Fuelwood return rates and distance walked with repeated harvesting of fuelwood on the forelands of the Cape south coast

Foraging and availability of fuelwoods are likely to have impacted the fitness of hunter gatherers and may have influenced their mobility patterns. We investigated the resilience to repeated foraging of fuelwood by people indigenous to the study area on the coastal forelands of the Cape south coast of South Africa. We assessed fuelwood depletion patterns through repeated fuelwood foraging by human agents in six different vegetation types, namely Floodplain Woodland, Renosterveld, Subtropical Thicket, Strandveld, Sand Fynbos, and Limestone Fynbos. The latter two vegetation types were sampled in both unburnt and recently burnt (within three years of our sampling) states, which enabled investigation of fuelwood foraging rates in eight different habitat types. We calculated fuelwood return rates and the distance walked during consecutive harvesting bouts. Neither fuelwood return rates nor the distance walked during foraging declined/increased significantly in any of the eight habitats over 12 person hours of foraging from a central point. Return rates differed significantly among the habitat types, with return rates being the lowest in Renosterveld and Subtropical Thicket and highest in Floodplain Woodland. Foragers generally chose to walk in a different direction each time they started from the central point and they preferred pre-existing trails. Distance walked was highest in Subtropical thicket and lowest in burnt Fynbos where foragers were able to access with relative ease the burnt skeletons of Proteaceae overstorey shrubs. Our results indicate that, fuelwood on the Cape south coast shows little evidence of depletion after intense harvesting.