Mwaseba Dismas L.Martin RespikiusFriis-Hansen EsbernNyanda Suzan S.Nsenga, JustusMhando David2026-07-132026-07-132025https://www.suaire.sua.ac.tz/handle/20.500.14820/7761Book chapter pp. 213-230Large-scale investment in land in Sub Saharan Africa has been well documented (Cotula et al., 2009; Fairhead et al., 2012; German et al., 2013). Since independence, tree plantations in Tanzania had gone through undulating phases (Van den Berg et al., 2013; MNRT, 2014; PFP, 2016; Held et al., 2017; Kimambo et al., 2020)concern for forest loss has spurred ambitious restoration goals for climatic, ecological, and livelihood bene!ts. Restoration activities typically rely on governmentled or large-scale tree planting. A narrow focus on top-down initiatives could promote the recentralization of forestry activities and overlook important contributions by smallholders, especially in Africa. Smallholder tree planting activities are harder to track than institutional e"orts. Here we quantify the extent of tree planting on smallholder woodlots in southern and eastern Tanzania, in comparison to large-scale plantations. In Google Earth Pro, we digitized all woodlots in randomly selected areas, and estimated woodlots’ area, distribution, and expansion rate. We found that by year 2018, woodlots in the smallest size class (< 1 Ha. Promotion of tree planting by donor funded projects has been focusing on environmental aspects such as carbon trading (Lasco, 2008, MNRT, 2010; Vainio-Matilla, 2011, Kimambo et al., 2020). Furthermore, the dominance of the sector by the state during the 1970s and 1980s was primarily focused on the establishment of large-scale tree plantations in the Southern Highlands (Pedersen, 2017)37. Nevertheless, for a long period of time, tree plantations in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania has been done by public plantations and big commercial private companies for timber and other commercial purposes (PFP, 2016). A study done by PFP found that Tanzania experienced a reduction in government managed plantations particularly in the supply of mature pine round wood logs (PFP, 2016). It indicated a reduction of 30% (total 540,300 m#) in government allocations from 2014/15 to 2015/16 harvesting season whereas number of bene!ciaries for allocations increased from 832 to 964 respectively.enBook chapter