Forests, Community Conservation, and Local Government Performance: The Village Forest Reserves of Tanzania

Devolved management of natural resources offers a means of advancing democracy, combating poverty, and enhancing conservation. Remarkable successes have been claimed for devolved forest reserve management in Tanzania. However, these successes are discordant with the practices of village government, of which village forest management is part. This article outlines the claims made for village forest reserves and juxtaposes these to detailed accounts of the corrupt and violent practice of village government and to the predatory relationship between village government and the central state and district governments. It reevaluates the success of village forest reserves in light of this evidence and considers the broader implications of the problems of local corruption for calls for community-based conservation.