Abstract:
In developing countries, the failure of the policing model of forest management whereby the
central government protected forest reserves by preventing local communities from using them
led to the emergence of Participatory Forest Management (PFM). In Tanzania PFM takes two
main forms: Joint Forest Management (JFM) whereby the forest is owned by the central
government or district council and the local people are involved in conservation of the forest
and Community Based Forest Management (CBFM) whereby the community is given the right
to own and use the forest that is on the general land. In both JFM and CBFM the village is the
focal point in management of the forest and hence this approach to forest management is
referred to as village-based forest management in this paper (VBFM). The paper discusses the
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of village-based forest management in
Tanzania in the light of the origin and characteristics of villages and governance in the country.
A historical account of forest management is given. Among the strengths are the government
structure with strong villages for many years, willingness of people to participate in CBFM
initiatives and community-village collaboration. The fact that the approach is exogenous both in
conception and funding, its poor spiritual basis, inadequacy of technical knowledge at the
community level, inequality in cost and benefit sharing, poor infrastructure and lack of legal
documentation of the villages are seen as weaknesses of CBFM. Opportunities for CBFM
include appropriate national policies and international conventions and funding initiatives for
sustainable forest management. Threats to CBFM include land grabbing for bio-fuel production
and other enterprises, conflict of interest with the district and higher-level government and poor
governance. The paper concludes by suggesting the way forward for tapping the strengths and
opportunities of VBFM and addressing its weaknesses and threats.
