An Historical Survey on Environmental Conservation Initiatives in Iringa Region, Tanzania, 1974–2020

Abstract

With the growing climate change worldwide manifested mainly through deforestation as part of the increased human activities toward environment for earning life, some stakeholders have started addressing this problem locally and nationally. In Iringa region, Tanzania, some efforts have been put in place to overcome deforestation challenges by with having a ministry designed to deal with environmental conservation. Non-governmental organizations are dedicated to environmental conservations. These efforts have attracted less scholarship than the negative cases. This paper uses Iringa region which since colonial period attracted investors on tea, tobacco, plantation forests (by state and private actors) and avocados to explore the varied activities that have been in place between 1974 and 2020 in addressing environmental degradation. These efforts were divided between state and non-governmental actors. This paper uses primary documentary reviews and secondary sources to make its arguments. It was discovered that climate effects have been felt by majority of the people in Iringa and as a result, there have been efforts at the level of individuals, non-governmental organizations and the state to ameliorate climate by and planting trees. Tree planting was positive on the plantation forests as villagers wanted to gain economically.

1. Introduction

Iringa Region is an offshoot of the Iringa Military district of the German colonial regime going back to 1897.¹ After the pacification of the Mkwawa (paramount chief the Hehe ethnic group) resistance, in 1898 when he committed suicide at Mlambalasi area, the main focus of the colonizers (the Germans) was to bring colonial economic projects. The earlier colonial economic developments, however, were connected to environmental degradation done by “natives” of which it was ostensibly a justification to land alienation and, indeed, expanding their economic spheres. By the early 1920s, some crops proved to grow well in Iringa Region, albeit with complaints by the settlers and planters on the shortage of laborers and environmental degradation.² These settlers introduced two major cash crops, namely, tea and tobacco, in the currently Mufindi and Iringa districts, respectively. Tea and tobacco needed a climate that was well taken care of and food for laborers in these projects. As a consequence, by 1940s when tea was in its peak, the Isimani maize scheme was well supported by the state as maize farming locally ensured food security internally and for export. The project was well commended by the British government as after the Second World War (1939–1945) and the Great Depression (1929–1939), food was highly needed in many places, locally and internationally.³ The project, however, proved to be a disaster to the local environment in Isimani; henceforth, this paper surveys some measures that were employed to address the problem.

2. Methodology

The data for this chapter were obtained through archival sources–a methodology that is crucial for historians and some scholars in the social sciences such as Anthropology and Sociology. The methodology is usually corroborated with oral interviews. The archival sources were read at the Tanzania National Archive–Dar es Salaam and at Sao Hill Forest Plantation with its Headquarters in Mufindi district in Iringa Region. Interviews were administered in the three districts of Iringa Region, namely, Mufindi, Kilolo, and Iringa, and of course in Dar es Salaam City (where every region in Tanzania has a representative people because it is the economic hub of the country) between 2016 and 2023. Parts of these data were initially collected as part of the main project of my doctoral thesis.⁴ The data obtained were analyzed qualitatively and corroborated each other to develop the measures taken by individuals, nongovernmental actors, and, indeed, the state in addressing the problems of climate change in the three districts of Iringa Region. The intensity of the measures differed from one district to another depending on the volume of degradation and, indeed, depending on the economic projects established. After completing the main project (PhD thesis), it was noted that the main mission of all these environmental engineering in the form of plantation forests, maize, tea, and tobacco farming might be collected and analyzed systematically and chronologically in a single chapter historically. Henceforth, the current chapter tries to weave together efforts rendered by different stakeholders via written records (archival and non-archival materials) at hand and, indeed, by interviews as a way of corroborating the truth contained in the archival records. While archival sources were the foundation of this chapter, interviews were equally important as they stroke the balance and, indeed, remove the bias of written sources. Historical survey as opposed to other disciplines was employed to navigate environmental conservations as it reflects well the factors behind the efforts taken over time⁵ (Figure 1).

Figure 1.

