Implications of REDD+ project on the communities livelihoods living adjacent to the Kolo hills forests a case of Kondoa District

REDD+ has been devised as a mechanism to ease impacts of global climate change and it seeks to cut more C02 from entering into the air. It is fighting to leave the global forest intact and objectively battling to boost the livelihoods of the people by creating contrast livelihood strategies. The overall objective of this study was to scrutinize the impacts of pilot RHDD+ project to the communities livelihoods living adjacent to Kolo Hills Forests. The study was carried out in two villages of Masawi and Bukulu of Kondoa District, Dodoma Region. Different research techniques namely, Literature review, Key informant Interview, Focus Group Discussion (FGD), Direct field observation and Household questionnaire survey were used to gather information for completion of this research work. The data were analyzed by SPSS version 17.0 and Microsoft Office Excel 2007. The results indicated that, some socio-economic activities harmful to the forest resources like charcoal making, extraction of timber, harvesting of logs for baking bricks and grazing of animals were confirmed despite the limitations put by REDD+. The results further showed that, there were cultural practices which were supportive to REDD+ initiatives as they involved conservation of the forests for their operations. Also, the vegetation cover in the area showed general improvement compared to other forest resources in the area. It was found that, there were no any formerly created social networks thus leading to poor access to credits in the study area. Moreover, health services were also found to be poor in the areas. The income and food security had not improved among very many people in the area. Other livelihood strategies such as training on making interlocking bricks, growing seedlings and charcoal making by using twigs were known to only few people in the area. It was also found that, even the trained people did not apply the strategies due to shortage of capital and critical gears. It is recommended that, credits and farm gears should be easily found for income and food security pick up. Affordable sources of energy have to be launched to dissuade the use of wood fuel. Also, micro dams should be made for reliable supply of water. Likewise, merging of cultural conservation practices as for the case of “Jando” forests with recent forests management practices is suggested. The authorities should introduce nonfarm environmentally friendly income earning activities to reduce pressure on forest resources.