Community Participation in Forest Management: A Case of Joint Forest Management and Livelihoods in Tegetero Village in Tanzania

Recent Tanzania government has adopted Joint Forest Management as a participatory program which emphasizes the active participation of communities in forest management by cooperating with the state to achieve both improvements of forest and community livelihoods. However the program has introduced restrictions in reserve forest which it has resulted in profound effects on community livelihoods. This Paper seeks to assess the effects of restrictions access on the community livelihoods and responses towards these reactions. The methods used for collecting data were structured interview, Focus Group discussion and observation. The research uses political ecology of forest as a theoretical framework to critically analyze how the politics of forest around the management of forest plays role in influencing community access to forest resource. The paper argues that the introduction access restrictions have affected social, economic aspect of community life around the forest.