The Contribution of Indigenous Ecological Knowledge in the Conservation of Enguserosambu Community Forest, Tanzania

Community managed forests constitute a significant proportion of the world’s forests, nevertheless, little is known regarding their condition or the details of how they are managed. Forests are home to many cultures including the indigenous people. However, indigenous knowledge is rarely documented or incorporated into conservation planning. It is therefore aim of this research to examine the contribution of indigenous ecological knowledge in conservation of Enguserosambu Community Forest and surrounding rangelands. Individual and group semi-structured interviews as well as focus group discussion were conducted to customary elders, village leaders, forest user groups, NGO’s, forest officers and community conservation trust. A total of 57 individuals were involved out of which 19 were females. Thematic analysis was carried out for qualitative information using NVivo 10. To assess effectiveness of community conservation practices, satellite imagery with 30 m spatial resolution were acquired from Landsat 7 and 8 for land cover change analysis using ArcGIS 10.2. According to Enguserosambu communities, culture and forest is one and the same. Age group meetings, cultural bomas and traditional celebrations are some of the strategies used to share local knowledge in the community. Local institutions participate in training and capacity building as well as enforcing established laws. Despite having clear traditional practices and rules about forest protection, forest cover change persist