In Swaziland, protected areas make up about 4 percent of the country’s total land area (which is far below 10 percent, which is the minimum recommended by the World Conservation Union, IUCN). There are 12 national parks found mainly in the northwestern and northeastern parts of the country. For purposes of scientifically sound conservation, a need to assess their coverage of biomes and vegetation units still exists. Therefore, there is a need to identify more protection worthy areas in the country, so that international standards are met by increasing the size of protected areas from 4 to 10 percent and ensuring that habitat types are conserved.
There are programmes which have already been in place to address these inadequacies. Under the ongoing Forest Policy and Legislation Review, a preliminary study for identifying more protection worthy habitats and biomes has been undertaken by a group of consultants. A report of their assessment of the current situation, including the conclusions and recommendations on the most appropriate actions to follow, will be presented soon. As a follow up activity, the Biodiversity Programme Implementation Committee is likely to supplement and complement this work by soliciting funding and monitoring a long-term implementation of the preliminary recommendations.
The National Tree Seed Centre (NTSC) has identified seed sources in the following areas: Hlutse North, Mlawula, Bhunya and Sinceni. According to the National forest research programme (MOAC, 1992), more provenances will be identified in the future.
Ex situ conservation measures are still at an initiation stage. There is still no botanic garden in the country despite the fact that the need to establish one has long been spelled out. This is great cause for concern because mitigation measures in Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) reports usually recommend that some plants (including trees) be rescued to botanic gardens. The National Forest Research Plan does recognize the need to secure germplasm for tree species of socio-economic importance to Swaziland (MOAC, 1992). It prioritizes five programmes for implementation in the period 1993-2003, namely (in order of priority):
- community woodlots;
- environmental degradation and soil rehabilitation;
- utilization of wood and non-wood forest products;
- agroforestry;
- management of indigenous and wattle forests.
Further, a preliminary research programme (Dlamini, 2000) has outlined three research projects which are still awaiting funding. These projects are on (1) location, mass collection and mass propagation of edible and medicinal indigenous plants of socio-economic importance in Swaziland, (2) domestication of Sclerocayra birrea and (3) domestication of Dicrostachys cinerea and Combretum zeyheri, which are two heavily utilized species in the country’s cultural festivities.
The best way to secure the available forest genetic resources is by applying sound forest management practices, including advanced silvicultural methods. In Swaziland, these methods are rarely applied since the government is yet to formulate and implement a formal silvicultural programme for the indigenous forests. In this regard, the forest policy, which is in preparation, will recommend the best means to introduce silvicultural methods such as reseeding and tillage, thinning, pruning, weeding and eradication of alien invasive species.
Sound forest management practices are already practiced in the national parks. For example, the Swaziland National Trust Commission (SNTC) is seriously pursuing the goal of eradicating alien invasive species in their nature reserves. In addition, commercial plantation forests are well managed to ensure profit making and they usually provide quantitative type of data for their plantations to the National Statistical Office. Further, reforestation and afforestation programmes of degraded lands are implemented by the Convention to Combat Desertification project.
The ongoing review of land ownership in the country will, hopefully, consider the protection of forest genetic resources in the country. Currently, some community members in the Swazi Nation Land think they own certain forests and can exploit them any how. The issue of whether “common property resources” can be “open-access resources” remains unresolved and poses as a subject for heated debate as the country proceeds with formulating an integrated framework for natural resource management.
