Survival of man and his home, the Earth, depends on genetic diversity, a resource which is being destroyed and depleted. Man-made alteration has destroyed habitats of many species, reducing the genetic diversity of these habitats and of some species, to the extent of bringing them to their limit of tolerance. Over-exploitation and deforestation in these habitats also accelerate the process of desertification, loss of soil fertility and flooding. It has been predicted that if the current rate of land degradation and forest clearing continues, almost one third of the world’s arable land and one half of the productive tropical forests will be destroyed in the next 20 years (Shao et al., 1990).
Forests are a valuable renewable natural resource on which million of people in Tanzania depend for fuelwood, building poles, charcoal, timber, medicines and honey. Further, forests are known for environmental conservation through controlling water infiltration into the soil, climatic amelioration, as a home of multitude of flora and fauna and for their support in agricultural production.
While recognizing the significance of the reserves of genetic variations stored in natural forests, various efforts have been taken at international as well as national levels to restore the trend. In 1968, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) established a panel of experts on forest genetic resources to help plan and coordinate FAO’s efforts to explore, collect, utilize and conserve genetic resources of forest trees (FAO, 1989). In Tanzania, the first National Forest Policy was enunciated in 1953 and reviewed for the first time in 1963. It contains the details on how the forest resources would be managed sustainably to meet the needs of the Society and the Nation.
In 1988, the Government of Tanzania initiated the preparation of the Tanzania Forest Action Plan (TFAP), which was adopted by the government in 1989 as a basis for the development of the forest sector. The TFAP presented a comprehensive analysis of the sector including objective strategies and a development programme, however it did not result in the formulation of a new forest policy or revision of the sectoral legislation.
The challenge to manage the Tanzanian forest resources as a national heritage in an integrated and sustainable manner, while optimizing the environmental, economic, social and cultural value, remains as pressing as ever. Following alarming rates of environmental degradation caused by increased rates of deforestation around the globe, as well as political and social economic changes taking place in Tanzania, forest conservation has become an important part of the national development programme. As a result, a new policy was formulated in 1998. This paper reviews the past and present state of forest genetic resources in Tanzania.
