Conflicts between conservation goals and land use for exotic forest plantations in South Africa

South Africa has few natural forests and many commercial plantations of exotic trees have been planted along mountain slopes in the east of the country. These plantations are of considerable economic value, but are damaging large areas of the natural ecosystem, while also disturbing water run-off patterns, and thus downstream river flows. This paper describes the application of multicriteria decision analysis (involving key role players in workshop settings), to the problem of obtaining an acceptable balance between socio-economic and conservation goals in the allocation of land to forestry in one particular district. Over a series of three workshops, a value tree of criteria was established, and six detailed policy scenarios for the district were developed. The use of simple multiattribute scoring systems using “thermometer scales” found broad acceptance amongst a wide diversity of participants, and served as a means of communication of values between groups. The study is still on-going, but a number of insights have already been achieved, holding promise of eventually reaching a high level of consensus.