SULEDO Community-based Forest Reserve: A Contested Terrain between Peasants and Pastoralists in Kiteto District, 1990–2016

Authors

Juma Marmo, University of Dar es SalaamFollow

Abstract

This paper examines how the establishment of the SULEDO community forest reserve caused land use conflicts between peasants and pastoralists in Kiteto District from 1990 to 2016. The peasants complained that the government had deliberately made it possible for pastoralists to get more benefits from the reserve since they were allowed to graze their livestock in the reserve, which took large parts of their former agricultural land. Conversely, the grabbing of land by peasants in the forest reserve caused complaints from the pastoralists who claimed that the peasants were grabbing their grazing land in the reserve. Using archival sources, fieldwork interviews, and secondary sources, the study found that the establishment of the SULEDO, by de facto, favoured the pastoralists and directly affected the peasants. The peasants interpreted the establishment of SULEDO as a confiscation of their land by the government in the interest of the state and Maasai pastoralists. The reserve authorities restricted the peasants from expanding their farms, did not allow them to collect firewood and building materials, or undertake related activities in the reserve. This planted seeds of hostility between the peasants and pastoralists. This article argues that the government’s conversion of land into forest reserves without considering the heterogeneity of the community in terms of land use, escalated conflicts over land between the peasants and the pastoralists in Kiteto District. Furthermore, the adoption of inappropriate approaches to conflict resolution did not end the conflicts; instead, the conflicts changed their nature and magnitude

Recommended Citation

Marmo, Juma (2023) "SULEDO Community-based Forest Reserve: A Contested Terrain between Peasants and Pastoralists in Kiteto District, 1990–2016," Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences: Vol. 12 : No. 2 , Article 1.
Available at: https://doi.org/10.56279/jhss.v12.i2.0