Incentives for participatory forest management around Gishwati Natural Forest, Rwanda
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Date
2013
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Sokoine University of Agriculture
Abstract
Incentives in Participatory Forest Management (PFM) play a crucial role in conservation
and poverty reduction at all levels of society. In Gishwati Natural Forest (GNF), human
activities heavily affected the forest and incentive structure needs to be established in
order to motivate people for its conservation. This study aimed to assess the nature of
incentives for PFM in GNF and specifically questioned whether there were principle
incentives given to local communities in and around GNF; what are community member’s
interests to participate in conservation of the forest; the contribution of PFM incentives to
the conservation and livelihood of local communities and how communities perceived and
practiced different PFM activities. Data were collected from four cells adjacent to GNF
namely Karambo, Nkomane, Rusongati and Yungwe. Socio-economic data were collected
through Participatory Rural Appraisal techniques, checklists and structured questionnaires.
Questionnaire survey was administered to a total of 150 households representing the target
population. Qualitative data were analyzed through content and structural-functional
analyses. Quantitative socio-economic data were analyzed by descriptive and inferential
statistics. The logistic regression results revealed that social economic factors influenced
perceptions of communities on incentives for PFM activities; education level increased
peoples’ willingness to participate in forest management activities and had significant
influence on their perceptions on that at 0.05 significant level; age showed that the older
the villagers the more they have accumulated experience and knowledge on different
forest management activities and incentives given. PFM had positive impacts on people’s
livelihood by income generating activities where 39% comes from employment. The
forest created around 3000 employments and employees were earning an average of Frw
27 000 (about 50 USD) per month. The study concluded that incentives showed positive impacts on conservation and livelihood of local communities where existing incentives
such as employment, wood fuel, fodder, honey, wild fruits and vegetables have the
potential to improve livelihood of the people even if they are still limited in nature and
sources. The study recommended that relevant activities such as fruit processing, honey
processing should be undertaken to increase household income and catalyze their incentive
to effectively engage in Participatory Forest Management.
Description
Dissertation
Keywords
Poverty reduction, Natural Forest, Rwanda, Participatory Forest Management (PFM), Gishwati Natural Forest (GNF)