Browsing by Author "Ngaga, Y.M"

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The importance of local forest benefits: economic valuation of Non-Timber forest products in the Eastern Arc Mountains in Tanzania
(Elsevier, 2013-08) Schaafsma, M; Morse-Jones, S; Posen, P; Swetnam, R.D; Balmford, A; Bateman, I.J; Burgess, N.D; Chamshama, S.A.O; Fisher, B; Freeman, T; Geofrey, V; Green, R.E; Hepelwa, A.S; Hernández-Sirvent, A; Hess, S; Kajembe, G.C; Kayharara, G; Kilonzo, M; Kulindwa, K; Lund, J.F; Madoffe, S.S; Mbwambo, L; Meilby, H; Ngaga, Y.M; Theilade, I; Treue, T; van Beukering, P; Vyamana, V.G; Turner, R.K
Understanding the spatial distribution of the quantity and economic value of Non-Timber Forest Product (NTFP) collection gives insight into the benefits that local communities obtain from forests, and can inform decisions about the selection of forested areas that are eligible for conservation and enforcement of regulations. In this paper we estimate transferable household production functions of NTFP extraction in the Eastern Arc Mountains (EAM) in Tanzania, based on information from seven multi-site datasets related to the behaviour of over 2000 households. The study shows that the total benefit flow of charcoal, firewood, poles and thatch from the EAM to the local population has an estimated value of USD 42 million per year, and provides an important source of additional income for local communities, especially the poorest, who mainly depend on subsistence agriculture. The resulting map of economic values shows that benefits vary highly across space with population density, infrastructure and resource availability. We argue that if further restrictions on forest access to promote conservation are considered, this will require additional policies to prevent a consequent increase in poverty, and an enforced trade- off between conservation and energy supply to rural and urban households.
Payments for environmental services as incentive opportunities for catchment forest reserves management in Tanzania
(2022-02) Zahabu, E; Malimbwi, R.E; Ngaga, Y.M
Catchment forests occupy a total of 2.8 million hectares in Tanzania. This is about 8% of the total forested land in Tanzania. While catchment forests offer both direct tangible benefits and indirect benefits of which some are perceived as environmental services, they are threatened by prevailing high rate of deforestation and general degradation. Traditionally the management of catchment forests focused on expanding the area under state tenure by excluding local communities. This approach has resulted in greater forest degradation as a result of increasing demand for forest products by local communities due to population increase and lack of alternative sources of income. Inadequate government resources in terms of manpower and funding to effectively manage catchments forests and other forests also contributed to the failure. This reason and others have led to the emergence of Participatory Forest Management (PFM) in its varying facets reflecting varying degrees of involvement of local communities in the management of forest resources. PFM has two main scenarios in Tanzania, Joint Forest Management (JFM) where by villagers and the government jointly manages the forest, and Community Based Forest Management (CBFM) whereby management of the forest is vested wholly in the hands of the local communities. JFM is adopted in catchment forests because of their sensitive nature. The total forest area which is under PFM or is in the process of changing is 2,975,919 ha of which 1,890,613 ha are under JFM. The last decade has witnessed an overwhelming popularity of PFM in most developing countries with varying levels of success. A well managed catchment forest normally benefits a wide range of stakeholders, normally far away from the forest in the form of water for domestic use, hydroelectricity, tourism and carbon sequestration among others. It is logical that these stakeholders should pay for the outcomes of good forest management as incentives to the managers, the local communities. In a study carried out with respect to catchment forest reserves in Tanga, Morogoro, Arusha and Kilimanjaro regions the actual Total Economic Value (TEV) of the forests was rated at USD 496 million per year. A fraction of this value should be ploughed back to the local communities as payment for environmental services. Various benefit sharing mechanisms have been explored in this paper as incentives for improved forest management.
Towards transferable functions for extraction of Non-timber Forest Products: A case study on charcoal production in Tanzania
(Elsevier, 2012-05) Schaafsma, M; Morse-Jones, S; Posen, P; Swetnam, R.D; Balmford, A; Bateman, I.J; Burgess, N.D; Chamshama, S.A.O; Fisher, B; Green, R.E; Hepelwa, A.S; Hernández-Sirvent, A; Kajembe, G.C; Kulindwa, K; Lund, J.F; Mbwambo, L; Meilby, H; Ngaga, Y.M; Theilade, I; Treue, T; Vyamana, V.G; Turner, R.K
Mapping the distribution of the quantity and value of forest benefits to local communities is useful for forest management, when socio-economic and conservation objectives may need to be traded off. We develop a modelling approach for the economic valuation of annual Non-Timber Forest Product (NTFP) extraction at a large spatial scale, which has 4 main strengths: (1) it is based on household production functions using data of actual household behaviour, (2) it is spatially sensitive, using a range of explanatory variables related to socio-demographic characteristics, population density, resource availability and accessibility, (3) it cap- tures the value of the actual flow rather than the potential stock, and (4) it is generic and can therefore be up-scaled across non-surveyed areas. We illustrate the empirical application of this approach in an analysis of charcoal production in the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania, using a dataset comprising over 1100 obser- vations from 45 villages. The total flow of charcoal benefits is estimated at USD 14 million per year, providing an important source of income to local households, and supplying around 11% of the charcoal used in Dar es Salaam and other major cities. We discuss the potential and limitations of up-scaling micro-level analysis for NTFP valuation