The impacts of the structural adjustment program (sap) on miombo woodlands of southwestern Kahama district Shinyanga region Tanzania

This study was undertaken in the Southwestern part of Kahama District. The major objective was to assess the impact of Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) on miombo woodlands. Special attention was paid to miombo woodland change before and after SAP. The study hypothesis assumed that there is an increase in woodland clearance for agriculture since the adoption of SAP.Satellite images of 1984, 1994/95, and 2000 were used to determine the status of miombo woodland before and after the adoption of SAP. A structured questionnaire, group discussions and non-participant observation were used during the field survey collect the data on socio-economic activities such as cropping patterns and prices. The findings show that there has been a significant change in miombo woodland cover. In the 1950s,closed woodland was the dominant land use/cover category. By 1984, open woodland had replaced closed woodland as the dominant land use/cover occupying 34% of the study area. In the year 2000 cultivation of both herbaceous crops and mixed cultivation dominated the landscape occupying 50.1% of the study area.The increase in crop prices and prices of farm input, and the devaluation of the Tanzanian shilling under SAP has contributed substantially to woodland clearance and change. Other factors are population increase, poor technology, the land tenure system, and the ending of the ujamaa ideology in Tanzania in early 1990s. The study recommends among others, that there should be a strategic review of reforms under SAP in order to ensure that the reforms do not cause negative impacts in other sectors.