THE INFLUENCE OF INTRODUCED FOREST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES ON TRANSFORMATIVE SOCIAL LEARNING IN A SELECTED SOCIAL-ECOLOGICAL FOREST COMMUNITY A case of PFM and REDD projects at Pugu and Kazimzumbwi Forest Reserves in Tanzania A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY OF RHODES UNIVERSITY by VICTORIA UGULUMU FERDINAND 12F0001 January 2015 ABSTRACT Thisresearch investigates the influence of introduced forest management approaches on transformative social learning in the community surrounding the Pugu and Kazimzumbwi forest reserves in Tanzania from 2000 to 2015.The term transformative social learning reflectsanunderstanding of learning processes that emerge through conscious changes in the perspectives of individuals or communities while interacting with forest management practices. The investigation explores the learning (if any) that occurred in the community and how and why the learning occurred. It also explores whether the learning was social and transformative and examines the conditions that enable or constrain transformative social learning at the Pugu and Kazimzumbwi community. Thus, the three concepts of social learning, transformative learning, and social practices are central to the research. Participatory Forest Management (PFM) emerged globally in the early 1980s to mobilise rural capabilities and resources in development and environmental stewardship. The Pugu and Kazimzumbwi community was introduced to Participatory Forest Management (PFM) projects by the late 1990s. The recent global focus on empowering communities around forests has drawn attention towards transformational adaptation to climate change impacts and building resilience capacities. As a result, in 2011 the Pugu and Kazimzumbwi community started working with a project for Reduction of Emissions through Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD), which forms a key focus in this study as the most recently introduced PFM with embedded social learning assumptions. This research is designed and conducted as a qualitative case study. The research seeks to study the complex object of socially and contextually constructed learning through a systemic exploration of learning,using semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, analysis of documents and archival records as well as observations and a reflexive workshop. Supportive information throughfield notes and audio voice and video recording was also generated. A contextual profile of the research site was conducted in March 2012,prior to the actual data collection in 2013 and 2014. Field explorations during the contextual profile helped to describe the research site and promote initial understanding of the context. During data collection, field inquiries based on interactive relationships between a researcher and participants stimulated practice memories and people’s living experiences with forestry and the introduced PFM projects under examination. Analysis of data employed analytical modes of induction, abduction and retroduction. Thick descriptions of learning obtained from field- i based interactionswere produced before re-contextualising data through theoretical lenses. The research employed realist social theory by Archer (1995), under-laboured by critical realism, and practice theory advanced by Schatzki (2012) and Kemmis et al. (2014). The research process as a whole was underlaboured by the layered ontology of critical realism which proposes emergence of phenomena in open systems as shaped by interacting mechanisms which in this study were both material / ecological and social /political /economic /cultural. Chronologies of changes in forest enforcements as well as forest incentive schemes (two key forest management practices that were selected for focus in the study) were observed in both PFM and REDD projects at the Pugu and Kazimzumbwi community and linked to processes of social learning, transformative learning and social practices. Some learning processes were identified through evidence of people’s engagement in activities, change of understanding, subtle shifts in people’s perspectives and emerging tensions and new social relations. The research identifies potential for community competence in participatory practices and praxis at different historic moments of change in forest management approaches. The research notes some enabling and constraining conditions for learning, changes in agency and social transformations. However, overall, the learning agency that emerged at particular spatial- temporal moments was not progressive enough to stimulate and sustain significant social change and transformation. Generative conditions that are socially and contextually critical for learning and for enduring change and transformations in a community are examined through practices of the introduced forest management projects in the community. The REDD project implementation at Pugu and Kazimzumbwi is also validated by research participants for its relevance to adaptive collaborative mechanisms. The research found the REDD project mechanism in the Pugu and Kazimzumbwi community was inadequately informed by adaptive co-management practices. Contrary to the emphasis of transformational learning in the IPCC WGII AR5 (2013) and the IPCC (SREX) (2012) reports, the REDD local practices were not supportive of collaborative learning among project stakeholders at the Pugu and Kazimzumbwi community. Inadequacy in collaborative learning in the projects at the Pugu and Kazimzumbwi community implicates gaps in practice arrangements for resource governance systems. With such findings, the research perceives the participatory forest management projects at Pugu and Kazimzumbwi as lacking sufficient institutional arrangements to support learning for social changes and transformations. ii This research contributes to the field of Environmental Education by providing in-depth insight into the formation of environmental learning for agency, adaptive change, and social transformations in rural communities as experienced (or not) via introduced PFM projects, REDD included. The research highlights issues of Participatory Forest Management and community learning across different epistemic guidelines, which describe structural conditioning to articulate resource governance in forestry. This research brings to light the potential of iterative transformative social learning for transformational adaptations and resources governance in rural communities. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many people contributed in different ways to make this study a reality. I firstly praise and glorify God for guiding me in the study and for enabling other people’s obligations to support the study. Professor Heila Lotz-Sisitka, my supervisor is very gratefully acknowledged for being central to the success of this PhD work. It is hard to express the admiration I have for Professor Heila’s professional and personal amplitudes in the overall process facilitation. My second supervisor, Professor Rob O’Donoghue, is acknowledged for his expertise in popularising conservation education in rural communities, which deeply informed this study. Sanne Lauriks and Caroline Van Der Mescht (PhD) are gratefully appreciated for proofreading of manuscripts and guiding with writing styles, while Miriam Mattison patiently helped with Microsoft Word functions. I also owe my thanks to Kim Ward who edited and formatted the final manuscript and Bronwyn McLean for her graphical styling. I gratefully acknowledge the financial support (January - December 2014) from the Environmental Learning Research Centre (ELRC) of the Department of Education at Rhodes University for funding the completion of this study. Without the funding support the completion of this study would have been impossible. The management of the Wildlife Conservation Society of Tanzania (WCST) is acknowledged for providing the setting that allowed for the conception of the research ideas. Thanks to my immediate work supervisor at WCST, Mr Deo-Gratius Gamassa, for taking interest in this study and for sharing ideas in the initial framing of the research. I also owe my thanks to members of RCE greater Dar es Salaam, particularly Mrs Anna Maembe, for opening doors when I knocked. My gratitude is extended to the Director of Policy and Planning of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism as well as the PFM coordinator at the Ministry for providing support in policy frameworks. I feel honoured to have worked with the Pugu and Kazimzumbwi community and to have changed my understanding about the ways of ‘living and learning’ in a community. Many thanks to village chairmen Mr Abel Mudo (Kisarawe), Mr Selemani Puga (Kisanga), Mr Rashidi Uchuro (Nyeburu) and Mr Sultani Mkumba (Maguruwe).I owe heartfelt thanks to my research assistants, Vitus Pembe and Beatrice Luhanga for their support in the field. Constant support from ELRC colleagues lifted me up when I thought I could not go further. The ELRC list is large, here I mention a few like Aristides Baloi, Caleb Mandikonza, Caroline Bell, Daniel Sabai (PhD), Vanessa Agbedahin, Dick Kachilonda, Mumsie Gumede, iv Nina Rivers, Tichaona Pesanayi, Priya Vallabh, Sirkka Tshinangayamwe, Jane Oteki (PhD), Crispen Dirwai, Treve Jenkin, Kim Carlyon, Experencia Chosoni, Zintle Songqwaru and Lebona Nkhahle. Staff members of the ELRC provided family-likecomfort: Lausanne Laura Olvitt (PhD), Ingrid Schudel (PhD), Samantha Cassels, Sashay Armstrong and Gladys Tyatya. I could always count on them. I appreciate the company of Tanzanian