Efficacy of co-management of natural resources and its impact on livelihood a comparative Study of Joint Forest Management (JFM) and Beach Management Units (BMUs) in Missenyi District

Past approaches in natural resource management in the country have been centralized resulting into unsustainable resource utilization and significant tensions between resource users and the national government. To address the pressures of resource degradation, Co management in natural resource governance emerged in the 1990s. The rationale behind co-management strategy was to establish more appropriate, efficient and equitable resource management institutions, by integrating state based and community self regulatory systems; decentralizing decisions and reducing conflict through participatory decision making. However co-management strategy has been characterized by several problems that undermine its effectiveness in natural resource management. This study aimed at assessing the efficacy of co management approach in Forestry (JFM) and fisheries (BMU) by determining how the established institutional rules in each approach impact management of resource and community livelihood. To determine how the forest resource have been impacted by ten years operation of Co management (JFM) satelliteimages of 1999 and 2009 were collected and analyzed by Erdas software to determine forest condition by assessing changes in forest cover types. Questionnaire interviews was administered to 5% of head of households in 6 forest adjacent villages to determine their knowledge of forest management rule, community perception on the performance of JFM and how it impact community livelihood Focused group discussions and key informant interviews were conducted to selected knowledgeable community members and District Forest Officer for triangulating and further information. Assessing the efficacy of co management in fisheries, catch assessment report was collected to determine changes in fish catch flom 2000 to 2009. Questionnaire interview among BMU committee and fishing crew was made to determine community understanding of fisheries management rules, community perception,on established rules and general understanding of BMUs performance. Focus group discussions and key informant interviews were conducted to village administrators, District Fisheries Officer, and to members of Fisheries Surveillance Unit Findings indicate poor performance of co management in Minziro Forest Reserve. Analysis of satellite images shows deterioration in various forest cover. Institutional rules established in JFM reported poor outcome. In fisheries management catch assessment report indicated improvement in fisheries resource from 320,000 metric tons in 2000 to 370,000 metric ton in 2005.However catch assessment report from 2005 to 2009 indicated decreasing fish catch which can be translated to Beak fisheries management. However institution rules under BMU have relatively helped to safeguard fisheries resources. To concluded, co management in Missenye district has failed to manage Minziro Forest Reserve, and has impacted negatively on livelihood of forest adjacent community. In fisheries resource, BMU has relatively helped to safeguard fisheries resource and livelihood of the fishing community.