Iringa region showing tea plantations and tobacco plantations (Source: Geography Department, Cartographic Unit, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 15.2.2024).

3. Economic projects and human activities in Iringa region, 1974–1990

Iringa Region has been the home of many economic activities that have contributed significantly to economic development as well as environmental degradation. These included projects that with history going back to the colonial period especially during the British colonial administration. The earliest project that was established during the Germany period is tea, which from its beginning to the present uses woods in its factories to burn its green leaf to get made tea. The history of tea in Iringa Region as a cash crop goes back to 1928 when the German settlers started their farms in Mufindi highland in the southern part of the district. However, tea was first introduced to the Southern Highlands Province in 1904 when a small parcel of seed obtained from Ceylon (Sri Lanka) was planted at Kyimbila Mission in the current Rungwe District in Mbeya Region. From this introduction, seedlings were obtained in 1913 and planted in the field at Kyimbila. During the years 1924–1926, seed from Kyimbila trees was planted at Musekera Estate within the district. Further importation of seed from Assam (India) occurred between 1926 and 1928 when development on a larger scale commenced, but planters turned to tea planting as an alternative to coffee planting much later. To assist the planters, the government distributed seedlings without charge in Rungwe and Mufindi districts during the years 1930–1934.⁶

Tea growing on a commercial basis started in 1928 when the provincial commissioner of Iringa wrote to the chief secretary of the Tanganyika territory government on tea growing in Iringa province that it was proving as a cash crop in the region. The provincial commissioner asked the colonial government to direct the director of agriculture to plan for a scheme of tea growing industry by means of cooperative experiment between the Department of Agriculture and the selected settlers who were already on the ground.⁷ The provincial commissioner tried to convince the chief secretary by putting it in this way:

This scheme appeals to me especially because tea growing industry which according to the information available appears to be likely to pay very well is certain to attract good class of settler and capital from a wealthy industry to the high rainfall area of the [Iringa] province. The climate is cool and humid and therefore good for tea production. There are very few natives who reside in it, and those who do, have no objection whatever to disposing of their rights to incoming settlers. The agricultural survey has just been completed in Lupembe, Mufindi and Dabaga.⁸

Later, tea seed to Mufindi to increase production was transferred from India via Mombasa to Tanga–Korogwe–Kondoa Irangi and then to Iringa by Bell who had started an experiment earlier at Marikitanda in Amani since the German era. It was Bell who was commissioned by the government to study and report on the prospects of tea planting on the southwestern highlands of Tanganyika. His field investigations and the subsequent report concentrated on Dabaga, Mufindi, and Lupembe of the present-day Kilolo, Mufindi, and Njombe districts, respectively. The report concluded that the whole area was good for tea production, but the only anticipated drawback was cold climate. Bell made a detailed study by making a comparative study basing on the climatic condition of the Kenyan plantation of Nderi Estate in Limuru and the Ambangulu Estate in the western Usambara of Tanganyika.⁹

Bell’s report further suggested that the government had to create a conducive environment for laborers since tea planting required very many laborers. Bell put it this way in his report:

We may dismiss the question of suitability of climate right away, as the African natives have already proved to satisfaction that they compare favorably with the Tamil labourers of South India who is the race chiefly employed on the plantations… provided that the settlers make up their minds to treat labourers really well. That is to say good pay, full rations, or cash equivalent, really good housing, proper medical attention and all possible help and encouragement to parents and even care of native children.¹⁰

Another stimulus to the young tea industry in Mufindi was provided by a report by Mann in 1932. Mann was an eminent authority on tea matters who had been commissioned by the government to make a further study on the possibility of expanding tea production in Iringa District and some parts of Njombe District. On the whole, he was in agreement with the Bell’s report except that he did not think Dabaga was suitable for growing tea. He also recommended that due to transportation difficulties and given Lupembes’ location (almost 60 km east of Njombe town center) to him, the area was not very suitable for tea. That reason worked in the planters’ interest, which favored Mufindi area than Dabaga and Lupembe.¹¹ It was the report of Mann that led to tea production on a commercial scale in Mufindi. The only barrier was the financial means of the planters, which limited the extension of entering the territory into the World Tea Registration Scheme in 1934. As a result of an Ordinance being passed, tea could only be planted under license. It was large firms in Germany that became interested in tea production in Mufindi and thus financed the planters.¹²

