Journal of Ecosystem & Ecography
Open Access

Research Article

Increased Biomass for Carbon Stock in Participatory Forest Managed Miombo Woodlands of Tanzania

Lusambo LP^1*, Lupala ZJ², Midtgaard F³, Ngaga YM¹, Kessy JF¹, Abdallah JM¹, Kingazi SP¹, Mombo F¹ and Nyamoga GZ¹

¹Department of Forest Economics, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania

²Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, Forestry Training Institute, Arusha, Tanzania

³Department of Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Norway

Corresponding Author:

Lusambo LP
Department of Forest Economics
Faculty of Forestry and Nature Conservation
Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania
Tel: +255 23 260 3511
E-mail: lusambo_2000@yahoo.com

Received September 08, 2015; Accepted April 19, 2016; Published April 28, 2016

Citation: Lusambo LP, Lupala ZJ, Midtgaard F, Ngaga YM, Kessy JF, et al. (2016) Increased Biomass for Carbon Stock in Participatory Forest Managed Miombo Woodlands of Tanzania. J Ecosys Ecograph 6: 182. doi:10.4172/2157-7625.1000182

Copyright: ©2016 Lusambo LP, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Miombo (Zambezian savanna) woodlands are important forest vegetation in Tanzania. The forests contain biomass which is vital for climate change mitigation strategy. However the extent of increasing biomass under participatory forest management for carbon sequestration and storage is not clear. Understanding of this biomass will aid development of effective climate change mitigation strategies and promote sustainable forest management. This study involved 276 systematically determined concentric sample plots laid out in eight miombo woodland forests (four in Mbeya region and four in Iringa region). Of these plots, 145 were laid in participatory managed forests and 131 in reference scenario, called business as usual (BAU) or open access forest selected in proximity. The main finding was that most of PFM forests had significant increase in biomass (P < 0.05) as compared to the reference scenario. Mean biomass increased from 48.05 t/ha ± 0.03 to 37.91 t/ha ± 0.19 in PFM forests. Likewise mean biomass was 37.91 t/ha ± 0.11 to15.79 t/ha ± 0.13 for reference scenario BAU forests. This implied higher average carbon stock in participatory managed forests (21.37 t/ha) against the reference scenario (11.28 t/ha). The results provide evidence that participatory forest management approach in miombo woodlands of Tanzania have potential for climate change mitigation strategies. Despite the challenge in determining reference scenario, these findings present useful benchmark against which further study can be performed.

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