Bark strippers hurting Table Mountain park

Despite being one of South Africa’s smaller national parks, the Table Mountain National Park (TMNP) has no shortage of problems facing the area’s flora, fauna and marine life.

TMNP rangers have begun to notice alarming rates of a trend known as bark stripping, in which large portions, or whole trees, are stripped bare using sharp objects such as pangas or spades. The bark is then dried and crushed to chew or consume.

In addition, the park’s fynbos species is also being unsustainably harvested for medicinal purposes.

The Cape Peninsula has more than 2 200 plant species – more plants than in the entire UK.

Although not a new practice in South Africa, with a number of cultures using bark for medicinal purposes, rangers are noticing glaring forest gaps that could cause an ecological disaster.

Sustainable harvesting of most plants and animals does not pose a problem for ecosystems, but the large scale of removal of these purported medicinal products is alarming, said senior TMNP ranger Jaclyn Smith.

Smith said the region’s indigenous trees being used for bark stripping include Cape beech, assegai or Cape lancewood, Cape holly and stinkwood trees. In the Newlands Forest, Cape beech was particularly vulnerable. Smith said it was not yet known exactly what the long-term ecological impacts could be.

“It’s still too early to know the future impact. I think for many forest dynamics, it takes years for trees to get to this stage. Once you get forest gaps, more sunlight filters in and it changes the nature of the soil, the moisture of the soil, the species diversity. There’s a whole lot that is influenced.”

Once a ranger finds a stripped tree, the affected tree is logged in a GPS system. The scar, or gap left due to stripping, is measured and treated with tree paste made of cow manure. Trees are sealed in an attempt to save them, said Newlands Forest section ranger Chamell Pluim.

She compared bark stripping to removing a person’s first layer of skin: one then becomes susceptible to a host of infections and trees were no different. Once stripped of bark, trees become vulnerable to insect invasion and decay and could eventually die.

“It’s quite devastating for many rangers. For us, this is a rhino. For us, this is abalone; for us, any tree species where this is happening, it’s quite sad.”

There have been some successes with tree paste painting, with shoots growing out of stripped trees, but the trees targeted are often not fully grown. “We have to start planting now to get the forest back to its original state.”

The array of cultural diversity in the Cape Peninsula has drawn many practicing traditional healers and medicinal plant consumers.

Of the 2 285 plant species in the City of Cape Town, 28% are listed as vulnerable to endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list.

Three suspects were recently arrested by Smith and Pluim with 59kg of bark. Although not aggressive, Smith said there was an influx of people into Newlands Forest at night. They sleep there, strip trees and leave before rangers can get to them. Nearby charred logs and cigarette butts litter a makeshift camp site belonging to tree bark harvesters.

Demand is not yet known and the street value of medicinal plants changes according to demand. Those caught are liable for a fine and Smith said rangers were following the case closely. “It’s a huge deal, 59kg is a lot of trees.”

nicar@citizen.co.za

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