Effects of government ban to harvest trees in agroforestry farms on household income in Moshi district, Tanzania

MSc ThesisThis study was conducted with the objective of assessing the social economic effects of Government ́s ban to harvest trees in agroforestry farms on household income in Moshi District, Tanzania. The study was carried out in four villages in four wards in Mamba and Mwika Divisions. The findings show that 84% of villagers agreed that there is social and economic effects caused by the Government ́s ban to harvest trees on peoples income. The study found that villagers had lost hopes on environmental protection supervised by Village Environmental Committee (VEC) as they had failed to stand on the main objectives of the ban. The force that had been used by VEC on fines and issuing harvesting permits is so great compared to tree planting efforts. This situation endangered sustainability of trees in agroforestry farms which were considered to be a key for rural development. There had been a rapid fall of Moshi District income from 40 million Tsh in 2011/12, to 3.5 million in year 2013/14 while in the year 2014/15 was expected to be 12 million. The ban also resulted into valuable trees being converted to firewood and construction poles which fetched low market price compared to sawn timber. Leaving felled trees on the ground for long time while waiting for permit also reduced the quality of timber and market price. This study recommends that the VEC should concentrate more on educating villagers on the importance of tree planting and supervise tree planting rather than issuing permits and policing tree cutting in agroforestry farms. The Government should relax the ban by encouraging sustainable harvesting of mature trees only, this will encourage villagers to plant more trees in their farms, improve their livelihood and protect the environment