eastern arc mountains forests of tanzania - Campaign for the ...

Eastern Arc Mountains Forests of Tanzania
2.b History and Development
The Eastern Arc World Heritage Site is built from a network of reserves that have been declared over the past 100
years. These reserves were originally gazetted with the aim of protecting the upper catchment areas of the Eastern
Arc, to ensure water supply and prevent soil erosion, but also to provide a source of valuable timber. The reserve
network was initiated by the German colonial government, and the process to gazette the remaining areas of forest
was continued by the British colonial and independent Tanzanian governments. Some areas of lowland forest have
also been gazetted, but most of this forest had already been cleared 100 years ago, and is often managed for timber
production rather than protection.
Today, more than 150 reserves exist on the Eastern Arc Mountains and are variously managed for nature
conservation (National Parks and Nature Reserves), catchment protection (national Forest Reserves) and production
(production Forest Reserves). One trend in recent years has been to impose stricter protection of forests in
Tanzania, and to upgrade the most important reserves into higher levels of protection. For example, in 1985 a
logging ban imposed across all the national Forest Reserves within the Eastern Arc Mountains, and the emphasis of
management was shifted more towards catchment and biodiversity protection. Prior to that logging was being
undertaken on a commercial basis within a number of the more accessible reserves across the Arc, with the logs
being used for local consumption and for export. The emphasis on preventing logging was supported by donor
funding, primarily from the Scandinavian countries.
In the 1990s a number of forest reserves were upgraded to higher levels of protection and greater emphasis on
biodiversity protection. In 1992 the Udzungwa Mountains National Park was created from the Mwanihana Forest
Reserve, and parts of the Matundu and West Kilombero Scarp forest reserves. This was the first National Park in
Tanzania that was specifically established for the conservation of endemic species and not for large mammals and /
or scenic values. In 1999 the Amani Nature Reserve was established in the East Usambara Mountains from the
amalgamation of a number of smaller forest reserves, and some unprotected forest land.
This trend has continued into the 2000s. As a part of a larger project to develop a holistic conservation strategy for
the entire Eastern Arc Mountains region (see www.easternarc.or.tz), the Forestry and Beekeeping Division developed
a plan for further Nature Reserves in 2005, and this proposed the creation of 6 new nature reserves across the
Eastern Arc to capture the sites of highest biodiversity importance. At the same time this Division reviewed the
management of its reserves against the concept of a protected area and various different categories defined and
promoted by IUCN. This led to the proposal of protected area categories for 87 Forest Reserves covering 656,815
ha across the Arc, which has subsequently been accepted by IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas and
registered in the UNEP-WCMC World Databases of Protected Areas. An additional new Nature Reserve, Magamba
in the West Usambara, was added to the list of proposed Nature Reserves in 2008. By January 2010 Forestry and
Beekeeping had gazetted four of the proposed eight Nature Reserves across the Arc, and work is proceeding to
gazette the remaining four. In addition, management plans have been developed and accepted for six of the Nature
Reserves, with one awaiting approval and another under preparation. Meanwhile, the management plan for
Udzungwa Mountains National Park is being revised this year.
As the same time as upgrading the protection status of the forests in the Eastern Arc, there has also been a strong
effort to increase the participation of local people in the management of these forest areas. This has involved the
development of ‘co-management’ approaches in government reserves (termed Joint Forest Management), including
within Nature Reserves. It has also included the establishment of Village Land Forest Reserves (Village Forest
Reserves and Community Forest Reserves under Community-Based Forest Management).
Despite the emphasis on co-management and community management approaches, there are limited legitimate
benefits from the forests available to local people. Logging is banned in all protected forests across the Eastern Arc
Mountains and access to non-timber forest products has become more restricted. Given the pressures on local
livelihoods, there is much illegal exploitation of timber, poles, firewood and minor forest products such as bushmeat.
Thus, co-management needs to develop more opportunities for communities to benefit from the forests.
Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism