‘Something else to burn’: forest squatters, conservationists, and the state in modern Tanzania

Abstract

In the last fifteen years, Tanzanian forest policy has embraced an agenda of biodiversity preservation coupled with privatisation that calls for the expansion of state oversight over forests and woodlands. Reflecting the hegemony of conservationist donors and international and local NGOs, and couched in a language of community conservation, this agenda decries peasant intrusion into forest reserves to burn charcoal for the urban market and to expand fields for agriculture. This agenda is a departure from over a century of state forestry that sought to exploit forests for domestic consumer and development needs, and to compete in export timber and charcoal markets. Following the Second World War, state forestry anchored peasants in selected forest reserves as licensed cultivators in the face of an ongoing labour shortage, in order to create tree plantations that replaced indigenous hardwoods with fast-growing exotic softwoods. This trend continued after independence as forestry was perceived as a means for agricultural modernisation and economic self-reliance, particularly after the Arusha Declaration. Current changes in forest policy prioritise forests more as ‘refugia’ for endemic plant and animal species, rather than as sources of timber and fuel, moving forest policy more in the direction of wildlife conservation, which has long aimed at excluding peasants and pastoralists from reserves. Recent evictions of peasants from forest reserves, and ongoing tensions between villagers, the state and conservationists, are the direct result of NGO pressure to protect forest reserves and to expand forest conservation into previously unreserved lands.

Can REDD+ Reconcile Local Priorities and Needs with Global Mitigation Benefits? Lessons from Angai Forest, Tanzania

“…AVLFR has a history of contested ownership (Sunseri 2005). In 1993, Liwale District requested support from the Finnish Rural Integrated Project Support (RIPS) program for the demarcation of the Angai Forest as a district forest reserve.…”

“…There is a strong feeling of ownership of the AVLFR in the villages. Although formal ownership was gained only in 2005, the Angai forest has historically been perceived as village land (Sunseri 2005(Sunseri , 2009). Traditional ceremonies and rituals are performed there and it is seen as a heritage that has to be preserved for future generations.…”

Future prospect and sustainability of wood fuel resources in Tanzania

“…In a study conducted by Titcombe and Simcik [79], exposure of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and particulate matters (PM 2.5 ) increased in order of magnitude for households who used kerosene to charcoal to wood. Unless there is a switch to cleaner energy sources and/or conversion techniques for cooking, this problem of indoor air pollution will persist [80].…”

Patronage or Participation? Community‐based Natural Resource Management Reform in Sub‐Saharan Africa

“…The marginality of local communities from these processes throughout their duration over the past two decades has been notable -local populations have played a small role at best in policy formulation or setting the wildlife sector reform agenda (see also Sunseri, 2005). These benefits are amplified by relatively low levels of public transparency and accountability and the centralized and high commercial value of Tanzania's wildlife.…”

“…Other actors, including both local communities and foreign donors, have only limited ability to influence the thoroughness with which institutional reforms are implemented, even if donors can help prompt the launching of reforms. The marginality of local communities from these processes throughout their duration over the past two decades has been notable -local populations have played a small role at best in policy formulation or setting the wildlife sector reform agenda (see also Sunseri, 2005). Although local communities are vocal and active in their resistance to many aspects of wildlife conservation policy in Tanzania (Igoe, 2004), most of the continuing dialogue over wildlife sector reforms occurs mainly amongst government personnel and their donor agency and conservation NGO supporters.…”