3 forests, which are primarily found at higher altitudes in areas with good rainfall. An even smaller area is **mangrove and coastal** forest. Plantations (mainly exotic cypress and pine species) account for another estimated 80,000 ha.<sup>3</sup>

1.9 The vast majority of Tanzania's forests (around 96 percent) are comprised of **savanna woodlands.** Most of these woodlands, in turn, fall into the **_'miombo'_** category. _Miombo_ woodlands tend toward a partially open canopy of trees of usually medium height (around 15 meters) and are interspersed with grassland. Most _miombo_ are vulnerable to fire in the dry season and several common species actually depend upon fire for seed germination. Nonetheless, _miombo_ woodlands are highly valued throughout the sub-continent for their multitude of products and services (Dewees, 1994; Campbell, 1996).

# **Woodland management and administration**

1.10 The most important administrative categorization of forests and woodland in Tanzania is simply whether it is 'reserved' or 'unreserved.'<sup>4</sup> Around 45 percent (14.5 million ha) of the national forest estate is reserved,<sup>5</sup> two thirds of which are Central Government Forest Reserves and the balance of which are Local Government Reserves. The Forestry and Beekeeping Division (FBD) of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism (MNRT) provides overall policy guidance for the forestry sector, and some technical oversight and supervision. For the most part, management and protection of all reserves has been decentralized, and is primarily the responsibility of District Forest Officers (DFOs) and their staff, who report to the local District Administration, which in turn reports to the elected District Council. The exceptions are a number of major catchment forests which are under the direct management of FBD.

1.11 Strictly speaking, 'reservation' is a land management regime rather than a tenure category. Reservation does not in law necessarily endow ownership upon the state - a fact made explicit in recent land legislation (the Land Act, 1999) and which is to be reflected in new forestry legislation in preparation. These legal instruments recognize a range of 'reserves,' for which tenure and jurisdiction may fall to various and separate parties. Nonetheless, it is common to refer to Forest Reserves in Tanzania as being 'owned' by central or local Governments, given the full jurisdiction they hold over these estates.<sup>6</sup>

1.12 It is important to note, however, that **_unreserved_** forests - that is, forests and woodlands which are not formally gazetted as reserves - represent the greater proportion of the national estate (19 million ha, or 56 percent). Most of this unreserved forest is also of the dry _miombo_ woodland type.

> 3 The statistical basis for establishing the area under forest and woodland cover in Tanzania is weak, but is being improved through various mapping and inventory initiatives. Holmes (1995) provides relatively recent estimates, though these are based upon data from the 1980s.

> 4 The importance of these distinctions is made clear in **_The Land_** _Act_ (No 5 of 1999) and **_The Village Land Act_** (No 4 of 1999).

- 5 This includes around 2 million ha of forests and woodlands within National Parks or Game Reserves.

> 6 The 'Forest Reserve' is a familiar category in Anglophone Africa, and has its sister term of 'permanent forest' or 'national forest' or 'foret classe' in Francophone Africa. In virtually all sub-Saharan states, this categorization carries an assumption that this category of forest is owned and managed by the state and that the process of identifying a forest as such occurs through a legally-bound process, usually referred to in Anglophone Africa, as 'gazettement'. The extent to which, in law, a reserved area is _owned_ by Government as well as managed and controlled by it, varies. This distinction has blurred over time, resulting in a conjoining of ownership and jurisdiction.