Assessing the socio-economic sustainability
of small scale forest plantations provides the basis
for monitoring compliance with sustainable forest
management principles and prescription of appropriate
interventions. Considering that state forest plantations
in South Africa have been scheduled for transfer
to community-based entities, determination of the
potential of alternative forest management types is
vital. This study therefore assessed the socio-economic
sustainability of current forest management
strategies in state forest plantations at Gaba and
Rossbach in Limpopo Province of South Africa. It also
determined the potential of alternative forest management
regimes using perceptions of local communities.
Summated rating scales principles were applied by
using likert scaling to acquire the perceptions of local
communities through scoring of indicators and veri-
fiers. While the local community for Rossbach forest
plantation was content with all indicators of socioeconomic
sustainability, the local community for
Gaba was discontent with provision of products and
the forest plantation’s contribution to their livelihoods.
Both communities perceived joint forest management
to be the optimal forest management regime across all
indicators while expressing total lack of confidence in
managing the forest plantations communally. Optimal
socio-economic sustainability in the post-transfers era
can be achieved through joint decision-making and
formalized sharing of responsibilities and benefits
between the communities and government.