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Neil D. Burgess, Paul Harrison, Peter Sumbi, James Laizer, Adam ...

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MANAGEMENT ISSUES: TANZANIA’S COASTAL FORESTS 2011<br />

The soils under the remaining patches of lowland forest are more fertile than those of surrounding<br />

woodlands and hence face pressure to be converted for agriculture. Growing population pressures also<br />

tend to decrease the length of fallow periods. Plantations of coconut, sisal and cashew nut also occupy<br />

considerable areas of coastal land, replacing lowland Coastal Forest and other natural habitats.<br />

A newly emerging threat is the establishment of large industrial plantations for the production of<br />

biofuels on the eastern African coast. Large areas of woodland and coastal forest habitats have already<br />

been cleared for Jatropha production in Kilwa District and around Pugu close to Dar es Salaam, and<br />

sugar cane plantations are also planned for the Bagamoyo area. Land allocation for plantations of trees<br />

is also being explored in southern Tanzania, through Green Resources, and there are also major<br />

development plans for agriculture in southern Tanzania, with potential for huge amounts of inward<br />

investment. These kinds of agricultural developments are proceeding rapidly and have the potential to<br />

transform the coastal region of Tanzania. In particular these developments have the potential to split<br />

the remaining migration corridors between the reserved patches of forest in many of coastal districts.<br />

4.4.2 Charcoal production<br />

Charcoal production is a major cause of habitat loss in areas close to large cities and alongside main<br />

roads, particularly in Tanzania. Although not well quantified, the business of charcoal production has<br />

heavily impacted forest areas up to 200 kilometres from Dar-es-Salaam, and is spreading ever further<br />

into the bush. Away from towns and roads this threat is much less important as local people use<br />

firewood for cooking and transport difficulties discourage charcoal production as a cash crop. The major<br />

supply routes of charcoal to Dar es Salaam are along the Kilwa, Morogoro and Pugu roads; with the<br />

Kilwa road accounting for 50% of the total supply – much of this being sourced from the forests and<br />

woodlands up to 150 km distance from Dar es Salaam (Ahrends 2005; Ahrends et al. 2010).<br />

Table 20: Daily amounts of charcoal transported to Dar es Salaam (Malimbwi et al. 2007)<br />

Routes<br />

Average load per day (bags)<br />

Commercial<br />

Vehicles<br />

Bicycles Non-Commercial Total<br />

Kilwa road 3,018 204 139 3,361 50<br />

Morogoro road 1,301 167 152 1,620 24<br />

Pugu road 578 276 15 869 13<br />

Bagamoyo 108 97 27 232 3<br />

TAZARA railway** 450 7<br />

TRC railway 245 4<br />

Total 5,005 744 333 6,777 100<br />

Percentage (%) 84 11 5 100<br />

**There were no current amount obtained<br />

Percentage (%)<br />

Previous studies indicated that charcoal production sites for Dar es Salaam city were located in Pwani<br />

(Coast) and Morogoro Regions and had changed from a 50 km radius in the 1970’s to about 200 km in<br />

the 1990’s (Ahrends et al. 2010). The spatial distribution of charcoal harvesting for Dar es Salaam now<br />

targets most of the coast and is spreading further inland. In 2007 charcoal was being sourced from

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