This paper summarizes the limited conditions of rural poverty which made the communities in KwaZulu-Natal accept commercial tree-growing schemes as a way to confront the cycle of poverty in which they are trapped. Firstly, it looks at the promises timber giants such as SAPPI2 and MONDI have made to rural communities in KwaZulu-Natal when encouraging them to adopt tree growing as an income generating venture. Those people that accepted the contract conditions came into the schemes with very high hopes based on what the extension foresters and company officials had made them believe. However, the growers were soon to notice that all the promises were not forthcoming,but not withstanding the disillusionment, there have not been any withdrawals from the scheme which became more of a survivalist strategy in communities ridden by poverty and a dwindling supply of resources. This can be seen in a statement by one of the first growers to join the schemes,about 17 years after the fact and after two harvests. He had this to say: