The project’s innovative efforts to improve rural livelihoods are based on reviving “ngitili,” an indigenous natural resource management system (Barrow and Mlenge 2004:1). Traditionally, ngitili were used to provide forage for livestock— especially oxen—at the end of the dry season when villagers plough their land. Vegetation and trees are nurtured on fallow lands during the wet season so that livestock fodder supplies are available for dry months.
There are two types of ngitili: enclosures owned by individuals or families, and communal enclosures owned and managed in common. Both were originally developed by the Sukuma in response to acute animal feed shortages caused by droughts, the loss of grazing land to crops, and declining land productivity (Barrow and Mlenge 2003:6).
The HASHI project’s approach to ngitili revival was to work with local people, first to identify areas requiring urgent land restoration, and then to restore them according to customary practice. Field officers, employed by the Division of Forestry and Beekeeping in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, worked closely with both district government staff and village government authorities—the lowest accountable bodies in Tanzania’s government (Barrow 2005b).
Technical guidance and information was also provided by the Nairobi-based International Center for Research in Agro- Forestry (ICRAF), which had researched ngitili restoration. ICRAF studies documented appropriate vegetation and management practices, and noted the important role played by traditional knowledge and local institutions in successful land management (Barrow 2005e).
In many villages, HASHI field officers used residual natural seed and root stock to restore ngitili enclosures. In others, active tree planting (first of exotic species, later of the indigenous tree species preferred by local people) was carried out, especially around homesteads. Some of the restored ngitili dated back to pre-villagization days. Others were newly created by farmers and villages. In addition to restoring ngitili, villagers were encouraged to plant trees around homesteads (particularly fruit and shade trees), field boundaries, and farm perimeters. This helped improve soil fertility and provide firewood, and had the side benefit of helping farmers to stake out and formalize their land rights within villages (Barrow 2005c).
A range of tools were used to educate and empower villagers. These included video, theater, newsletters, and workshops to demonstrate firsthand the links between soil conservation, forest restoration, and livelihood security. Participatory rural appraisal methods helped villagers to identify local natural resource problems and agree on solutions (Kaale et al. 2003:13-14). Farmers and villagers received training in how to get the most out of their ngitili. For example, they learned which indigenous species were best suited to enrich farms soils or create dense boundary plantings.
Armed with this powerful combination of traditional and scientific knowledge, villages across Shinyanga gradually revitalized the institution of ngitili and broadened its use from simple soil and fodder conservation to production of a wide range of woodland goods and services. Products such as timber, fodder, fuelwood, medicinal herbs, wild fruits, honey, and edible insects enhanced livelihoods and provided a vital safety net during dry seasons and droughts (Barrow and Mlenge 2003:1).
In the early years, restoration efforts proceeded gradually as cautious farmers and communities assessed the benefits and rights which ngitili regeneration produced. By the early 1990s, with the project’s effectiveness beyond doubt, restoration efforts spread rapidly through the region. In 1986, about 600 hectares of documented ngitili enclosures existed in Shinyanga. A survey of 172 sample villages in the late 1990s revealed 18,607 ngitili (284 communal, the rest owned by households) covering roughly 78,122 hectares (Kaale et al. 2003:8, Barrow and Mlenge 2004:1). Extrapolating from these figures, project managers estimate that more than 350,000 hectares of land in Shinyanga were in use as ngitili, with nine in ten inhabitants of Shinyanga’s 833 villages enjoying access to ngitili goods and services (Barrow 2005b).
Wendelen Mlenge, longtime manager of the HASHI project (recently renamed the Natural Forest Resources and Agroforestry Center) has closely observed its success. The enthusiasm and commitment with which communities have embraced ngitili restoration demonstrates, she says, how “a traditional natural resource management system can [be adapted to] meet contemporary needs” (Barrow and Mlenge 2003:10).
