Participatory Forest Management is a strategy to achieve sustainable forest management by encouraging the management of forest resources by the communities that rely upon them.

Participatory Forest Management aims to provide forest-dependent people with rights over resources, not just financial benefits.

Through such grant of power over resources, Participatory Forest Management can aid rural development, enable sustainable livelihoods and reduce poverty whilst concurrently protecting the forest environment.

Participatory Forest Management in Tanzania

The Government of Tanzania introduced a new Forest Act in 2002 that provided the legal framework for the implementation of Participatory Forest Management.

Tanzania is one of the leading Participatory Forest Management-implementing countries in Africa and since 1995 more than 500 Village Land Forest Reserves have been declared by forest-dependent people.

Sound & Fair partner, Mpingo Conservation & Development Initiative, has facilitated the implementation of four Village Land Forest Reserves in African blackwood growing areas of Southern Tanzania.

The establishment of Village Land Forest Reserves is the first key step in enabling Forest Stewardship Council certification and a chain of custody of sustainably harvested African blackwood.

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Participatory Forest Management

Mpingo Conservation & Development Initiative