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even in comparison with the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa and other low incomecountries, around 90% of comes from wood fuels and biomass products, a rate whichis one of the highest in the world (World Bank 2009). Charcoal making as an incomegenerating activity is now also becoming more and more lucrative. Given the lowtechnology and capital needed to make charcoal, many rural dwellers are doing this tosupplement their income from farming. In addition, given the increasing demand froma growing urban population some also switch to charcoal production as a full-timeincome generating activity (Ibid).There are plenty of drivers of deforestation and degradation in Tanzania, many ofthem said to be closely linked to national economic development and populationgrowth (Burgess, Clairs et al. 2009).However, it is important to differentiate between proximate and underlying drivers ofdeforestation and forest degradation. When it comes to proximate factors, whichconcerns specific activities on the ground, the main driver of deforestation is landclearing and conversion of forest to agricultural land. As the productivity on alreadyestablished agricultural land has decreased and the population increased, the incentiveand profitability of land conversion for agriculture has resulted in substantial forestcover loss (Vatn, Vedeld et al. 2009). The second key proximate driver ofdeforestation is collection of fuel wood and charcoal production to cover the energyneeds for the majority of Tanzanians. Two things are however important to emphasizein this regard, the first being that fuel wood and charcoal production is often a naturalbi-product of land clearing for agriculture and therefore it is important to distinguishbetween motivations behind the deforestation (Vatn, Vedeld et al. 2009). For instance,when the Tanzanian Ministry of Energy and Minerals stated that charcoal productionwas the main driver of deforestation, and estimated that in 2002 as much as 458,743ha of forests were cleared as a result of this activity alone (Chiesa, Dere et al. 2009),whether deforestation happens as a result of charcoal making or charcoal wasproduced from the residues from land clearing for agriculture is not deliberated upon.The second aspect is that fuel wood collection (and to some extent charcoalproduction) is an important driver of both deforestation and forest degradation. Thiscan also be said for grazing, which is, according to Vatn et. al. the third mainproximate driver of deforestation, and a significant driver of forest degradation as6