Eastern Arc Mountains and Coastal Forests of Tanzania and Kenya ...

Box 1 National Forest Policy goal and objectivesThe overall goal:“To enhance the contribution of the forest sector to the sustainable development of Tanzania and theconservation and management of her natural resources for the benefit of present and future generations”.The objectives are:• ensured sustainable supply of forest products and services by maintaining sufficient forest area undereffective management;• increased employment and foreign exchange earnings through sustainable forest-based industrialdevelopment and trade;• ensured ecosystem stability through conservation of forest biodiversity, water catchments and soilfertility; and• enhanced national capacity to manage and develop the forest sector in collaboration with otherstakeholders.The program aims to reduce poverty through: (1) increased employment in forest industry andrelated activities by 25 percent by 2010; and (2) increased income generation from forestresources and services to local communities by 20 percent by 2010. The anticipated majorbenefits resulting from increased community and private sector participation in the managementand sustainable utilization of forests are:• better recognition of the needs and aspirations of local communities as stakeholders and jointforest owners in natural and plantation forests where land pressure is an issue (e.g.,Kilimanjaro, Tanga, Morogoro and Iringa Districts);• poverty reduction through increased income generation in the most deprived areas (i.e.,Lindi, Kigoma and Coast Regions); and• greater certainty of tenure and supply of forest products and services to encourage investmentin forestry and forest industries.LegislationExisting legislation pertaining to forest management in Tanzania is the Forest Ordinance CAP389 of 1957, which was operational from 1959. Basically, this ordinance focuses on restrictiveuse and, more so, on preservation of forests. The ordinance, to a large extent, has excluded localcommunities from involvement in management of these resources and recognises them only asbeneficiaries. This law governs conservation and management of forests and forest produce. Thisordinance, like many others developed during the colonial era, focused on preservation of naturalforests. This classical conservation was based on the belief that proper management could beimplemented through protection from human interference and exclusion from human use. Thisexclusion did not, of course, apply to the Government Forestry and Bee-keeping Division and agreat deal of natural forest destruction and replacement by plantations, continued under licenceafter independence.The main focus in the ordinance is gazettement of forests as reserves. For instance, Part II,Sections 5 to 9 of the ordinance provide for the declaration of central government forest reservesand restrictions over the use of and/or occupation of such areas. The ordinance further providesfor the declaration of local authority forest reserves. The requirements for such declarationsinclude: (1) recording of rights preceding such declarations; (2) restrictions on the creation ofnew rights subsequent to declaration, in respect of unreserved land, of “reserved trees”; and (3)32