The role of community-based forest management approach in improving local communities’ social service provision in Tanzania: the case of Kilwa district.

This study examined the role of Community-Based Forest Management Approach in improving the provision of social services in Kikole, Kisangi and Nanjirinji a villages in Kilwa district, Tanzania. Specifically, it examined four inter-related issues. First, it looks at the implementation of Community-Based Forest Management Approach in Kilwa district as a whole. Second, it examined the challenges facing Community-Based Forest Management Approach in the district. Third, it identified the forest products to which the communities have access. Lastly, the study examines the contribution of Community-Based Forest Management Approach in improving social service provision in Kilwa district in general and in the selected villages in particular. Both qualitative and quantitative data were obtained from primary and secondary sources, using structured questionnaires, Focus Group Discussions, field observations and in-depth interviews. The study was guided by Political Ecology theory and Common-pool Resource Management theory to analyze the data. Overall study findings show that the education, health and water sectors have received various kinds of assistance from the governments of the three villages. For instance, a number of classrooms and staff houses have been built and boreholes have been sunk in the villages. The findings also indicate that Community-Based Forest Management faces challenges such as the dishonesty of some members of the Village Natural Resource Committees and illegal activities of some agriculturalists and pastoralists done in the community forests. Furthermore, it has been established that the people in the three villages have access to such forest products as timber, fuel-wood and building materials. This study has contributed to the understanding of how the ownership and management of forest resources at the local level can help to improve the provision of social services. In addition, the study has contributed to the understanding of the originality of conflicts between agricultural and pastoral societies over land and hence devising sound strategies to solve the conflicts. The study concludes that Community-Based Forest Management has significantly improved the provision of social services, thereby helping to alleviate poverty in the selected villages. Finally, the study recommends that other villages with huge tracts of land establish VLFRs and put them under CBFM because it has been shown that, if properly managed, CBFM can help to reduce poverty in rural areas.