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In the Shinyanga region of Tanzania, large areas of dense acacia
and miombo woodland were cleared by 1985, transforming the
landscape into semi-desert. The HASHI project, whose success
was recognized by the UN Development Programme with an
Equator Initiative prize in 2002, helped local people from 833
villages to restore 350,000 ha of acacia and miombo woodland
through traditional pastoralist practices in only 18 years. Its strik-
ing success stems from the rich ecological knowledge and strong
traditional institutions of the agro-pastoralist Sukuma people
who live in the region. By 2004, 18 years into the project, at least
350,000 hectares of ngitili (the Sukuma term for enclosures) had
been restored or created in 833 villages, encompassing a popula-
tion of 2.8 million (Barrow and Mlenge 2004:1; Barrow 2005b).
Benefits of the restoration include higher household incomes,
better diets, and greater livelihood security for families in the re-
gion. Nature has benefited too, with a big increase in tree, shrub,
grass, and herb varieties, as well as bird and mammal species.
Regenerating Woodlands: Tanzania’s HASHI Project
The Shinyanga case illustrates the importance of working with
local people. In the past, the state imposed its own solutions,
which often failed. The Shinyanga project has involved local
people in the entire process of landscape restoration. It has
built on local institutions rather than creating new ones. Villages
have been encouraged to pass their own by-laws to protect com-
munal ngitilis (enclosures of acacia-miombo woodlands), and
traditional village guards monitor activities in the ngitilis. Local
involvement has been critical to the success of the project. For-
est restoration has also strongly benefited from the Tanzanian
government’s push towards decentralisation, which involved the
allocation of clear land rights to local communities. Greater se-
curity of land tenure has engendered a sense of ownership and
responsibility among the Sukuma agropastoralists, whose large
herds of cattle now co-exist in a healthier environment.
Source: Monela
et al
, 2004
CASE STUDY #3
What are the human livelihoods/
human well-being impacts of forest
restoration?
Forest restoration can also play crucial role in livelihood improve-
ments and human well-being. These benefits include enhancing
adaptation capacity, contributing to food security and improving
the livelihoods of people depended on forest ecosystems, com-
munity empowerment among other things (CIFOR, 2002) .For
example, in the Shinyanga region of Tanzania, the HASHI pro-
gram helped local people from 833 villages to restore 350,000 ha
of acacia and miombo woodland through traditional pastoralist
practices in only 18 years. The benefits to people livelihoods have
been significant. Ecological restoration can also improve produc-
tivity, livelihoods and economic opportunities through reducing
soil degradation, desertification and water loss. Experience from
these and other forest restoration projects, show that inmost cases
it is of paramount importance that local communities are placed
in the centre of attention (i.e. considered as the key actors and in-
volved in decision-making processes). Crucial issues to consider
when implementing forest restoration are land tenure, incentives,
access to resources and to management rights, natural versus
exotic species, and appropriate monitoring and evaluation instru-
ments (CIFOR, 2002; WRI, 2005; Chazdon, 2008). Additionally,
enabling conditions are always strongly policy-related. Sometimes
they may have to be simple set-ups which strongly facilitate deci-
sion-making and implementation processes. Economic push and
pull mechanisms are needed to launch a policy dialogue, involving
both government representatives and the poorest
Challenges
There are many challenges to successful forest restoration.
For example, a high rate of failure will result in plantations if
selected tree species are not suited to site conditions or if the
appropriate hydrological patterns are not also restored, too few
species are planted. Invasive species may establish more easily
in monoculture tree plantations and have greater susceptibility
to species-specific pathogens (Chazdon 2008).
The future implications of large-scale forest restoration on the
structure and composition of forests, landscapes and fauna is