TECHNICAL PAPER 60 PARTICIPATORY FOREST INVENTORY OF PROPOSED MFUNDIA VILLAGE FOREST RESERVE Veltheim, T., Kijazi, M. & Killenga, R. 2002 East Usambara Conservation Area Management Programme TECHNICAL PAPER 60 PARTICIPATORY FOREST INVENTORY OF PROPOSED MFUNDIA VILLAGE FOREST RESERVE Veltheim, T., Kijazi, M. & Killenga, R. Tanga 2002 Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Finland Tanzania Metsähallitus Consulting Oy Forestry and Beekeeping Division Participatory inventory of proposed Mfundia village forest reserve 1 Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................... 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.................................................................................................. 3 ABBREVIATIONS.............................................................................................................. 4 1. INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................ 5 2. ORGANISATION OF THE WORK................................................................................. 6 3. TRAINING OF TRAINERS AND VILLAGERS.............................................................. 6 4. FOREST INVENTORY FIELD WORK........................................................................... 7 5. INVENTORY RESULTS................................................................................................. 8 5.1. Gombero...................................................................................................................................................................... 9 5.2. Kijango ...................................................................................................................................................................... 15 5.3. Makangara / Mkwajuni........................................................................................................................................... 21 5.4. Makumba.................................................................................................................................................................. 28 5.5. Summary from All Villages .................................................................................................................................... 34 6. COMPILATION OF RESULTS AT THE VILLAGES ................................................... 37 7. LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE PARTICIPATORY FOREST INVENTORY ......... 41 8. RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE MANAGEMENT PLANS......................................... 42 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................. 43 APPENDIX 1 TRAINING MANUAL................................................................................. 44 APPENDIX 2 TREE SPECIES LIST................................................................................ 46 APPENDIX 3 FACILITATORS’ TIMETABLE.................................................................. 51 APPENDIX 4 LOCATION OF TRANSECTS AND SAMPLE PLOTS............................. 52 APPENDIX 5 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMPILATION OF INVENTORY DATA ............. 54 East Usambara Conservation Area Management Programme Technical Paper 60 Participatory inventory of proposed Mfundia village forest reserve 2 Executive Summary Mfundia forest is located in Lwengera Valley in Korogwe District, Tanga Region. It is a lowland forest area of 786 ha with altitude ranges from about 400 metres to 790 metres above sea level. The five villages surrounding Mfundia, namely Gombero, Kijango, Makangara, Makumba and Mkwajuni, requested technical assistance from EUCAMP in 2001 in order to establish village forest reserves. All villages decided that each village would own and independently manage the part of the forest falling within its boundaries, except Makangara and Mkwajuni, which decided to have a jointly managed village forest reserve. Facilitation of the Mfundia village forest reserve –exercise was handed over to Korogwe District Council in May 2002 in line with the national policy and recommendations of the mid-term review of EUCAMP. EUCAMP still continued to have an advisory role for the exercise and it provided funding for the activities. As there is harvesting potential in the Mfundia forest, a simple participatory forest inventory was considered important in order to establish sustainable harvesting schedules and permanent plots for monitoring purpose. The inventory was designed together with staff from EUCAMP and District Council. The inventory field work facilitators consisted of four people from Korogwe District Council and nine people from EUCAMP. Each village planning team had selected ten people with good knowledge of the forest area and tree species for the inventory. The inventory was conducted in August 2002. Prior to the field work, there was a one-day training session, first for the facilitators, who then conducted the same training for the village planning teams. The field work took four days. Each planning team made a participatory mapping of their respective village forest area, dividing the area into different vegetation areas or units. Then the location of 3-4 transects was agreed to a specific way so that as many different vegetation areas would be surveyed as possible. In each village forest area the inventory team laid out 3-4 transects with the width of 10 m and lengths varying from 300 m to 900 m running west – east and against the contours of the hills. In these transects, all live, cut and dead trees were identified by species and tallied into three size classes. In addition, each team established four permanent sample plots of 50 m x 20 m representing different vegetation types. On these plots all trees with a girth of 16 cm and above (at the breast height) were identified and measured. In one corner of these bigger plots a regeneration sample plot of 3 m x 3 m was measured, where the seedlings were identified. Data analysis for the purpose of the management plans was then done in the regular planning team meetings after the inventory. The data was also analysed in the EUCAMP office. The results showed that in general, the forest in Mfundia is fairly poorly stocked, as the basal area was usually less than 10 m2/ha. The forest is very much affected by fire. In the Kijango and Makangara / Mkwajuni villages it is affected by tree cutting and grazing. In Makangara / Mkwajuni the big reason for tree cutting has been the recent encroachment. The average number of stems/ha was 1,860 for all trees, and 635/ha for timber and pole size trees (girth > 16 cm). In average about 20% of timber and pole size trees had been cut. Most commonly cut trees were pole size with girth 16- 47 cm (diameter 5-15 cm). Regeneration was found to be poor in general. The inventory results also showed that the harvesting potential is fairly low for most of the species the villagers prefer from the forest, especially for timber size trees. Based on these findings, recommendations for activities to be included in the management plans are given. East Usambara Conservation Area Management Programme Technical Paper 60 Participatory inventory of proposed Mfundia village forest reserve 3 Acknowledgements This report is a joint effort of several people. We would like to acknowledge the management of EUCAMP, which facilitated the activity. Thanks are due to the botanist Mr. Albert Ntemi, who identified the scientific names of the tree species, to Chief Technical Advisor Dr. Veli Pohjonen and Mr. Shedrack Mashauri of EUCAMP for editorial comments, and to Ms. Debra Wapple for checking the English language. In particular, we would like to thank the following people, who participated the hard field work: FIELD STATION OFFICERS, EUCAMP Kilangangua Field Station Raymond Muna Longuza Field Station Kelvin Mndeme Maramba Field Station Jared Otieno and Cosmas Ndakidemi AMANI NATURE RESERVE Albert Ntemi KOROGWE DISTRICT COUNCIL District Natural Resources Officer Mathew Nyelo District Forest Officer Betty Munuo Land Surveyor Charles Shao Divisional Forester Mombo Dassa Mohamed Divisional Forester Magoma Cassius Mbelavintu VILLAGE PLANNING TEAM MEMBERS We are also grateful to the village government chairpersons and planning team members of Gombero, Kijango, Makangara, Mkwajuni and Makumba, who participated fully in training and data collection. East Usambara Conservation Area Management Programme Technical Paper 60 Participatory inventory of proposed Mfundia village forest reserve 4 Abbreviations EUCAMP East Usambara Conservation Area Management Programme dbh diameter at the breast height cm centimetre DFO District Forest Officer DNRO District Natural Resources Officer GPS General Positioning System ha hectare (hectares) m metre m2 cubic metre East Usambara Conservation Area Management Programme Technical Paper 60 Participatory inventory of proposed Mfundia village forest reserve 5 1. Introduction Mfundia forest area is located in Tanga region, Korogwe District, Magoma Division, Magoma and Kerenge Wards. It is a fairly big area of lowland forest with altitude ranges from about 400 metres to the highest rocky peak called Mfundia of 792 metres above sea level. In the past there was a plan to gazette this forest area as a central government forest reserve and the area was surveyed in 1979 covering an area of about 670 ha. However, as there was no funding for compensation to the villages the area remained as a village land with uncontrolled use. Illegal