Effects of government ban to harvest trees in agroforestry farms on household income in Moshi district, Tanzania
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Date
2015
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Sokoine University of Agriculture
Abstract
This study was conducted with the objective of assessing the social economic
effects of Government ́s ban to harvest trees in agroforestry farms on household
income in Moshi District, Tanzania. The study was carried out in four villages in
four wards in Mamba and Mwika Divisions. The findings show that 84% of
villagers agreed that there is social and economic effects caused by the
Government ́s ban to harvest trees on peoples income. The study found that
villagers had lost hopes on environmental protection supervised by Village
Environmental Committee (VEC) as they had failed to stand on the main objectives
of the ban. The force that had been used by VEC on fines and issuing harvesting
permits is so great compared to tree planting efforts. This situation endangered
sustainability of trees in agroforestry farms which were considered to be a key for
rural development. There had been a rapid fall of Moshi District income from 40
million Tsh in 2011/12, to 3.5 million in year 2013/14 while in the year 2014/15
was expected to be 12 million. The ban also resulted into valuable trees being
converted to firewood and construction poles which fetched low market price
compared to sawn timber. Leaving felled trees on the ground for long time while
waiting for permit also reduced the quality of timber and market price. This study
recommends that the VEC should concentrate more on educating villagers on the
importance of tree planting and supervise tree planting rather than issuing permits
and policing tree cutting in agroforestry farms. The Government should relax the
ban by encouraging sustainable harvesting of mature trees only, this will encourage
villagers to plant more trees in their farms, improve their livelihood and protect the
environment.
Description
MSc Thesis
Keywords
tree plantation, mature trees, sustainable forest harvesting, agroforestry farm, Household income, Household forest management, Moshi, Tanzania