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View/Open - Sokoine University of Agriculture

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On this note, another main reason for reaching down to the lowest community levelwhen raising awareness, was that TFCG felt they could capture better what Cleavercalled “power and process” among villagers. As she stated, a community does notonly consist <strong>of</strong> solidarity and social cohesion but also <strong>of</strong> shifting alliances, powergame and social structures. For instance, some forest users needed more thaninformation and awareness raising to be willing to accept, something which the TFCGcoordinator in Kilosa illustrated well when talking about the information meetingsthey had with villagers as part <strong>of</strong> the FPIC process: “Many had mixed feelings aboutthis, especially those who were doing timber business in the forest. Some <strong>of</strong> them wereemployed by logging companies and became very worried about this. They thenformed an alliance to convince others that this project was not good, based on theirown agenda” (Local resource person 2010).In their report on FPIC they felt there were particularly a good attendance <strong>of</strong> womenand poorer people in the sub-villages, which <strong>of</strong>ten are left with a much smaller voiceand which also are generally seen as the more forest dependent groups in society(Kibuga, Nguya et al. 2011). Our findings suggested the same, and concerning theoverall knowledge and awareness <strong>of</strong> REDD within the poorest group <strong>of</strong> ourrespondents, they did not have any less knowledge <strong>of</strong> REDD than the middle and lesspoor groups. In addition, only 15% from the lowest income group felt they would notbe motivated to reduce their use, indicating that the choice made by TFCG to havemeetings at sub-village levels paid <strong>of</strong>f. To further ensure that the poorest members <strong>of</strong>the communities were sufficiently informed and involved, TFCG stated that they areplanning to elect a communication facilitator in each village which is particularlyconcerned with informing these members <strong>of</strong> the community <strong>of</strong> the process <strong>of</strong> theproject, as well as report back to TFCG on the effects the project has on this group.The relatively low awareness in Nyali calls for some concern though, however asthere had only been one visit to the village when we were there it is however moreunderstandable.Overall, after giving the villagers an understanding <strong>of</strong> the project and its aims andgoals TFCG felt it resulted in an increased sense <strong>of</strong> ownership among the villagersafter being included in the decision-making process <strong>of</strong> either accepting or rejectingthe project (Kibuga, Nguya et al. 2011). This overall acceptance was something which231

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