Abstract:
An increase in human population has led to land scarcity, shortage of water for irrigation
and catchments forest degradation in Pangani River Basin. The response to the socioeconomic
and environmental problems in the basin has been among the endeavors of
Conservation and Development Interventions (CDIs). This study was conducted to assess
the impact of CDIs on livelihoods and forest resources management at Pangani River
Basin in Muheza District, Tanzania. Sustainable livelihood approach was employed to
gather livelihoods data. Livelihoods attributes were collected using a number of PRA
techniques, questionnaire, focus group discussion, key informant and field observation.
Forest inventory was carried out in Kwamkoro forest reserves by laying out 50 sample
plots systematically from the forest edge. Different forest parameters were compared to the
1998 record. Contents and structural-functional analyses were applied to analyse socioeconomic
qualitative data. Statistical Package for Social Science and Macro soft excel was
used to analyse the socio-economic various forest parameters data. The study found out
that EUCAMP was the major CDIs in the study area. Butterfly farming, fish farming, bee
keeping, energy saving stove, collecting and selling of Allanblackia stulhminii seeds, biointensive
gardening, zero grazing dairy cattle, spice cultivation and ecotourism were the
livelihoods strategies adopted from CDIs. Land size, household income, forest restoration
and livelihood improvement were statistically significantly correlated with CDIs activities
at (p< 0.01). Further, stems per hectare obtained in 2005 were low compared to stems per
hectare observed in 1998 indicating significant decrease. The basal area and wood volume
decreased while species diversity indices indicate a slight increase from 3.4 to 3.5 between
1998 and 2007 suggesting that the forest is still facing disturbance. It was concluded that
CDIs interventions have not adequately improved people’s livelihoods or reduced pressure
toward forest resources utilization.
