Unpacking Conflicts between Forest Officers and Local People Over Fire Incidences in Uluguru Nature Forest Reserve Tanzania

Abstract

This study was centred on unravelling of conflicts between forest officers who manage the Uluguru Nature forest Reserve (UNFR) and local people who live on the northwest slopes of the reserve, over the question of fire.  The study focused on the factors that drove conflicts between the local people and foresters over fire events in the UNFR.  Combining archival fire-events data with the findings from in-depth interviews with researchers, foresters, conservationists, and the local people, the study discerned four types of fire-related conflicts between foresters and residents near the UNFR:  conflicting interests, structural conflict, antagonistic relations, and information vacuum.  Most fires in the reserve are accidental.  Therefore, viewing the local people as ‘the problem’ and their livelihoods as ‘the threat’ to the reserve is an overly simplistic assessment of the situation, which does not take into account the complexities of the social situation, the fire issue, and the  interests of the individuals involved.  Indeed, people are not the focus of the current model of managing the reserve.  Since the local people and the reserve are inseparable, the government must involve these people in the management of the UNFR to ameliorate fire-relate conflicts.