Deforestation in Tanzania: Beyond simplistic generalizations

Ecologist

Volumn 26, Issue 3, 1996, Pages 104-109

  Barraclough, Solon L ^a   Ghimire, Krishna B ^a  

^a U Nations Res Inst Social Devmt   (Switzerland)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

DEFORESTATION; DEVELOPING COUNTRY; ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION; LOCALISED IMPACT; MAN-ENVIRONMENT RELATIONS; POPULATION GROWTH;

TANZANIA;

EID: 0030442497     PISSN: 02613131     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (7)

1. This estimate is from national sources. The World Bank estimated in 1992 that 33 per cent of the population was urban. See World Bank, World Development Report 1992, Oxford University Press, New York, 1992.
2. See Mascarenhas, A. and Maganga, F.P., "Land Scarcity and Deforestation in the Western Usambaras", paper presented at UNRISD workshop on Social Dynamics of Deforestation in Developing Countries, Nanyuki, Kenya, 15-19 July 1991. Significant deforestation took place in the Usambara mountains about 2,000 years ago when several areas were partially cleared to provide wood and charcoal for iron smelting. When iron production in the region declined, the forests recovered.
3. In retrospect, these programmes were sometimes rather ineffective and contradictory. The villagization programme had little disruptive impact in the district as most rural people were already living in villages.
4. Mascarenhas, A., "Deforestation by Proxy in Rufiji District", draft report prepared for UNRISD, July 1991.
5. Villagization also contributed to the breakdown of cashew nut production. Because owners had to travel long distances to tend and harvest their trees, many abandoned their cashew orchards and cut their trees to make charcoal.
6. Mascarenhas, A., "Ecology and Deforestation in Semi-Arid Kondoa District, Tanzania", draft report preparted for UNRISD, 1992.
7. The HADO programme also suggested that genuine popular participation of the various local groups in the area could have helped make it more successful in meeting social as well as strictly environmental objectives. Indeed, the government and donors recognized this in the HADO 1986/87-1995/96 second phase master plan. The historical record from the eighteenth century onwards, however, suggests that achieving effective democratic participation for indigenous people on terms equal to those of aggressive coveting their land, trees and labour is a long way from being exclusively a local issue.