View/Open - Sokoine University of Agriculture

8.4.1 ParticipationThe first challenge we see is that of participation, which may come in many formsand used in a number of settings. Participation has been a major topic in Tanzania‟s´forest sector during the last decades and has been closely linked to PFM and thepositive effects it has had on communities and on forest governance. While keeping inmind Cleavers´ analysis of development participation there are some issues withparticipation within the pilot project that we see as particularly pressing.First and foremost we wonder who it is that are intended to participate and tosubsequently benefit from the project: is it the individual, the community, the poor,the socially excluded or perhaps groups such as women? Along the same line ofthought we ask how these benefits will come; through cash transfers, rights ofresource access and level of control, or right to participate in decision-making?From the information we have gathered, the REDD pilot project appears to attempt toemploy a variety of participation tools and benefit streams. Through PFM, informalinstitutions will be strengthened, such as in the case of Lunenzi. In the cases wherethere are no such rules or norms in place governing forest use, such as in Masugu, theformal institutions will attempt at creating the values of sustainable use.TFCG seem very aware of local heterogeneity and has as much as feasible attemptedto take all user groups viewpoints into consideration, whether the poorest in thecommunity, women, or those heavily involved in forest extraction. However, oneimportant exception prevails. For whereas they do not conform to what Cleaver havepointed out to be a false assumption of a community as unitary, they do not seem tohave taken into sufficient consideration user groups which do not reside in the villageitself but still uses it, something which can pose a great challenge to the success of theproject.A good example of this within our study area was the exclusion of Maasai pastoralistsboth from the villagers themselves and TFCG/MJUMITA. We were told by TFCGthat they intended to contact the Maasai pastoralists and talk to them about theproject, and that so far it had been difficult due to the fact that they move around somuch. When this does happen, how much they are to be included in the decisionmakingprogress is unsure and we wonder if it is merely to inform them of what ishappening or actually include them in the process. For instance if looking at the252