Abstract:
Over the past 15 years the Tanzanian government
has promoted participatory forest management (both joint
forest management and community-based forest management)
as a major strategy for managing natural forests for
sustainable use and conservation. Such management is currently
either operational or in the process of being established
in.3.6million ha of forest land and in.1,800 villages. Data
fromthree case studies of forestsmanaged using participatory
and non-participatory forest management approaches suggest
that community involvement in forest management is
correlated with improving forest condition. In our first case
study we demonstrate increasing basal area and volume of
trees per ha over time in miombo woodland and coastal forest
habitats under participatory forest management compared
with similar forests under state or open access management.
In our second case study three coastal forest and sub-montane
Eastern Arc forests under participatory forest management
show a greater number of trees per ha, and mean height and
diameter of trees compared to three otherwise similar forests
under state management. In our third case study levels of
cutting in coastal forest and Eastern Arc forests declined over
time since initiation in participatory forest management sites.
We conclude that participatory forest management is showing
signs of delivering impact in terms of improved forest
condition in Tanzanian forests but that further assessments
need to be made to verify these initial findings
