A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Award of
Degree of Master of Science in Development Policy of Mzumbe University
The study designed to assess the implementation of the National Forest Policy for
Zanzibar (1999). The focus was to assess major reforestation challenges in North
“A” district – Zanzibar including the community‟s support of tree planting, other
socio-economic effects on the program, the availability of seedlings, and perception
about the program. Data were collected from a sample of 90 community members
and 1 Forest District Officer, 1 Assistant Planning Officer and 2 Shehas from the
selected village in the district. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages,
charts and tables were used.
The key finding of the study shows that the community was supported in some areas
on tree planting but that this was not enough. Also people have positive perception
on tree planting but there was poor community participation in tree planting
meetings and programmes, shortage of land for planting trees, difficulty in obtaining
tree seedlings and shortage of extension services.
The study concluded that the tree planting campaigns will not be successful to the
extent that people may not participate in those campaigns; more support is needed to
enable the community to plant more trees; the efforts made to promote sustainable
forest-related community activities were not effectively implemented; the size of
land owned by the community in the study area was small; and it was difficult to
obtain tree seedlings for the community.
Policy implications are that there is the need, first, to have policy interventions to
enable community to access enough land for tree planting; second, to provide
adequate support to the community; third, to obtain relevant information concerning
tree planting; and, fourth, to have laws and regulations that enable community to
access land for forestation and to have knowledge and skills on production of tree
seedlings and of forest in general.