The HASHI project is clearly a success story, drawing attention far beyond Shinyanga’s borders. Yet several demographic and land-use trends threaten the continued expansion of ngitili as a cornerstone of natural resource management in Tanzania. These include (Monela et al. 2004:103-4,107):
- Scarcity of land and insecurity of tenure;
- Rapidly growing human and livestock populations, which are driving a surge in demand for resources from the still-recovering landscape;
- Damage to livestock and crops caused by growing wildlife populations; in some areas, this threatens to outweigh the benefits gained from ngitili;
- Growing, unregulated sales of individually owned ngitili.
The government-commissioned task force identified population increase as a particular concern, pointing out that so far “there are not clear indications that the restoration [of ngitili] is sustainable” (Monela et al. 2004:107). Shinyanga’s population rose from 1.77 million in 1988 to 2.8 million in 2002, and continues to grow by 2.9 percent a year (Monela et al. 2004: 21). As a result, fathers are increasingly dividing their ngitili plots between sons, reducing the size and productivity of the plots. Farmers in Maswa district, for example, reported in 2004 that the shrinking size of their individually owned ngitili had forced them to graze only the neediest animals during the critical dry season.
In addition, there are no constraints on landowners wishing to sell their individually owned ngitili, although, because of the village land title system, it is very difficult to sell private land to someone from outside your community. New owners are free to fell the trees and develop the land as they see fit.
The somewhat ambiguous tenure situation of ngitili is also a significant concern. Despite popular enthusiasm, the establishment of new ngitili is often limited by tenure insecurity—or the perception of insecurity. Although ngitili are formally recorded and registered by village governments, their tenure status remains unclear under Tanzanian law. Villages commonly hold a village title deed to all the land within village borders, while households receive a subsidiary title to their privately owned farmland with the village assembly’s approval. The remaining land is designated as communal village land, under the management of the village government (Barrow 2005c, d).
These communal lands can be used for communal ngitili, but it is not always clear what basis the designation of a village ngitili has in law, and therefore what property rights pertain. For example, village governments and assemblies are sometimes wary of officially designating ngitili as “protected areas,” because they fear the state may appropriate these lands and manage them as public lands at the district or national levels (Barrow 2005d).
Tenure issues can interfere with establishing ngitili on private land as well. Private landowners who don’t have secure rights to their land are sometimes reluctant to establish or expand ngitili for fear of triggering disputes within the community. In some cases, concerted efforts by villagers and local government institutions have overcome tenure problems, with boundary surveys made in order to obtain legally watertight communal and individual land title deeds (Kaale et al. 2003:16). Nevertheless, as pressure on land grows due to rising human and livestock populations, land tenure disputes, trespassing on ngitili, and conflicts over grazing rights are all likely to increase.
Designating in law the specific ownership and use-rights that pertain to communal ngitili within the overall system of village-owned land could help address the tenure problem, according to Edmund Barrow. Formally recognizing individual and family-owned ngitili under Tanzanian law as a separate land management category would also help. Closing these loopholes would help ensure that ngitili continue to play a significant and expanding role in villagers’ livelihood strategies and income (Barrow 2005c).
Despite these challenges, the multiple benefits of forest restoration are increasingly recognized by Tanzania’s government. Since the HASHI project began, new legislation— including the National Land Policy of 1997, the Land Act of 1999, and Village Act of 1999—has supported the formal establishment of ngitili and has begun to address the thorny issue of land tenure (Kaale et al. 2003:16). In 1998 Tanzania revised its forest policy, which now emphasizes participatory management of and decentralized control over woodlands, and strongly supports ngitili.
