Understanding habitat quality and its dynamics is imperative for maintaining healthy wildlife populations and ecosystems. We mapped and evaluated changes in habitat quality (1975–2015) in the Greater Serengeti Ecosystem of northern Tanzania using the Integrated Valuation of Environmental Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model. This is the first habitat quality assessment of its kind for this ecosystem. We characterized changes in habitat quality in the ecosystem and in a 30 kilometer buffer area. Four habitat quality classes (poor, low, medium and high) were identified and their coverage quantified. Overall (1975–2015), habitat quality declined over time but at rates that were higher for habitats with lower protection level or lower initial quality. As a result, habitat quality deteriorated the most in the unprotected and human-dominated buffer area surrounding the ecosystem, at intermediate rates in the less heavily protected Wildlife Management Areas, Game Controlled Areas, Game Reserves and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and the least in the most heavily protected Serengeti National Park. The deterioration in habitat quality over time was attributed primarily to anthropogenic activities and major land use policy changes. Effective implementation of land use plans, robust and far-sighted institutional arrangements, adaptive legal and policy instruments are essential to sustaining high habitat quality in contexts of rapid human population growth.

Information on land use and cover changes (LUCC) is important for planning of conservation and development and thus ensure forest sustainability. The current paper assesses LUCC for the whole of the mainland Tanzania. The analyses were done using land use and cover maps covering the whole of mainland Tanzania for 1995 and 2010. For 1995, forest, bushland, grassland, cultivation and other land use and cover (built up areas, bare land, etc.) covered 43.5%, 19.8%, 23.5%, 11.2%, and 2.0% of the study area, respectively. For 2010, the same land use and cover classes covered 38.0%, 14.5%, 6.9%, 36.5%, and 4.1% of the study area, respectively. The annual rate of deforestation was 320,067 ha, which is equivalent to 0.9%. Bushland and grassland were lost at 313,745 and 969,982 ha/year, respectively. Most forest was converted to cultivation and least to other land use and cover. In conclusion, the net changes were deforestation and loss of bushland and grassland primarily due to expansion of cultivation. Further research on how to reduce or halt expansion of cultivation may shed light on improving sustainability of forest, bushland, and grassland in mainland Tanzania.

Deforestation is a problem that adversely affects the socioeconomic and ecological dimensions of human life locally, nationally and globally. This paper reports on the analysis of the spatial relationships between deforestation (study period: 1995–2010) and protected areas, accessibility, human population density, regional gross domestic product (GDP) and geographic and climatic factors using land use/land cover maps covering the whole of mainland Tanzania. Multiple linear regression analysis was used for statistical analysis of the relationship between deforestation and the explanatory variables. Deforestation was estimated at the rate of 320,067 ha/yr. High deforestation was associated with unprotected areas, low distance to railway, road and town, high population density and high regional GDP. These results have at least the following four implications: (1) Protected areas are better in controlling deforestation than if there were none. (2) Town dwellers depend on forests for wood and livelihood. (3) Roads and railways are not used only to access off farm activities but also to access forests for exploitation and conversion to other land covers than forest. (4) High population density and high GDP did not result in switching from dependence on forests for wood and livelihoods. It is recommended that appropriate strategies should address these implications so that the patterns of dependence on forests for wood and livelihoods are redressed.

The effect of timber cutting and related management on species composition and diversity in tropical forests has been reported in earlier studies, but the potentially different effects on understory and canopy tree species remains unclear. Our study aim was to assess the variation in species composition and diversity of understory and canopy species along a timber removal (“logging”) gradient. We assessed the species composition, alpha and beta diversity, and compared species composition of canopy trees in plots with different management histories in Budongo. Our findings revealed logging contributed 18.1% to the beta diversity of species composition as measured by distance-based redundancy analysis (dbRDA) and species composition decreased with logging intensity (R² = −0.415). Unlogged forest had higher species diversity for both understory and canopy tree species compared with logged forests. Species composition of logged/unlogged forests were significantly different from those of the forest succession types. Our study adds new information on the effect of logging on the species composition of understory and canopy trees in lowland tropical forests. We found logged forests do not recover species composition within seven decades, diversity within, and what previously distinct successional types were, have become, and remain, mixed in nature.

Forest degradation is a process in which the biological diversity of a forest area is permanently reduced due to one or more factors. Forest degradation continues at an alarming rate, contributing significantly to the loss of biodiversity around the world. This chapter presents the findings of a systematic literature review of forest degradation in Tanzania. The PRISMA method was employed in the study’s search, document selection, and data analysis. There were more studies more recently due to the increasing interest in forest degradation as an important aspect of forest management. Most terms are mentioned less frequently in the document title than in the document as a whole, indicating research gaps for the research topics represented by the research terms. Some terms are covered less than expected, given their significance in forest degradation. The estimated annual volume removals exceed the estimated mean annual increment, indicating forest management in Tanzania is not sustainable. The most mentioned region was Dar es Salaam, while the list mentioned was Rukwa. It is expected that forest stakeholders will find the analysis presented in this study useful. Furthermore, the stakeholders will find interest in addressing temporal, spatial, and thematic research gaps highlighted in this chapter.

Eviction of people for establishment of protected areas is often accompanied with negative consequences to the livelihoods of the evicted. This study assessed the eviction process and its effects on the socio-ecological resilience of the evicted, examined coping strategies for the evicted and analysed socio-economic factors that affected socio-ecological resilience of people evicted in 2008 for establishment of the Uluguru Nature Reserve in Morogoro, Tanzania. The results show that most of the evicted did not receive eviction notice prior to eviction nor proper training on how to cope with the eviction. There was also low involvement of the evicted in planning the eviction. Most of the evicted had low ability to reorganise themselves after the eviction. Following the eviction, the most frequently adopted coping strategy was the provision of casual labour. This resulted in reduced income and certainty of livelihood. Male respondents were better informed and better able to reorganise than female respondents. It is recommended that eviction planning should be participatory and include provision of appropriate prior information to the to-be evicted in a gender-considerate manner in order to enhance their socio-ecological resilience in the face of eviction.