This PhD research was conducted in West Usambara (northeastern Tanzania) in Lushoto District, Tanga Region. The area is characterized by high population density; mountainous nature, and tropical rain forests which are rich in biodiversity. These features have largely influenced the availability of arable land, especially for agricultural activities. The research aimed at analyzing the inter-linkages between land, rural livelihoods, and forest management. It thus sought to provide answers to the following specific questions: (i) How does land scarcity impact on rural livelihoods and wealth accumulation in West Usambara? (ii)What are the community responses towards land scarcity in West Usambara? (iii) What is the perception of local communities towards forest management and its outcomes in relation to forest conditions? And; (iv) What are the current forests conditions in West Usambara and what kind of pressures are they experiencing?The researcher used a Sustainable Livelihoods Framework (SLF) to guide the investigation. Both socio-economic and vegetation survey methods were employed to capture data for comprehending different themes in relation to land, rural livelihood and forest management. The research came up with the following findings among others: the community of West Usambara is far from achieving sustainable livelihood. This is because the area has limited sustainable livelihoods opportunities due to scarcities in livelihood resources such as arable land. Hence, it experiences poor performance of livelihood strategies which contribute to low wealth accumulation, low socio-economic status, food insecurity, low income, high out-migration and land conflicts especially on field borders. The area has slim opportunities to improve people´s wellbeing. Thus different adaptation mechanisms embarked on earlier, have done little to improve the situation.With respect to forests, the current forest management contributes to the decline in the consumption patterns of forest products and the number of people who engage in forest based livelihoods activities (FBLA). To pursue FBLA, people engage in illegal activities inside forest reserves which cause wasteful forest utilization. Consequently, forest conditions are deteriorating as manifested in the form of large extent of illegal activities inside the reserve forests, illegal mining inside forest reserves, decline of forest canopy cover, alteration in the structure and composition of some tree species, and low basal areas. These happen despite the fact that more people have positive attitudes towards forest conservation especially entailing environmental benefits associated with forests conservation.Therefore, the research provides several recommendations for policy consideration: villages‟ governments should mobilize villagers in need of arable land and forward their application of land to the government. Together with earmarking them arable land, the support in forms of agricultural credits and promotion of off-farm activities is also imperative. These initiatives apart from increasing household‟s land size and solving unemployment problem it would also promote food security. Moreover, the government should also promote land administration through provision of legal education to the members of the village land councils and ward tribunals which will help to minimize land conflicts.With respect to forests management, the government should sign Joint Forest Management Agreements with the villagers and give clarification on how villagers participating in forest conservation would benefit. Also, the government should start to provide the financial incentives to the forest guards and village committees. In addition, scaling-up the ongoing reducing emission from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) initiatives in Tanzania to West Usambara is required. Such initiatives would motivate villagers to engage in conservation as it ensures some economic incentives.
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