Abstract:
Weak incentives for communities are reported as the primary cause of the
high failure rate of Joint Forest Management (JFM) regimes. Reports have
indicated that JFM does not pay under protected forests. On the contrary,
this paper argues that JFM provides a number of existing and potential
incentives to communities living adjacent to forests to facilitate their
effective management. The study was conducted in Uluguru and Udzungwa
Mountains within the Eastern Arc Mountains in Tanzania. Participatory
Rural Appraisal (PRA) tools and a questionnaire were used to gather
information while content analysis and descriptive statistics were used to
analyse qualitative and quantitative statistics respectively. Existing
incentives included; income from tourists and researchers, availability of
basic needs obtained by conserving the forest, other climate regulation
services, environmental awards, sale of forest products and equipment
confiscated from culprits, and individual gain paid for providing various
services related to managing the forest. Potential incentives were
perceived to include; income from REDD payments, payment from water
users, hunting rights, alternative income generating projects for
households, working equipment, presence of a forestry staff on station,
study tours . for Village Natural Resources Committee members and income
from other ecosystem services. The study concludes that JFM remains
attractive to communities living adjacent to these forests due to a good
number of existing incentives and perceived benefits. Communities and
practitioners are urged to explore additional unexplored opportunities
including ecotourism and beekeeping to expand the spectrum of incentives,
making JFM more attractive for rural communities living around them.
