The rural poor in South Africa have no such luxuries. Thousands scrape out a living on the savanna, gathering what they can for shelter, fuel, and food. A majority of rural households depend on wild foods for daily meals and income.
The two nations epitomise the north-south economic divide that appears to apply to non-timber forest products as much as anything else.
Sheona Shackleton of Rhodes University, South Africa, and Simo Moisio of Finland's Arctic Flavours Association contrasted the uses of non-timber forest products in their respective countries at Royal Roads University.
Simo Moisio, the executive director of Finland’s Arctic Flavours Association, says Finnish law encourages the harvesting of wild foods for consumption and commercial ventures. Sheona Shackleton, of the environmental science department at Rhodes University in South Africa, says her government is ignoring the non-timber forest economy to the peril of the poor.
“Much of the value of non-timber forest products goes unappreciated even though there is an obvious dependence,” Shackleton said. “Government ministries don’t recognize these opportunities but they are as important as other rural development sectors.”
Moisio and Shackleton both spoke at Royal Roads University May 15, hosted by RRU’s Centre for Non-Timber Resources, contrasting the importance their respective governments ascribe to goods from the forest.
Under the “Everyman’s Right” law, Moisio says access to Finland’s vast private forestlands is open for citizens to harvest berries and mushrooms. It’s a law taken to heart. The community of Suomussalmi is hosting the “World Championship of Berry Picking” this September. Finnish people consume large amounts of berries, about 14.5 kilograms per person each year, while picking only about 10 per cent of the potential harvest.
“Finland is known for its clear forest lakes and rivers,” Moisio said at RRU’s Quarterdeck hall. “It is everyman’s right to hike and pick berries and mushrooms in nature.”
Moisio said the wild foods culture has helped turn around Finland’s abysmal dietary habits in the 1970s that saw one of the highest heart attack rates in the world.
These days picking berries and mushrooms generates about a $100 million for the Finnish economy and is a significant seasonal employer, although the industry hasn’t escaped the effects of climate change. In 1997 commercial harvesters gathered 56 million kilograms of berries. That plummeted to 7.5 million kilograms last year. “We had the driest summer in 160 years,” he noted.
For the rural South African poor, wild foods and access to non-timber forest materials can be the difference between eating or not. Unemployment lingers at 60 to 70 per cent, agricultural land and water is scarce, and the previous apartheid regime encouraged policies of economic neglect.
Throw in 5.3 million people with HIV/AIDS and non-timber forest products become the basic household source for cooking, eating, shelter, and warmth. “Wild foods are very important for food security,” Shackleton said. “About 85 per cent of households consume wild foods, and the importance of that is magnified in the context of HIV/AIDS.”
Shackleton says estimates peg the subsistence use of the savanna biome at $1.5 billion, or up to 30 per cent of household income. It provides a social safety net, plants for medicinal uses and sources of income for women, such as brewing the popular marula beer (from the fruits of the marula tree).
Shackleton says non-timber products won’t lift the majority of people out of poverty, but it will help the poorest of the poor. For women it reduces dependency on males and helps establish social networks. Still, Shackleton says the government has been reluctant to adopt the non-timber economy in its planning to aid the rural poor.
“South Africa doesn’t have ‘Everyman’s Rights,” Shackleton said. “Harvesting on private land is difficult for women. We need the government to get serious about non-timber forest product enterprise development.”
Despite appearing worlds apart on approaching the non-timber forest sector, Shackleton suspects north-south differences aren’t that vast. She and Darcy Mitchell, director of RRU’s Centre for Non-Timber Resources, plan to collaborate on an article on the sector outlining parallels and differences between Canada and South Africa.
“We’re going to look at the north-south situation, and see if it is really so different,” Shackleton said. “The more you learn and dig, the more you see we face the same issues.”
Royal Roads University - News and Events
Royal Roads University - Centre for Non-Timber Resources
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