Forestry in reconstruction South Africa : imperial visions, colonial realities

This articles analyses the establishment of state forestry programs in the Orange Free State and Transvaal following the end of the South African War/Second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902). British imperial administrators, led by Alfred Milner, sought to reconstruct the economy of the Transvaal and Orange Free State by using personnel who had worked previously in India and Egypt rather than by drawing on local experts in the Cape Colony or Natal Colony. Colonial foresters from the Cape Colony used the opportunities provided by reconstruction to export Cape-centric ideas about forest management to the Transvaal and Orange Free State. Ultimately, Milner's desire to bring in a top-rate forester from India failed, although his program of reconstruction instead brought in foresters from the Cape Colony who helped to harmonise South African forestry practices before Union in 1910. The interpretation put forward in this article helps to explain how Cape foresters exported ideas about climatic comparison and afforestation from the Cape into the rest of South Africa.