Journal ArticleProtected areas are an important means of controlling deforestation. However, the effectiveness of protected areas in controlling deforestation depends on type of protected area which determines conservation policy pursued and thus how the protected area is managed. This paper reports on analysis of the relationship between deforestation and type of protected area, namely forest reserve, game reserve and national park in mainland Tanzania. The analysis used maps covering the whole of mainland Tanzania for 1995 and 2010 and applied GIS analytical techniques. Both forest reserves and game reserves had lower deforestation than areas that were not protected whereas national parks had higher deforestation than areas that were not protected. However, forest reserves had higher rate of deforestation than game reserves. These results raise questions with regards to ecological processes and policy options relevant for the three types of protected areas and their effects on deforestation. First, are the differences in deforestation due to varying levels of effectiveness of measures used to control deforestation among the three types of protected areas? Second, what is the role of natural processes such as elephants that kill trees? Third, why should national parks be associated with the highest rate of deforestation? Are forests so bad for wild animals in national parks? These questions form the basis of the discussion of the results.