Participatory Forest Management in West Usambara Tanzania: What Is the Community Perception on Success?

Hussein Luswaga,Ernst-August Nuppenau

doi:10.3390/su12030921

Hussein Luswaga, Ernst-August Nuppenau

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su12030921

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Journal: Sustainability	Publication Date: Jan 27, 2020
Citations: 14	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: The University of Dodoma, University of Giessen

Abstract

Despite the increase in forest areas and villages under the participatory program over the last two decades in Tanzania, there is little insight into the communities’ views regarding their participation. This study aimed to explore communities’ participation in the participatory forest program in Tanzania. The survey involved 159 households, randomly sampled from four villages bordering state and community-managed forests, in West Usambara Mountains. The factor analysis summarised three components of participation. Economic, decision-making, and protection activities are used to formulate the participation intensity index. The study observed significantly higher levels and intensity of participation in the villages around the state compared to those around the community forest. Training attendance, trust on institutions, and location were significant predictors of participation intensity of the households. In conclusion, the perceived performance of the participatory programs in achieving the participation aims has been moderate with better results in the state forest jointly managed with the community. Raising awareness and improving communication with villagers, fulfilling promises for the communities, and provision of more forest-linked interventions are recommended to improve the situation in West Usambara.

Highlights

Participatory programs have been central to the management of natural resources in many resource-rich countries in the past three decades [1]
The observed situation could be caused by the emigration of many youths (15–35 years) to other cities for economic reasons, which was reported by Songoro (2014), who observed the average age to be 47 years
The analysis indicates a difference in the participation intensity between institutional regimes with many households in higher levels of participation in the Joint Forest Management (JFM) than in the Community Based Forest Management (CBFM) (Table 4)

Summary

Introduction

Participatory programs have been central to the management of natural resources in many resource-rich countries in the past three decades [1]. Countries such as Tanzania, Indonesia, India, and Nepal have internalised the participatory approaches in which the communities participate in the forest resources management [2,3,4,5]. In Tanzania, for example, some studies observed positive outcome in income [10,11,12] and forest condition improvement [13,14], while others reported no impact on income or poverty alleviation [15,16]. Some of the documented conditions for success in these studies include livelihoods’ support at the households and communities’ level, accountability, and transparency mechanisms as well as minimisation of elite capture [10,15]

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