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Sustainable Forestry

Our sustainably farmed and internationally accredited eucalyptus and pine plantations are tended by our team of highly skilled foresters to ensure that we unlock maximum value to the benefit of our customers and key stakeholders. Our plantations start their life as seedlings, carefully grown from seed and cuttings and improved through tree breeding programs. These seedlings are planted and nurtured for a period of between 15-22 years for our pine and 10-15 years for our eucalyptus trees. Our foresters are professionally trained, and skilled in managing not only our trees but the conservation areas that surround them and dealing with the threats that they may face.

Plantation of young eucalyptus trees

   Eucalyptus   

Pine trees on MTO's pine plantation

   Pine   

A combination of large, small and medium enterprises are employed to provide services which include: planting; weeding; pruning; herbicide and fertiliser application; prescribed burning for fire management and harvesting and transportation.

We strive to meet the principles and criteria of the internationally recognised Forest Stewardship Council® and our plantations and operating standards are audited annually against these standards. MTO Cape (FSC-C014996) has maintained FSC® certification for the past 23 years (one of the oldest in South Africa), and MTO North (Pty) (FSC-C109194) Ltd is now in its 7th year of certification.

Pine trees being harvested on MTO's pine plantation
MTO Group Employee and Plantation Statistics
Map of MTO's Sawmill and Manufacturing locations

Cape Operations

57060.72 ha across the Cape region

Established in 2005

 

  • Plantations

    • Jonkershoek

    • Garcia

    • Kruisfontein

    • Longmore

    • Witelsbos

    • Lottering

    • Tokai

  • George Sawmill

  • Longmore Sawmill

  • Retreat Distribution Centre

  • MTO Research Facility

 

Mpumalanga Operations

32 191 ha across the Mpumalanga region

Established in 2015

 

  • Plantations and Farms:

    • MTO Lowveld

      • Barberton

      • Escarpment

      • Numbi South (White River)

      • Numbi North (Hazyview)

    • Imvelo Forests

      • Paradise Falls

      • Klipkopje

      • Kruisfontein

      • Pull Scar

    • Ramanas Farms

      • Waterhoutboom

      • Doornlaagte

      • Ramanas

      • Hebron

  • MTO Agri

    • Pull Scar Macadamias

  • MTO Poles

    • Pull Scar Treating Plant

    • Paradise Falls Treating Plant

 

Box of young pine seedlings
FSC logo

Our Standards

The MTO Group leases land from the Department of Forestry Fisheries and Environment ("DFFE") in the Western, Southern and Eastern Cape regions of South Africa since 2005.

 

We are a member of Forestry South Africa guided by its principles of responsible forestry which require attention to sustainable, efficient and effective practices that have the lowest environmental impact and yield the greatest social and economic benefit, while producing an array of renewable and versatile end-products.

We are a Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®) company and bound by its set of guiding principles. The FSC® is a world respected independent certification system for forestry plantations, that has a clearly delineated set of principles that look at environmental standards, as well as economic impact. Critically, the FSC® also examines the social standards of those involved in the sector, typically, how the company interacts with its stakeholders including local communities affected by the plantations.

All herbicides used in our plantations conform to international standards and our teams are actively monitored, receiving regular health assessments, with a clean bill of health reported to date for all our staff.

We work closely with our neighbours and communities in maintaining sustainable plantations and creating sustainable communities.

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