Browsing by Author "Monela, Gerald C."

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Making community-based forest management work: a case study from Duru-Haitemba village forest reserve, Babati, Arusha, the United Republic of Tanzania
(2006) Kajembe, George C.; Monela, Gerald C.; Mvena, Zebedayo S.K.
The Tanzanian Government’s capacity to protect forests and woodlands has progressively declined, with a reduction in budgets and retrenchment of workers. Hence a question has emerged in recent years as to whether the main model of forest resource management involving protection by policing is the right way forward. One model that has emerged and gained ground is community-based forest management. The guiding principle underlying the community-based forest management model is that local communities have the right to control and manage the forest resources on their land. This builds on a rather unique and favourable situation in the United Republic of Tanzania, where decentralized governance allows the village to own property in its own right as a corporate entity. Communities at Duru-Haitemba exploited this situation and adopted the community-based forest management model. The model at Duru-Haitemba came about as a result of local communities’ discontent at the way the 9 000 ha of remaining woodlands were being managed by the government. The woodlands, which were in a state of acute decline before local community participation, with loss of area and species, have been transformed into woodlands with boundaries that are intact, where incursion is limited, flora and fauna are recovering and management and protection are effective and at minimum cost.
Tropical rainforest deforestation, biodiversity benefits and sustainable landuse: analysis of economic and ecological aspects related to the Nguru mountains, Tanzania.
(Agricultural University of Norway, 1995) Monela, Gerald C.
The purpose of this report is to identify the main landuse and landuse problems with reference to agriculture and forestry in the Nguru mountains, and the main factors causing these problems, and analyze ways to reduce them in order to prevent forest degradation and deforestation. Based on data collected in villages in the Nguru mountains using interviews, field observations, and secondary sources it seems that ecological and socio-economic factors have played an important role in shaping the existing landuse practices, landuse problems and factors causing landuse problems in the Nguru mountains. The major landuses are agriculture and forestry. The agriculture is dependent on rainfall, growing mainly subsistence food crops using traditional farming practices. Forestry is for water conservation but also supplies local communities with both timber and nontimber forest products. Relative to other landuses such as settlements and grazing, agriculture and forestry have contributed most to the prevailing landuse conflicts in the Nguru mountains. The main landuse problems in the Nguru mountains are: deforestation pressure through encroachment for agriculture and settlements, forest degradation through excessive forest product exploitation, frequent and uncontrolled bush fires, land degradation and soil erosion, declining crop harvests, squatters inside the Forest Reserve, farming in the buffer zone around the rainforest and non-adherence to forest control measures. The impact of these landuse problems on the rainforest have been more severe on lowland rainforests where high rates of rainforest conversion to agriculture and other landuses were observed. These landuse problems are a consequence of many interrelated factors acting as local agents or beyond local boundaries. These factors are caused by complex processes resulting from human social dynamics. From survey results in the area these factors range from social, economic, cultural and political forces which are related to each other in multilineal causal chains. The main ones are: growing population, land scarcity, search for market goods, increased domestic demand for food and forest products, poverty, lack of knowledge, lack of an effective extension service, market failures such as breakdown of traditional management systems due to commercialization of demand for resources, government failures such as inefficient government policies, risks and uncertainty in farming (pests, diseases and vagaries of climate) insecure land rights under customary land tenure system, traditional or cultural barriers, conflicting objectives between land users, failure to control protected areas such as Forest Reserves and decline in forest product supply and lack of income from outside agriculture and forestry. It seems the government has not been able to control landuse problems through policy measures or coercion. Also the market has not been able to do so, due to its failure to provide negative feedback loops to check landuse problems. Widespread market and government failures largely account for this situation since, they provide incentive for poor landuse practices. Rural poverty and efforts to adapt to economic hardships at the local level have a significant influence on landuse problems. Vaguely defined, unequitable and uncertain land tenure conditions, lack of knowledge and traditional barriers have added a complicating dimension to landuse problems. The poor local people, the direct agents of degradation and deforestation pressure, have been made to rely on unreliable access to credit markets due to the absence of guarantees (collateral), caused by lack or uncertainty of tenure. The effect has been to increase landuse problems. Since the welfare and survival of the local people in the Nguru mountains, are inextricably linked with agriculture and the environment, they must improve current landuse practices, in order to come to terms with the reality of resource limitation and carrying capacity of their ecosystem. Wise management of land and forest resources requires appropriate landuse practices, to alleviate landuse problems in order to improve the standard of living and preserve the biological systems, especially the tropical rainforest upon which they depend. The strategy recommended requires landuse planning for efficient use of resources and integrated planning to harmonize conflict between land uses. Other measures include family planning to control population growth, education to enhance change of attitude on resource use, by overcoming communication breakdown between resources users and protectors through direct dialogue and community involvement, giving some specific rights to property in reserved forests, and benefits to villagers to meet their needs while protecting the resources, improving traditional landuse systems and traditional knowledge, incorporating agroforestry in farming systems, removal of institutional barriers to wise landuse by government through appropriate policy changes, and improvement of rainforest management methods to enhance forest protection.
Tropical rainforest deforestation, biodiversity benefits and sustainable landuse: analysis of economic and ecological aspects related to the Nguru mountains, Tanzania.
(Agricultural University of Norway, 1995) Monela, Gerald C.
Monela, G.C. 1995: Tropical rainforest deforestation, biodiversity benefits and sustainable landuse: Analysis of economic and ecological aspects related to the Nguru mountains, Tanzania. Doctor Scientiarum Theses 1995:27, ISSN 0802-3220. The threat to the rainforest in the Nguru mountains due to landuse problems is serious. Because of the strong link between agriculture and forest degradation, any attempt to alleviate ecological problems must to a large extent address agricultural-related landuse problems. The primary objective of this study is to analyze the possibilities for sustainable integrated management of land-based resources and ecological conservation in the Nguru mountains in order to improve the living standard of the people and preserve the tropical rainforest in the area. More specifically, landuse practices are analyzed and micro-economic analysis is used to evaluate the efficiency in resource use. Mathematical programming is applied in an empirical case study to examine the impact on deforestation pressure, of agriculture, population pressure and risk. It is also used to formulate economically efficient farm plans at household farm level in order to analyze the potential for improving people’s income and resource use. The study is presented in form of three reports titled as follows: Report 1. Rainforest degradation and landuse in the Nguru mountains, Tanzania: Analysis of socio-economic and ecological aspects. Report 2. Analysis of the use of tropical rainforest species and evaluation of buffer zones and other control mechanisms in preserving the tropical rainforest adjacent to Mhonda village in the Nguru Mountains, Tanzania. Report 3. Socio-economic analysis of deforestation of tropical rainforests as a consequence of agriculture productivity, risks and population growth: A case study of Mhonda village in the Nguru mountains, Tanzania. Results show that several interrelated factors are main driving forces for landuse problems which enhance deforestation pressure in the Nguru mountains. These include poverty, growing population, increased domestic demand, lack of knowledge, and risk. The effect of these factors is enhanced by market and government failures which are partly influenced by demands external to the country. These factors must be considered to improve farming practices and landuse, prevent excessive use of the rainforest, and reduce deforestation pressure and degradation. No single solution exist for these landuse problems, yet the insights gained through the analysis done provide information to alleviate the situation.