4.1. FOREST MANAGEMENT RESPONSIBILITIES
4.2. FOREST ADMINISTRATION
4.3. FOREST LEGISLATION AND POLICY
The forest sector in Tanzania has been largely managed by the government through the Forestry and Beekeeping Division (FBD) in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism (MNRT). About 600 000 hectares of gazetted forest reserves, including a large part of the closed forests, mangroves and 80 000 hectares of industrial plantations are under the FBD (MLNRT, 1989).
In addition to the FBD, there are some private companies, religious organizations and individuals who manage plantations, of which records are not available. Some of the private forests, such as the Tanganyika wattle company, have a major contribution to foreign earnings (MLNRT, 1989). To improve fuelwood supply in rural areas and reduce pressure on environmental degradation, the government adopted the village afforestation approach since the early 1970’s. The programme relied on the participation of villages and NGOs, mainly religious groups, in tree planting. Although the quality of the stock is not known, about 80 000 hectares of scattered woodlots have been established through this programme (MLNRT, 1989).
The Forestry and Beekeeping Division is one of several technical divisions of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism. Forest administration is embedded in three main, almost parallel, organizations. These include the FBD under the MNRT, the Regional Organization, under the Prime Minister Office, and the District organizations under the Ministry of Local Governments.
The existence of the parallel organizations within natural resource management has been a source of inefficiency in forest management initiatives. At the regional and District levels, forestry and beekeeping officers have only an advisory role. They have no direct link to planning and control of personnel or field activities. Further, local governments are self-financing, as a result revenue collection in the form of royalties tends to dominate the decision making when issuing harvesting licenses (MLNRT, 1989).
Through the Forest Ordinance (1957), 13 million hectares of legally reserved forest have been established. The legislation deals with public land but there are no provisions for legal action for offences committed outside the gazetted land (MLNRT, 1989).
The National Forest Policy (1998) has recognized the role of the private sector in management of forest resources. In this new policy, the responsibility of managing forest resources has been left in the hands of specialized agencies and the private sector, with the central governmental responsibility vested in management of forest reserves of national strategic importance (MNRT, 1998). Emphasis has been given to joint forest management between the central government, specialized executive agencies, the private sector or the local government.
