The Mpingo Conservation & Development Initiative : PFM in Tanzania

Participatory Forest Management (PFM) is a strategy to achieve sustainable forest management by encouraging the management or co-management of forest and woodland resources by the communities living closest to the resources. It is one of the many forms of the more general Community-Based Natural Resources Management (CBNRM) which has dominated conservation thinking in Africa for the last twenty years.

The Tanzanian Government defines PFM as:

“The arrangements for management that are negotiated by multiple stakeholders and are based on set of rights and privileges recognized by the government and widely accepted by resource users; and the process for sharing power among stakeholders to make decisions and exercise control over resource use.”

It is characterised by forest-adjacent communities sharing power rather than just benefits, and assuming owner/user rights and management of the resources. PFM can contribute to a broader rural development strategy which aims to improve rural livelihoods and by reducing poverty whilst at the same time protecting the environment and promoting gender-equality.

History of Forest Policy & Management in Tanzania

The first National Forest Policy of Tanzania was established in 1953 and reviewed in 1963. The aim of this policy was to conserve the forests in perpetuity for the present and future generations. However, the policy placed all the powers with foresters and ignored the people. This was not inappropriate at that time as the population was small and pressure on forests was minimal.

Over the years pressure on forest resources has increased as a they are called upon to meet demands for fuelwood, fodder, building poles, timber, agricultural lands etc. This is partially attributable simply to an expanding population, but also widespread poverty and low level of education hinder adoption of new, alternative technologies.

In response to the social, economic, environmental, cultural and political changes taking place in the society and nation at large, the Government of Tanzania formulated a new national forest policy in 1998. It provides room for people’s involvement in conservation, e.g. policy statement 39:

"Local communities will be encouraged to participate in forest activities. Clearly defined forest land and tree tenure rights will be instituted for local communities, including both men and women. "

Enabling legislation for the new policy was passed with the new Forest Act of 2002.

Efforts to involve the people in forest conservation in Tanzania date back to the early 1990s. They were mainly donor funded and at the time were not explicitly supported by existing policy or legislation. Following success in various pilot areas and policy changes within the MNRT, a new national level programme of PFM has been established. All 5 regions under the Catchment Forests Project (Arusha, Kilimanjaro, Morogoro, Tanga and Manyara) have started PFM in at least one Forest Reserve in each district. Also 12 districts in 4 regions of Iringa, Lindi, Mbeya and Morogoro are implementing PFM project under the support of DANIDA.

Tanzania is one of the leading countries in Africa implementing PFM-style practices. Since 1995 more than five hundred Village Land Forest Reserves (VLFRs) have been declared by communities out of communal lands. In addition, several thousand households, clans or other community groups in Shinyanga Region have demarcated private forests (called Ngitiri). Together these developments have brought more than half a million hectares under community protection.

In Tanzania, PFM implementation is split into two categories:-

Joint Forest Management (JFM) is applicable where there is a pre-existing local or central government forest reserve. In this instance the forest adjacent communities enter into a Joint Management Agreement with the appropriate reservation authority to share management responsibility and benefits accruing.

Community-Based Forest Management (CBFM) is used to refer to cases where there is no pre-existing forest reserve which must be taken into account. Here communities simply decide to reserve a part of their village lands as a VFA. Upon provision of an acceptable Village Forest Management Plan (VFMP) control and ownership of all the forest resources therein is devolved to the village government.

The Mpingo Conservation & Development Initiative is principally concerned with developing CBFM initiatives under which communities can receive a the lions share of lucrative licence fees for felling timber, without being burdened by additional negotiations with forest reserve authorities.