Communal Land Forest Produce Act [Chapter 19:04]

AN ACT to regulate the exploitation of and to protect forest produce within Communal Land; to regulate and encourage the establishment of plantations within Communal Land; and to provide for matters connected with or incidental to the foregoing.

[Date of commencement: 8th January, 1988.]

1 Short title

This Act may be cited as the Communal Land Forest Produce Act [Chapter 19:04].

2 Interpretation

“agreement” means an agreement entered into in terms of section six for the exploitation of any forest produce;

“authority” means an agreement, licence, permit, special licence or special permit entered into or issued, as the case may be, in terms of this Act;

“contractor” means a person who is entitled to exploit any forest produce in terms of an agreement;

“designated officer” means any person designated as a designated officer in terms of subsection (1) of section sixteen;

“exploit”, in relation to any forest produce, means to cut, fell, take, strip the bark from or remove such forest produce;

“forest produce” means,

“Forestry Commission” means the Forestry Commission established by section 4 of the Forest Act [Chapter 19:05];

“inhabitant”, in relation to any Communal Land or part thereof, means a person who is entitled, in terms of section 8 of the Communal Land Act [Chapter 20:04], to reside in that Communal Land or part thereof and who does reside there;

“licence” means a licence issued in terms of subsection (1) of section five;

“local authority”, in relation to any area of Communal Land, means a district council or other local or like authority established for the area concerned;

“major forest produce” means all trees, palms and bamboos or any part thereof, other than leaves, flowers, fruit or seeds;

“Minister” means the Minister of Environment and Tourism or any other Minister to whom the President may, from time to time, assign the administration of this Act;

“natural forest” means a forest that has not been artificially established, but does not include an extension of a plantation resulting from the natural propagation of the tree or trees in such plantation;

“permit” means a permit issued in terms of subsection (1) of section seven;

“protected forest area” means an area declared in terms of subsection (1) of section fifteen to be a protected forest area;

[Definition as amended by section 4 of Act No. 22 of 2001]

“public land” means any land within Communal Land which is under the control of a local authority, but does not include any such land which—

[Chapter 20:04], for any purpose other than that of communal grazing;

“public stream” means a watercourse of natural origin wherein water flows, whether or not—

“reserved tree” means a tree which is—

“special licence” means a special licence issued in terms of paragraph (a) of subsection (1) of section eight;

“special permit” means a special permit issued in terms of paragraph (b) of subsection (1) of section eight;

“tree” means the whole or any part of—

3 Right of Minister to exploit forest produce in Communal Land

(1) Subject to this Act and to the terms and conditions of any authority, the right to exploit forest produce—

(2) In the exercise of his rights in terms of subsection (1), the Minister shall exploit, or allow the exploitation of, only such forest produce as he considers reasonable having regard to the needs of the inhabitants of the Communal Land within which the forest produce concerned is growing or has grown.

4 Right of inhabitants and occupants of Communal Land to exploit forest produce

(1) The inhabitants of any Communal Land shall have the right, within that Communal Land, to exploit for their own use any forest produce: Provided that—