Land cover change and utilization of village land forest reserves in Ludewa, Tanzania

Abstract

Knowledge of land cover change and associated driving factors is important for developing improved management strategies and future monitoring of tropical forests. We present here for the first time the case of two forest reserves (Litwang'ata and Intake) in Ludewa district, Southern Highlands Tanzania. These reserves were recently (2019) declared Village Land Forest Reserves (VLFRs), with their management and ownership devolved to their communities. We used remote sensing and GIS methods to assess spatial-temporal land cover change of the two VLFRs for the period 1996–2016. We also used household interviews (HHIs), focus group discussions (FGDs) and key informants’ interviews (KIIs) to examine the perceived socio-economic drivers of land cover change and the household forest-based incomes derived from the VLFRs. Our findings overall showed that closed woodland decreased by 780.3 ha whereas open woodland, grass/shrub land and agricultural land increased by 700.9 ha, 71.7 ha and 50.9 ha, respectively. Wildfires are perceived as the major drivers of land cover change. To a large extent, local communities utilize VLFRs for their livelihoods, with major resources extracted being firewood, construction poles, fresh water and thatch grass. Of the total forest-based income, logging for timber accounted for about 33% for Intake VLFR users and 36% for villagers who utilize resources from Litwang'ata VLFR. Future monitoring of land cover and livelihood changes is recommended for sustainable forest management.

Keywords

• Community based forest management
• Livelihood
• Wildfire
• Socio-economic drivers
• Landsat images
• Sustainable forest management