Abstract
Understanding community attitudes towards urban forests is of great importance since these attitudes are inherently linked to the long-term sustainability of urban forests management and conservation. We analysed the attitudes of the local community towards the Njiro forest (Arusha, Tanzania) which is managed and used as an experimental beekeeping area by TAWIRI (Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute). Data collection was done between September-October 2018 involving a sample of 163 randomly selected respondents. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect the data. Quantitative data were analysed through Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS). Chi-square tests and contingency tables were used to determine whether there was a significant difference between the expected frequencies and the observed frequencies in one or more categories. Possible influences coming from sociological and demographic factors such as age, gender, education level, occupation were assessed. The majority of the respondents declared to gain ecological benefits from the forest. A significantly larger group of older respondents in comparison with the younger ones (p<0.05) declared to face problems coming from the forest (stray dogs, robbers, illegal waste disposal). Males showed to be more interested in practising beekeeping than females (p<0.05). Respondents with a primary education level were more prone to express agreement with the adopted management strategies in comparison with respondents with higher education (p<0.001). In conclusion, the great majority of respondents declared to support the conservation of Njiro forest, however, employed respondents and females were more positive regarding the hypothesis of abolishing the forest (p<0.05). In order to improve management strategies and support the long-term conservation of the forest, respondents recommended strengthening the protection of the forest by fencing it, providing environmental education to the surrounding community, reinforcing the cooperation with the local community and planting new trees to improve the health of the forest ecosystem.
Highlights
IntroductionUntil the first half of the 19th century, the majority of the human population lived in rural areas, but thereafter, new urbanization trends have changed the population distribution
This paper reports the results of a survey on the attitudes and perception of the community towards Njiro forest management and conservation
The majority of the local community agrees with the management pattern that up to now has been adopted, supporting the conservation of the forest as an ecological service provider, a biodiversity reservoir and an important area for beekeeping and research
Summary
Until the first half of the 19th century, the majority of the human population lived in rural areas, but thereafter, new urbanization trends have changed the population distribution. Urbanization tends to modify the structure of the ecological niches and habitats of living organisms by both destroying the biodiversity and homogenizing the composition of the community itself (McKinney, 2006; 2008). Several critical factors linked to urbanization tend to work as limiting factors for wildlife. They are fragmentation and isolation of green areas surviving into cities, simplification of plant community structures, and colonization by exotic species, which tend to compete with indigenous ones, air and noise pollution, artificial night lighting, animals/vehicle collisions (Blair and Launer, 1997; Marzluff and Ewing, 2001; Picchi et al, 2013)
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