“Who Took Our Land - The World Bank or the State?” The Land Question in the State Plantation Forests in Tanzania: The Case of the Sao Hill forests, 1962-2012
Abstract
Abstract
The Sao Hill plantation forest, with 135,903ha, is the biggest state plantation in Tanzania. Its history goes back to 1939. The postcolonial period tremendously increased its acreage from 18,000ha in 1962 to 135,903ha by 2012. Despite the biggest share of the land it holds, there is little documentation by scholars, especially on the aspects of the source of capital and the process it went through to acquire land from customary owners in the 1970s. This article discusses the expansion strategies of the sole state-owned Sao Hill forests, with a glance at the source of capital and land for the expansion in postcolonial Tanzania. The paper raises the problems that arose because of the expansion and the response of customary land owners and the state between 1962 and 2012. It uses archival sources and interviews as the main sources of data to arrive at its conclusion. The main findings show that the World Bank directly and indirectly influenced the introduction of Sao Hill plantation forestry as it was its loan conditions that determined the size and geographical locations of the land to be planted trees. Therefore, the post -planting period experienced land contestations from the formerly customary land owners as the planting exercise’s pace was determined by the World Bank.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
References
Barton, G. (2002). Empire Forestry and the Origins of Environmentalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD). (1983). Evaluation Report 3.83. Sao Hill Sawmill, Tanzania.
Chamshama, S. (2011). Forest Plantations and Woodlots in the Eastern and North Eastern African Countries: A Regional Overview. African Forest Forum Working Paper Series, 1, 18 (Nairobi, African Forest Forum).
Chuhila, M. & A. Kifyasi. (2016). A Development Narrative of a Rural Economy: The Politics of Forest Plantations and Land Use in Mufindi and Kilimanjaro, Tanzania; 1920s to 2000s. International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research, 4(3).
Hezron R. Kangalawe
Cliffe, L. (1969). From Independence to Self-Reliance. In I.N. Kimambo and A. Temu (eds.). A History of Tanzania. Dar es Salaam: Historical Association of Tanzania.
Coulson, A. (2013). Tanzania, A Political Economy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gran, T. (1991). The Dilemma Between Mobilization and Control in International Aid, The Case of the Norwegian Sao Hill Sawmill Project in Tanzania. Public Administration and Development, 2, University of Bergen.
Hurst, A. (2003). State Forestry and Spatial Scale in the Development Discourse of Post-Colonial Tanzania: 1961–1971. The Geographical Journal, 169(4): 358–369.
—. (2004). Not Yet Out of the Woods: A Political Ecological of State Forestry Policy and Practice in the Mainland Tanzania, 1961–1998. PhD diss., St. Antony’s College).
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD). (1961). The Economic Development of Tanganyika, (Baltimore: The John Hopkins Press, 1961).
Kangalawe, H. (2012). The History of the Labour Process in the Tea Industry, Mufindi, 1960s–2000s. M.A. Dissertation, University of Dar es Salaam.
Kifyasi, A. (2015). Sao Hill Forest and Local Communities’ Livelihoods in Mufindi, 1960–2010. Masters diss., University of Dar es Salaam.
Lawi, Y. (2007). Tanzania’s Operation Vijiji and Local Ecological Consciousness: The Case of Eastern Iraqwland, 1974–1976. Journal of African History, 48(1): 69–93.
Locher, M. (2015). The Global Land Rush; Local Land Rights and Power Relations: European Forestry Investments in Tanzania. PhD Thesis, Zurich University.
Mapedza, E. (2007). Forestry Policy in Colonial and Postcolonial Zimbabwe: Continuity and Change. Journal of Historical Geography, 33: 833–851.
McCracken, J. (2003). Conservation and Resistance in Colonial Malawi, The Dead North Revisited. In W. Beinart and J. McGregor. Social History and African Environments. Oxford: James Currey.
Ministry of Agriculture, Forests and Wildlife, Forestry Division (MSFW). (1965). Starting a Pulp Industry in Tanzania. Tanganyika Standard Limited.
