Forest Governance Hearing

Ms. Pily Kondo Chamguhi – Counsellor for Masaki Ward, Kisarawe District

“After hearing the information from the experts at the Mama Misitu campaign launch I stood up and said in aloud voice that since becoming a counselor this was the very first time that I have been involved in any forestry activities. I used to believe that the responsibility to manage the forest was the governments through its division of forestry but now after receiving information from the campaign I realize that this responsibility is mine as well as everyone else without regard to who has the legal mandate. I therefore beseech the TFS and the District Forestry staff to collaborate with communities to protect these forest resources, after all the Mama Misitu campaign has made it clear that managing the forest is everybody’s responsibility. In the beginning I came to listen only, just as I would listen at any other normal meeting. But I discovered something, which was very different. First of all, we were given brochures and detailed information about participatory forest management. This inspired me because I noticed that different from other meetings everyone at the meeting was involved in receiving the forest education. In truth everybody received the message about forest management, anyone who goes against what was taught should not be forgiven. In the past only a few people would get the forest education but they would not provide feedback to the community. But now we’ve all attended the forest seminar, so who needs to provide feedback when in fact everyone was in attendance? I declare truthfully that since the campaign started there has been a big change since the community is now fully involved in protecting their forests. Therefore I support the Mama Misitu campaign by one hundred percent and I am ready to cooperate with stakeholders anytime in any activity. I also request that this education be provided to all counselors in their respective areas since they are very good representatives and mobilizers of the people”.

5. Mr. Mwinyi Saidi Ally – Villager from Kisangani Village, Masaki Ward, Kisarawe District, Coast Region.

“This Mama Misitu campaign has a noble aim of saving forests by bringing different stakeholders together and reminding them of their responsibilities and how to claim their rights to utilize those forests. However, I have discovered that the big problem are those few unscrupulous leaders who care more about their own interests than the interests of the majority of us who are poor. Many times the truth is that the poorest people in the village don’t know where to take their complaints and those are able to help them deal with their problems are not advising them to do so. Allow me to recount an episode that I witnessed together with my colleagues who participate in forest patrols. I once saw a transporter of forest products who had been given a permit, which was valid for one week. However, in spite having the one week permit, there is no forest officer monitoring whether the permit has expired or not. We monitored his movements and determined that he had already transported a load of forest produce, however, he returned to the forest offices and applied for an extension to his permit period arguing that he had not yet been able to transport any forest produce on the permit period he had originally been provided. The forest officers then granted him another week on the same permit, without checking to see whether he had problems with his lorry as he had claimed. The timber trader was therefore able to transport more than one load on the same permit. On another occasion we carried out a patrol and captured a vehicle and we reported the license number to the forest authorities. Despite having all the necessary evidence the forest authorities informed us that the vehicle had done nothing wrong and it was released in rather mysterious circumstances, to date we have not been provided with a satisfactory explanation of the incident. At that point I also began to understand that there is something called a “trail blazer”. In these cases a motorcycle goes on ahead of the vehicle carrying illegal timber in order to scout for forest officers manning the checkpoints to make sure that they are those who are agreeable to being bribed. When a strict forest officer is on duty at checkpoints then the message is sent to the vehicle to wait until the shift Changes. In fact, when we report illegal practices to the forest authorities they sometimes follow up without involving us. We discovered that our reports were providing opportunities to forest officers to solicit bribes, which in turn was leading to bad relations between ourselves and the illegal timber traders who were blaming us for reporting them. The illegal timber traders would then scorn us claiming that they were above the law and no matter how we reported them they would remain free to continue with their illicit activities. There was another day when my colleagues and I were patrolling when we encountered a people unpacking a charcoal kiln. While we were interrogating them two traffic police appeared, one female and one male. The female police had a walkie-talkie and the male police officer had a rifle. They then started to interrogate us with great anger and hostility as to what we were doing in the forest. We tried to explain to them that we were the forest patrol and we also showed them our identification cards but they accused us of being forest poachers and they told us we had no business in the forest. They accused us of forging our identification and told us to leave otherwise they would use their weapons against us. We had no choice but to leave the area but later we came across the charcoal burners who informed us that they had been forced to pay the traffic police officers three hundred thousand shillings in order to be released. We then went to report the matter to the District Police Chief and to the Head of the Kisarawe Police Station, identifying the two police officers involved. The police chiefs promised to follow up the matter and when we followed up later we found that the traffic police had both been transferred out of the area. We followed up further and were informed that they had been given a severe reprimand and we were told that if we saw them again in the area we should report them immediately. Since we were dealing with state organs we decided to accept what we were told but we remained nervous because those officers could harm us at any time, if they so wished. We still see them both in Kisarawe from time to time”.

4.