Impact evaluation of agroforestry project in six village of Karatu - Arusha, Tanzania : implemented by Tanzania Association of Foresters

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2005

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Southern New Hampshire University

Abstract

The Tanzania Association of Foresters Karatu Agroforestry project was officially started in 1986 with four villages; later on in 1999 two villages were added. About 3,272 households were directly involved in the project. Project's goal was to see that local communities have ample sense and knowledge of tree planting and conservation of environment, derive as much of forest produce within the vicinity of project sites thus saving on due time to fetch from far off and that the practice is sustainably maintained. The project impact evaluation conducted revealed that the project has managed to establish tree nurseries in villages; which are under the village management. Due to project intervention, individuals have started their own nurseries. About 3.8 millions trees were planted in the project area. The project has highly managed to reduce conflicts over resources and land encroachment, furthermore, due to its initiatives communities in 5 villages have formed 9 income generating groups as a means of fighting poverty. The project has created awareness to majority of villagers about the importance of tree planting and environmental conservation. Communities future tree planting is on fruit and timber tree species. It was noted that uccesses of project interventions at local level have crossed the project boundaries to non-project villages, also natural resources committee has been formed in each village. The evaluation concluded that the project is now well known to both in the project and non-project villages and has positively influenced local communities tree planting and environmental onservation practices to a large extent. Further, the emergency of private tree nurseries seems the right approach to sustainability of tree planting practices. It was recommended that the project should facilitate introduction of commercial aspects of agroforestry, build capacity of community, strengthen monitoring and evaluation system, soil fertility improvements, and increase demonstration plots. (Author abstract)

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