Monson, J. (2009). Africa’s Freedom Railway, How A Chinese Development Project Changed Lives and Livelihoods in Tanzania. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Mtuy, M. (1979). Mufindi Afforestation Project Report Record, No.12.Mimeo.
Mukandala, R. (ed.) (2015). The Political Economy of Change in Tanzania: Contestations over Identity, the Constitution and Resources. Dar es Salaam University Press.
Ngasongwa, J. (1992). Tanzania Introduces a Multi-Party System. Review of African Political Economy, Surviving Democracy 54: 112–116.
Olwig, M., C. Noe, R. Kangalawe & E. Luoga. (2015). Inverting the Moral Economy: The Case of Land Acquisition for Forest Plantations in Tanzania. Third World Quarterly, 36(12): 2316–2336.
Rwegasira, A. (2012). Land as a Human Right: A History of Land Law and Practice in Tanzania. Dar es Salaam: Mkuki na Nyota.
“Who Took Our Land?” The Land Question in the State Plantation Forests
Sao Hill Forest Project (SHFP), Mafinga. (1977). TNA: Annual Report 1st July 1976 to 30th June 1977”, Acc. No. 604, File No. FD/33/23/7.
Scott, J. 1998. Seeing Like a State, How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Shao, J. (1986). The Villagisation Program and the Disruption of the Ecological Balance in Tanzania. Canadian Journal of African Studies, 20(2): 219–239.
Shelter, J. (2007). Imagining Serengeti: A History of Landscape Memory in Tanzania from earliest Times to the Present. Ohio: Ohio University Press.
Shivji, I. (1998). Not Yet Democracy: Reforming Land Tenure in Tanzania. Faculty of Law, University of Dar es Salaam.
Showers, K. (2005). Imperial Gullies, Soil Erosion and Conservation in Lesotho. Ohio: Ohio University Press.
SHPFA (Manager, Sao Hill Forest Project). (1974). ‘Sao Hill Valleys Cultivation’ Sao Hill staff/Workers and Village Chairmen, 31.08.1974. File MU.01/01/: General Reserves Correspondence.
--. (1978). ‘Grazing Livestock in the Forest’ to Chairman, Kihanga Village, 16.11.1978. File MU.01/01/: General Reserves Correspondence.
Sunseri, T. (2009). Wielding the Axe, State Forestry and Social Conflict in Tanzania, 1820–2000. Ohio: Ohio University Press.
Swai, B. (n.d.). Crisis in Colonial Agriculture: Soil Erosion in Tanganyika during the Interwar Period. Mimeo. University of Dar es Salaam.
Tropp, J. Displaced People, Replaced Narratives: Forest Conflicts in Historical Perspectives in the Tsolo District, Transkei. Journal of Southern African Studies, 29(1): 207–233.
United Republic of Tanzania (URT). (2014). Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism Desk Study for Developing Mechanisms and Policies that Strengthen the Private Plantation Forestry and Related Value Chains.
—. (1963). TNA 634.96: Annual Report of the Forest Division.
—. 2012. Preliminary Ministerial Report on the Out Growers & Sao Hill Forest Reserves, Mufindi District.
Voss, J. (2005). DeustschOstafrika-Tanganyika-Tanzania, Agents and Interactions in the Management of Forest Resources, 1891–2000. Quentin Gausset, Stockholm.
Wangwe, S. (1987). Impact of the IMF/World Bank Philosophy: The Case of Tanzania. In Kjell Havnevick. The IMF and the World Bank in Africa, Conditionality, Impact and Alternatives. Uppsala: Scandinavian Institute of African Studies.
World Bank. (1976). Sao Hill Forestry Project Phase I Agreement. World Bank Report.
Zahabu E., E. Zahabu, T. Eid, G. Kajembe, L. Mbwambo, C. Mongo, E. Luoga. (2009). Forestland Tenure Systems in Tanzania: An Overview of Policy Changes in Relation to Forest Management. Department of Ecology and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences.
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
Copyright (c) 2020 Tanzania Journal of Development Studies
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.