Conservation and Society 6(2): 109–116, 2008 Copyright: © Traynor and Hill 2008. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use and distribution of the article, provided the original work is cited. Report Mangrove Utilisation and Implications for Participatory Forest Management, South Africa Catherine Helen Traynor and Trevor Hill # Discipline of Geography, School of Environmental Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal (Pietermaritzburg), Private Bag X01, Scottsville, KwaZulu-Natal, 3209, South Africa # Corresponding author. E-mail: hillt@ukzn.ac.za Abstract South African rural coastal communities have utilised mangrove products for generations. However, the factors determining use are poorly understood and utilisation is rarely acknowledged in natural resource management. Since the post-apartheid government came to power in 1994, there has been a paradigm shift in government forest policy, and Participatory Forest Management (PFM) has been selected to implement these changes. This study was initiated to determine the utilisation of mangrove products, locally available alternatives and the implications for PFM. Combinations of methods were employed, including a participatory walk, group discussions, observation and semi-structured interviews. The main use of mangroves was for construction of buildings, with Bruguiera gymnorrhiza and Rhizophora mucronata being preferred. Diameters of stems selected for construction were approximately between 5– 7 cm for poles and 2–3 cm for laths. Indigenous and exotic woods, and mud and sand blocks were also used for construction of buildings. PFM should include a plan for the sustainable utilisation of man- groves. The plan should be guided by national legislation and address the biology of the mangrove spe- cies. The plan should include livelihood issues and should in the long term promote the use of alternative construction materials to mangroves, and should enhance the non-consumptive value of the mangrove ecosystem. Keywords: community-based natural resource management, construction timber, forest products, South Africa, wetlands INTRODUCTION MANGROVES ARE DEFINED as tropical trees restricted to inter-tidal and adjacent communities (Tomlinson 1986). The morphological and ecophysiological characteristics of mangrove trees make them structurally and function- ally unique. The standing crop of a mangrove forest is generally larger than other aquatic ecosystems (Alongi 2002). Mangroves play an important role in nutrient cycling, nutrient export, sediment trapping and coastal protection, and act as breeding and nursery grounds for marine and estuarine organisms (Lugo & Snedaker 1974; Hogarth 1999; Mumby et al. 2004). The mangroves of South Africa are a sub-tropical outlier, at the southern- most limit of their African range. In the 1980s, man- groves were estimated to cover an area of 1058 ha: 785 ha in KwaZulu-Natal Province and 273 ha in the Eastern Cape Province (Ward & Steinke 1982). The area covered by mangroves is dynamic; in the Wild Coast area of the Eastern Cape, an area loss of 6.5 per cent over 17 years has been reported (Adams et al. 2004). Globally, products from mangrove ecosystems have been utilised for generations and these include firewood, charcoal, construction timber, fish traps, tanning com- pounds, dyes and medicinal products (Semesi 1992; Dahdouh-Guebas et al. 2000; Barbosa et al. 2001). In South Africa, mangroves are utilised as fuelwood, build- ing materials and fish traps (Bruton 1980; Ward et al. 1986; Rajkaran et al. 2004), whilst within the mangroves stock grazing and collection of the mangrove crab (Sesarma meinerti) occurs (Steinke 1999; Kyle 2004). The impacts of mangrove utilisation are unclear and a re- cent assessment of the degree of use of forest products rated mangrove use and impact as being nil/not signifi- cant for all products (Lawes et al. 2004). However, in some South African estuaries that lack conservation pro- tection, Adams et al. (2004) reported that harvesting had removed more than 50 per cent of the mangrove trees.