1) Village Forest Reserves (VFRs) in Tanzania's East Usambara Mountains support greater plant and tree species diversity compared to other non-reserved land uses like agriculture, but have lower diversity than strictly protected forests. 2) VFRs contain important bird species, including some Eastern Arc endemics and near-endemics, though most endangered species are only found in other habitat types. 3) Continued management of VFRs is at risk due to dependence on external funding and incentives, and small direct economic benefits provided to local communities so far. Increased benefits through payments for ecosystem services could help improve viability.

1. Village Forest Management as a way to protect biodiversity in Tanzania Heini Vihemäki (World AgroforestryCentre) and Charles Leonard (Tanzania Forest Conservation Group)

2. Background the forest area under the control of communities (villages, groups) has increased during the past 15-20 years in TZ the knowledge on for forest quality in community managed areas inadequate some indication on improved forest maintenance and quality (e.g. Blomley et al. 2008) Most Village Forest Reserves (VFRs) established in areas not principally targeted for BD conservation debate on whether community management ‘works’ for BD conservation goal Few studies on their contribution to biodiversity conservation in Tz, e.g. Isango and Mhoro (2009)

3. Questions What is the BD value of VFRs in the East Usambaras, and how they compare with other land uses outside strictly protected forests? BD addressed here as species level & the distribution of species (evenness) Is the approach likely to be viable in terms of continuity of management ?

4. Context: The East Usambara Mountains, Tanzania Part of the Eastern Arcs contain 6/19 Eastern Arc endemic and 13/26 near endemic bird species 40 EA endemic or near endemic tree species Threats: fires, clearance of forest for agriculture, pit-sawing, harvesting of trees for building materials, mining VFRs established since 1990s with external support, TFCG and others Income generating activities

6. Methods botanical and bird survey covering a gradient from VFRs to agroforests and more open land uses in 3 village landscapes Shannon index of all the plant species recorded in each plot/land use & no of tree sp/ha Aggregated species diversity per different land uses (no of plant species) Socio-economics: literature, observation

7. Methods & materials Bird surveys: Time Species Count (non-VFR) and mist netting (VFRs) Vegetation survey plots:

8. Results on plant sp diversity

10. Results on Bird diversity High diversity: in total, 89 bird species recorded in the three village landscapes, including threatened and EA endemics The banded green sunbird was the only Eastern Arc endemic recorded six Eastern-Arc near endemic species all EA endemics/near endemics found in agforest, mosaic of agricultural lands, fallow or plantation. only two were also found in the VFRs

12. Prospects of Continuity Motivation and Attitudes of local people: Generally attitude positive, but high variation within and between villages inawareness and willingness to participate Costs of establishment and support to management: high reliance on external funding and facilitation Most benefits are ‘intangible’ so far, and direct benefits small (e.g. through Income generating activities) Governance: depends on the village politics & groupings, challenges related to transparency

13. Conclusions VFRs can be conducive to BD conservation objectives, as they support more species compared to other non-reserved land uses Higher diversity index and no of tree species agroforestsand fallows also support several species, and especially rare birds relatively small sizes of VFRs a constraint to conservation of certain species (e.g. Birds) Less species comp. to strictly reserved forests Continuity of management is at risk, e.g. due to dependency on external support in creation and incentives, small benefits so far

14. Recommendations As establishment of new gov. forest reserves is expensive and prone to conflicts, need to enhance BD conservation in VFR & village landscapes creating value to the VFRs e.g. through PES one potential way to enhance their economic value and viability Training on forest committee members and others on account keeping, to improve transparency of benefits need to build capacity (e.g. facilitation of management planning) at different levels of the governance system, not only village

15. Main sources Leonard, C., Mwangoka, M., Mkongewa, V. and Doggart, N. 2010. Assessment of the biological values of different land cover types in the East Usambara Mountains of Tanzania. TFCG Technical Paper No. x.Dar es Salaam. Unpublished Draft. Map. Produced for the LMP (?) by Jaclyn Hall, University of Florida. Rantala, H., Lyimo, E., Powell, B., Kitalyi, A. & Vihemäki, H. 2009. Natural resource governance and stakeholders in the East Usambara Mountains. Working paper of the Landscape Mosaics Projects.Unpublished draft.

16. Thank you for your attention!Merci beaucoup pour votre attention!