The sector faces the same realities. Climate change and El Niño, illegal mining, roadside sawmills, theft, arson, and the wider socio-political and economic pressures on doing business in South Africa don’t discriminate between large and small operations.
It is therefore not entirely surprising that resilience and collaboration have emerged as the standout themes of this year’s Forestry South Africa (FSA) and Sawmilling South Africa (SSA) AGMs. Both associations are part of the Forestry Sector Master Plan, and when the shared risks are visible, the shared response tends to follow a similar pattern.
At FSA’s AGM, Chairperson Duane Roothman struck a note of confidence, saying: “fixate on our successes and build on them”. With significant change ahead for both the industry and the country, he believes FSA’s future rests on collaboration within and across value chains, underpinned by ethical principles that don’t bend or break under pressure.
That message carried through to SSA’s AGM, where Chairperson Craig Rance put it plainly: no single business can tackle industry challenges alone. Sawmills, he says, face common pressures and opportunities, and their influence depends on members staying united within their association and participating actively rather than from the sidelines.
SSA’s AGM also included a dedicated look at what deeper business ties with Finland could mean for local operations, underscoring that collaboration can be as easily achieved across borders as it is across the sector.
We see this playing out beyond the AGMs, too. This edition reports on Woodex for Africa, where the show floor was a place for technology and service suppliers and visitors to compare notes and form new links.
Congratulations to Willie Stander and White River Saw Mills on their participation in the Crickmay & Associates Intermill Comparison and on attaining the Sawmill Improvement Award for the second time.
Harvesting and transport specialist Mkhoba Forestry has invested in the proven TimberPro 725D levelling harvester and SP Maskiner 761LF head combination to address steep-slope cut-to-length operations in south-western KwaZulu-Natal. Mkhoba Forestry is based in Harding…
When you need to slow or stop the spread of fire, you need to remove the fuel. This is where professionals rely on the STIHL BR range of backpack blowers to clear combustible material and…
By Joy Crane Dr Tatenda Mapeto of the Department of Forestry in Nelson Mandela University’s Natural Resource Science and Management Cluster is leading Future21, the EU-funded project to reshape how universities prepare students for work…
Forestry does not wait. Production targets don’t pause, terrain doesn’t get easier, and downtime is never convenient. For contractors across Africa, every decision comes down to one question: Will this machine keep working when I…
Africa Biomass Company (ABC) understands the operational challenges of wood recycling and, since 2004, has been at the forefront of developments in biomass recycling and a market-leading equipment supplier and contractor to the forestry and…
Forestry is a tough job. Mud, slopes, stumps, water crossings, and long hours in remote areas quickly reveal weaknesses. Downtime under these conditions is frustrating and costly. Machines must be versatile, robust, and efficient enough…
By Joy Crane Roy Southey, executive director of Sawmilling South Africa (SSA), says the depressed local market made 2025/26 an extremely tough year for sawmillers, yet they have shown resilience that many rural communities appreciate.…
By Joy Crane It has been two years since the last South African Saw Doctors Educational Association (SASDEA) meeting, and sawmill managers and saw doctors travelled from as far afield as Zimbabwe and Eswatini to…
When STIHL marks one hundred years in business, it does so from a position few in the forestry equipment sector can match: a century shaped by engineering innovation and long-term relationships with professional users. Founded…
South Africa’s commercial plantation forests are mostly FSC certified. That’s not a small thing. It represents a significant and ongoing investment by forest managers in responsible practice, and it’s reflected in the cost of the…
Our sawmilling customer needed a solution and decided to build a machine unlike any we have delivered before. The result? The double arbour Multirip 260 is our largest and most powerful machine to date.…
By Joy Crane All photos by Joy Crane © ForSawn Media Pty Ltd Over the past three years or so, a subtle yet significant shift has been taking root in South Africa’s sawmilling industry. A…
By David Marks of MEWA in Darling, Western Cape In the May 2024 issue of WoodBiz Africa, I wrote an article about the extraordinary engineering of the De Havilland Mosquito. This World War II British…
By Joy Crane The annual Wood Conference in Cape Town is the only timber-focused event in South Africa that has brought together a network of over 1000 people from diverse professions and interests. It is…
Over 1000 professionals, academics, business owners, investors, sawmillers and students interested in using timber in the built environment joined the Kuratle family to celebrate the 15th annual Wood Conference in Cape Town in February. The…
By David Marks, CEO of MEWA Let me tell you about a project that was a rollercoaster adventure in problem-solving, complex mathematics, engineering across many disciplines, creativity, craftsmanship and teamwork. I couldn’t be prouder of…
The Lantern House community centre in Johannesburg’s Eldorado Park is an example of adaptive reuse that repurposed and upgraded the defunct and fire-damaged Goud Street Substation into an aesthetically pleasing community centre using cross-laminated timber…
South Africa’s furniture industry is grappling with a surge of undervalued imports that distort market pricing and undermine fair competition. These imports are often declared under incorrect Harmonised System (HS) tariff codes, which mask the…
Pine plantation Recent high-resolution climate modelling research has revealed that the suitability of key pine species for plantation forestry will shift dramatically by 2060. The lead author, Dr Jaco-Pierre van der Merwe of York Timbers,…
Wits University and Sappi Southern Africa have renewed their research partnership to increase forestry resilience to climate change risks by extending the Wits Sappi Chair in Climate Change and Plantation Sustainability until 2028. The new…
The bark, leaves, and roots of indigenous tree species in Africa form the backbone of traditional medicine, providing remedies passed down through generations. However, indiscriminate harvesting is threatening ecosystems and the livelihoods of millions of…
Prof Mary Scholes and her team at the Sappi Chair in Climate Change and Plantation Sustainability at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) are pioneering research and capacity-building initiatives to equip the forestry industry to…
A new study reveals compelling evidence that forests certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) in Gabon and the Republic of Congo have more larger mammals and critically endangered species, such as gorillas and elephants,…
FSC forest management certification is back on the cards for Zimbabwe after taking a backseat for almost 15 years, largely due to severe economic challenges, such as hyperinflation, high interest rates, an unstable exchange rate,…
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