Abstract:
Deforestation and forest degradation are tied
to a complex array of socioeconomic and
political factors. Quantifying the amount of
amount of forest is key to ensure that
appropriate management practices and
policies are in place to combat deforestation
and forest degradation. Despite the fact that
forestland tenure changes from private and
communal to state ownership occurred in
Ngitili management systems in Meatu
district Tanzania, little has been done to
evaluate its impacts on forest cover. The
objective of this study was to assess the
forest cover changes under different tenure
regimes in Ngitili management system.
Landsat imagery of 1986 and 2000 were used
in this study and data were analyzed using
QGIS software. Results show that open land,
grassland, bushland and open forest were the
dominant forest classes under private and
communal tenure regime while semi closed
forest dominated most of the Ngitili area
under the state tenure regime. The study
concludes by supporting the alternative
hypothesis that, forest land tenure changes
have significant impacts on forest cover. The
study recommends that, a study is needed to
assess the impact of devolution which
occurred in 2002 on forest cover change.
