GEORGE NEWS - Plans for starting up a factory using wood from invasive tree species were revealed at an open day held at held at Furntech, NMMU campus at Saasveld in George.
It will be part of a Working for Water project and Furntech will be involved as a training partner.

"The Eco Furniture Factory in the Garden Route is a pilot project being partially funded by both the Danish Government and the British American Tobacco company who are providing R900 000 for infrastructure start-up costs," said Herman Jungbauer, Garden Route cluster manager of the Invasive Species Control Unit (ISCU).

The seed capital to the value of R2,8-million has been provided by Working for Water. The factory will be set up at Farleigh Forest Estate in the Wilderness section of the Garden Route National Park.
It forms part of a number of similar factories to be built on a national scale to achieve the roll-out of a social responsibility programme of the Extended Public Works Programmes. Furniture will be manufactured from invasive alien trees and lesser known species of indigenous timber (e.g. white elder, assegaai, cape beech and candlewood).

School desks and benches will be produced to high standards and provided at a fraction of the cost of buying them on the open market.
This will then be supplied to various governmental departments. SANParks as an implementing agent hopes in the long term to have enough resources to supply head boards and beds to all other national parks.
The factory will operate on the same way as a non-profit organisation.

The plans were revealed at the Garden Route cluster of the ISCU who recently hosted an information day for interested members of the public.
The purpose of the meeting was to provide detailed information on employment opportunities, and the functioning of the planned Eco Furniture Factory.
The information session was attended by more than 350 members from local communities as far afield as Oudtshoorn and Plettenberg Bay.

A total of 36 people from local communities within the Garden Route National Park will be employed as part of the initial phase of setting up the Eco Furniture Factory.
It is further envisaged that subsequent roll-out phases will result in creating more employment opportunities not only in the Southern Cape but in other regions by setting up satellite plants to assemble the transported ‘flat-packed’ furniture.
The main purpose of the factory would be on clearing the invasive alien plants out of the eco system, up skilling of local communities through the Extended Public Works Programmes and contribution towards job creation for the benefit of the Garden Route communities.

"The success of this pilot project will influence the establishment of five other Eco Furniture Factories throughout the country," said Jungbauer.
The factory will consist of a planking and furniture making business.

A total of eight employees will be taken through an extensive furniture making training course for a period of three months and during this period logistics to complete the infrastructure and employment contracts will be undertaken.

It is therefore envisaged that the Eco Furniture Factory will in principle resume its operations early in February 2011.


An information session held to reveal plans for an Eco Furniture Factory was attended by 350 people from all over the Garden Route eager for a career in cabinetry.