The Implications of Non-timber Forest Products ' Access By-laws on Household Food Security in Semi-arid Zones of Iringa District, Tanzania

Abstract

Local communities in semi-arid zones of Iringa district are vulnerable to household food insecurity. Their vulnerability is mainly due to their dependence on climatesensitivelivelihoodsources,especiallyrain-fedsmallholdercropfarming.Consumptionandsaleofnon-timberforestproducts(NTFPs)fromKitapilimwaForestReserve(KFR)whichis under Joint Forest Management (JFM) offer an opportunity to the localcommunities to improve their resilience to food insecurity. Though NTFPs are alsoaffected by climate change they are more resilient compared to agricultural crops andlivestock. Several management by-laws have been passed to protect KFR fromanthropogenic degradation and loss. However, the extent to which the KFR access bylawsaffect the availability of NTFPs for enhancing household food security had notbeen examined.. Findings indicated that 76.2% of the respondents were food insecure.Also, it was found that 40.9% and 20.1% of the food insecure households ate and soldNTFPs to enhance household food security respectively. The few types of NTFPs theywere permitted to collect, low quantity of NTFPs to be collected, a few visiting daysand license fee were reported to be the main KFR management by-laws whichimpacted on availability of NTFPs for enhancing household security. It is noteworthythat forest conservation by-laws should not compromise local communities ' access toNTFPs. Also, it is good to mainstream customary forest management laws in theformulation of the conventional forest management by-laws.  Key words: Non-timber Forest Products, Semi-arid, Household Food Insecurity, By-laws