Forests are valuable resources due to a number of goods they offer to the national economy and in the improvement of human welfare. Benefits of the forest ranges from the maintenance of environmental integrity to direct utilization potentials as a source of timber, building poles, non wood products, etc.
The high population growth rate in Tanzania (2.8 percent) has increased the demand for food, agricultural products as well as expansion of land areas for settlement. As a result, the rate of environmental degradation has been accelerated (estimated at 140 000 to 500 000 ha/year). The increased environmental destruction in the natural forest resources forced the establishment of some protected areas. To date, there are about 1.6 million hectares of the catchment forest under protection. To augment the need for wood materials, several plantation forests, covering about 80 000 hectares, have been established.
The success in establishment of plantations and conservation of natural forests have been facilitated by research and other activities conducted by the Tanzania Forestry Research Institute (TAFORI), the Faculty of Forestry of the Sokoine University of Agriculture, the National Tree Seed Programme (NTSP) and other organizations. Further, a new Forest policy has been formulated to enable successful management of forest resources in the country. However, there has been a lack of appropriate co-ordination within the forest sector and between different sectors related to land uses.
It is recommended that more efforts should be directed toward enhancing more co-ordination and policy harmonization. In situ and ex situ conservation of threatened and valuable forest genetic resources should receive appropriate attention.
