The announcement that 600 000 protected trees may be destroyed to make way for coal-fuelled industrial development in Northern Limpopo was met with public outcry and conservationists rallying to stop the bulldozing of trees.

According to Lauren Liebenberg of Living Limpopo, over 125 000 hectares of indigenous vegetation in the Vhembe Biosphere Reserve will be stripped away for the Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone (MM-SEZ) and 10 new open-cast coal mines that will supply the industrial zone.

According to Liebenberg, Living Limpopo has obtained records, connected to licences to destroy the protected trees on the MM-SEZ sites, which reveal that 658 058 protected trees, including 10 000 baobabs, will have to be cut down on the 8 000 hectare South Site, and a further 10 000 at the 3 500 hectare North Site.

“The records were released by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment in response to an application under the Promotion of Access to Information Act [Act 2 of 2000] made by All Rise Attorneys for Climate and Environmental Justice, acting for Living Limpopo and the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (Cals).

“The bundle of documents received suggests that of the multiple applications lodged by the MM-SEZ since 2020, two licences have so far been granted, both for the North Site – in 2023 and renewed on May 20 for the destruction of 1 000 baobab, marula, leadwood and shepherds trees,” Liebenberg explains.

He says the 2022 application for approval to ‘cut using chainsaws into stumps,’ 658 058 protected trees on the South Site, dwarfs the estimated 109 034 protected trees on the site given in the 2021 environmental impact assessment undertaken for the site’s establishment.

Many experts at the time argued that the assessment was grossly flawed, but in July 2022, environmental authorisation was granted regardless.

“The true number of trees and other vegetation that will ultimately be destroyed in a vast swathe of the Vhembe, converted from natural to coal mining and heavy industry, remains unknown. What is certain, is that the impact on the health of both the savanna biome ecosystem and the surrounding communities will be devastating,” Liebenberg says.

According to Liebenberg, the campaign involves an inquiry into the legal status of the North Site of the MM-SEZ, and assures that Living Limpopo will continue to monitor the licensing of protected tree destruction at all sites of the SEZ and the planned new coal mines.

“We have opposed the approval of the Water Use Licence and the Township Establishment, and are participating in the environmental impact assessment process and emissions licence applications for the ferrochrome smelter, coal washery and coking plants at the MM-SEZ South Site,” Liebenberg says.

The judicial review case brought in December 2022 by Living Limpopo, Cals and others, against the decision to grant environmental authorisation for site establishment at the South Site, is still pending. All Rise will be in an unopposed hearing in the Polokwane High Court on December 6 to finally determine issues relating to the record of decision.

The MM-SEZ is a large-scale Chinese-South African industrial project that will drive the expansion of coal mining in Limpopo’s Vhembe region.

It is located in the Vhembe District of South Africa’s northernmost province of Limpopo, in the municipal districts of Musina and Makhado. Spanning some 60km² between the Soutpansberg mountains in the south and the Limpopo River in the north, the zone encompasses multiple development sites.

The keystone project is the Energy-Metallurgical Zone, which will focus on heavily subsidised crude steel manufacturing and will more than double South Africa’s steel production output.