Abstract:
While forests are a primary source of energy for the majority of Tanzanian households, the forest cover is rapidly
declining. The Tanzanian government has introduced a tree-planting campaign strategy, aimed at reducing
pressure on natural forests. However, the campaign appears not to have contributed significantly to the forest
recovery rate. Thus, this study aims at examining household perceptions of tree-planting for wood energy pro duction for both in-house uses and for sale, and identify the factors influencing household perceptions of tree planting. We employed the multinomial logit model to analyse the factors influencing household perceptions
of tree-planting for energy. Our findings indicate that respondents considered the right/freedom to harvest trees
from farms and transport them to markets as the most important factor (86%), followed by lack of awareness of
tree-planting programmes (72%), and the existence of fuelwood for free from natural forests (59%). The size of
the farm, education, distance to forest reserves, and age of the household head are found to have significant
impact on the household perceptions of tree-planting for energy. Our results further show that woodfuel har vesting and enforcement systems do not exist in nearby forests. This situation is exacerbated by the absence of a
specific policy formulated to match with the daily demand of forest produce for energy and income of households
near forest reserves. Thus, we suggest policy makers to target policies and actions promoting tree-planting for
energy.
