Incentives for participatory forest management around Gishwati Natural Forest, Rwanda
| dc.contributor.author | Mukamparirwa, Vestine | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2026-09-15T10:57:04Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2026-09-15T10:57:04Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2013 | |
| dc.description | Dissertation | |
| dc.description.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. | |
| dc.description.sponsorship | DeLPHE Project | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://www.suaire.sua.ac.tz/handle/20.500.14820/7952 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.publisher | Sokoine University of Agriculture | |
| dc.subject | Poverty reduction | |
| dc.subject | Natural Forest | |
| dc.subject | Rwanda | |
| dc.subject | Participatory Forest Management (PFM) | |
| dc.subject | Gishwati Natural Forest (GNF) | |
| dc.title | Incentives for participatory forest management around Gishwati Natural Forest, Rwanda | |
| dc.type | Thesis |