perpetrators of bark stripping have proven difficult to police and prosecute. Boshoff says prosecutors and police seem to see these as low-priority crimes and not worth prosecuting.
“Another difficulty is that culprits move freely between TMNP and the City of Cape Town, making law enforcement more difficult. In the rare cases where culprits are prosecuted, the penalties are but a slap on the wrist and I suspect not enforced. SANParks is, however, eager to improve prosecution so here is hoping we’ll see consequences that will act as a deterrent.”
The tree painting project forms part of an “integrated strategy” recently launched by SANParks.
The strategy includes intelligence gathering and law enforcement actions. SANParks has stated that, alongside this intervention, TMNP will also implement continuous law enforcement patrols, facilitate educational awareness campaigns through workshops with the traditional healers and set up a nursery to grow forest species for replanting of trees.
Boshoff says they have seen more engagement and resources from SANParks since Megan Taplin was appointed as the new Park Manager for TMNP in January this year.
“Which is a great relief. There is certainly more effort being made as well as greater cooperation between ourselves, the public and SANParks.”
But, Boshoff says, in the long run, a dedicated team should be appointed to deal with biodiversity crimes in TMNP.
“Culprits are very difficult to apprehend.
“Specialisation, focus, continuity and availability of resources should be a priority 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Plant poaching affects the entire park and is having a big impact,” he says.
For further information on volunteeractivities, follow the Newlands Forest Conservation Group on Facebook.
- TMNP appeals to the public to report bark stripping activities to the emergency number 086 110 6417 or send an email to Newlands.Fieldrangers@sanparks.org with the GPS location or description of where bark stripping was located.
