Participation or further exclusion? Contestations over forest conservation and control in the East Usambara mountains, Tanzania

This Ph.D. thesis Participation or Further Exclusion Contestations over Forest Conservation and Control in the East Usambara Mountains, Tanzania describes and analyses the shift in the prevailing discourse of forest and biodiversity conservation policies and strategies towards more participatory approaches in Tanzania, and the changes in the practises of resource control, including the scope for the different actors and groups who are considered to form the community, to participate in resource control, in a specific historical and socio-economic context . I analyse whether, how and to which extent the ‘targets’ of such interventions have been able to affect the formal rules and practices of resource control, and benefit from them. I also explore their different responses and strategies in relation to conservation. I approach the problematic through exploring certain participatory forest conservation interventions and related negotiations between the local farmers, government officials and the external actors in the case of two protected forest reserves in the southern part of the East Usambaras, Tanzania . The theoretical approach draws from theorising on power, participation and conservation in anthropology of development and post-structuralist political ecology. The material was collected in three stages between 2003 and 2008 by using an ethnographic approach . I interviewed and observed the actors and their resource use and control practices at the local level, including the representatives of the villagers living close to the protected forests and the conservation agency, but also followed the selected processes and engaged with the ‘non-local ’ agencies involved in the conservation efforts in the East Usambaras. My findings indicate that the discourse of participation that has emerged in global conservation policy debate within the past three decades, and is being institutionalised in the national policies in many countries , including Tanzania, has informed and shaped the practices of forest conservation in the East Usambaras , although in a fragmented and unequal way. Instrumental interpretation of participation, in which it is to serve the goals of improving the control of the forest and making it more acceptable and efficient, has prevailed among the government al actors and conservation organisations . Yet, there is variation between the different projects and actors promoting participatory conservation regarding the goals and means of participation, e.g. to which extent the local people are to be involved in decision-making . The actors representing ‘communities’ also have their diverse agendas, understandings and experiences regarding the rationality, outcomes and benefits of being involved in forest control, making the practices of control often unstable and fluid.

---

• View source