Power relations underlying Kingege village land forest reserve, Mfindi district, Tanzania.
Loading...
Date
2011
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Sokoine University of Agriculture
Abstract
Kingege Village Land Forest Reserve (KVLFR) was formed from general land forest,
fundamentally under open access regime which led to change in power relations over the
forest resources use. At present in Tanzania, Villages which have responsibilities to
manage Village Land Forest Reserves are facing management problems as they adjust to
balance the new power relations for sustainability of the forest resources. Little is known
about the broader institutional context underlying power relations in KVLFR. The overall
objective of the study was to determine the power relations underlying KVLFR and their
influence on forest governance. Data collection was done through Participatory Rural
appraisal techniques, Focus group discussions, Participant observations and questionnaire
survey. Data were analyzed through content analysis, stakeholder’s power analysis and
descriptive and inferential statistical analyses. Findings showed that users and regulators
were key stakeholders identified in KVLFR. Users were interested on utilization of forest
resources while forest conservation was the main interest of the regulators. Among the
stakeholders, there existed complementary, cordial and conflicting relationships. The
socio-economic factors enabling the strategic power include distance to the resource base
(p = 0.000), wealth category (p = 0.001), household size
(p = 0.012) and residence
duration (p = 0.073), while education level (p = 0.021) was constraining the strategic
power. Institutional factors enabling the strategic power includes gender equity (p = 0.032)
and forest access rules (p = 0.82), while membership in VNRC (p = 0.722) and
participation in politics (p = 0.245) are constraining the strategic power. The study
concluded that complementary, cordial and conflicting relationships led to poor
governance of KVLFR. The study recommended that more studies on power relations
should be done in village land forest reserves and compare forests under Community
Based Forest Management and forests under Joint Forest Management. The emphasisiii
should be on power regulation mechanisms to ensure the community surrounding the
forests benefit from resource utilization regardless of their power relations.
Description
Dissertation
Keywords
Power relations, Kingege village, land forest, reserve, Mfindi district, Tanzania.