This paper examines the environmental impacts of continued tree harvesting for charcoal production to supply the urban areas in Tanzania. Woodlands appear to recover relatively well following harvesting for charcoal production. Selective harvesting, where the high quality, low cost fuel production species and specimens are culled first from a piece of land, serves to maintain the viability of the woodland resource while providing charcoal. This recovery period can be prolonged through any number of human induced activities, such as heavy grazing, multiple burns and extended cultivation periods. At the same time, post-harvest management techniques, such as coppice management, sprout protection and fertilization, can also improve the ability of woodlands to recover following harvesting. The environmental history of a given area determines why certain areas continue to be strong suppliers of woodfuel while other are not. For example, Shinyanga started from a low productivity base and has been degraded by successive waves of tree harvesting compounded by heavy grazing pressure. It is this multiple complex of pressures over a long period of time on land which is intrinsically of low productivity, and not the harvesting of woodlands for fuels, which has led to the environmental degradation in these areas.