Through the Project Grow initiative, started in 1983, Sappi assists almost 4,000 black people to grow trees on 15,000ha of their own and community land by providing seedlings, technical advice, loans and a guaranteed market for their first two harvests. It is estimated that 80% of the workforce employed in cultivating these trees are women. In 2010, the project provided 130,000 tons of timber.

 

Through this Sappi injected some R50 million into communities where the average farm size is 1.79 hectares.