This long story of tea establishment in Mufindi, a district of Iringa region, signifies that the region’s environment was part of colonial economy and hence protecting it was equally important. Around these tea plantations, it was advised by environmental experts to plant windbreaker trees and Eucalyptus for tea-curing process. Above all, the tea companies were educated on maintaining pockets of natural vegetation as part of ameliorating the climate.¹³

Tea factories were still using woods for drying tea leaves. However, by 1970s, due to shortage of the natural forests around Mufindi, there was a campaign for almost all tea companies to planting eucalyptus for drying tea leaves in their factories. By planting eucalyptus for being used in drying tea in their factories, they assured that the speed of cutting natural forests was reduced.¹⁴

4. Iringa region and environmental conservation efforts, 1990–2010

The conservation of many parts of Iringa started in the 1990s after the structural adjustment program brought in by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which encouraged sustainable investment in the environment. In Iringa Region, it was at this time that major economic projects were advised to abide with environmental guidelines. In this regard, the companies/big companies that were connected with environmental degradation such as those of tobacco farming in Iringa district and tea farms were encouraged to plant their own trees for curing tobacco and tea. On other occasions, they were advised to use electricity of the national grid, TANESCO (Tanzania Electricity Supply Company).¹⁵

On the other hand, the non-governmental organizations in Iringa region assisted the government on educating and sensitizing the citizens on sustainable agricultural production and natural resource management. This role was well-done by a Norwegian-funded non organization, namely, in Swahili as Hifadhi Mazingira (HIMA), which can be loosely translated as “Conserve your environment”. This non-organization started officially in Iringa Region in 1990 before spreading to other districts of the then Iringa region, which included the currently Njombe region on which Makete, Wanging’ombe, Njombe, and Ludewa were included.¹⁶ The project ended in 2002. The project, inter alia, educated the rural people on animal husbandry, good crop cultivation, soil and water conservation, forestry practice, and production. Masses of the villagers in the rural areas were taught the proper management of land and increase productivity per acre.¹⁷ Above all, to ensure that these projects last longer, the HIMA project brought in women empowerment and gender equity in these districts.

There was another nongovernmental organization that worked closely with the people in the Isimani area to do conservation of environment because of the threat of deforestation and desertification done by expanding maize farming in the late 1980s. CONCERN, was an international organization dealing with poverty eradication. Poverty eradication according to this organization was by conserving soil that was of low productivity. It was further argued that when the farmers protected their farms from land degradation, crop harvest would increase; henceforth. Their gross income was expected to increase more. These interventions are very much remembered by the local population because they introduced new tree species that were user-friendly with the soil of Isimani division.¹⁸

On the peasantry agriculture, the government educated villagers to use manure so as to increase land productivity and also abide with the agroforestry policy that encouraged them to divide their farms into different parts of their agricultural needs. The government circulated bylaws to persuade the villagers to abide by agroforestry practices whereby every household would have to divide its land into sections for food crops, forestry, and those with livestock they were to set a piece of land a grazing. Without such stern measures, the region was likely to go into a semidesert status.¹⁹ The idea of using agroforestry was cemented by an agroforestry professor from Sokoine University of Agriculture. Luther Lulandala was quoted saying “agroforestry is the solution for all problems related to fire woods and hunger, as everyone would produce the needy items at his/her farm.”²⁰ This has been the practice for many peasants in Iringa Region nowadays. They are no longer waiting to fetch firewood for cooking in the natural forests but rather harvesting from their own woodlots within their customary land. They had planted trees from the emphasis brought by the state and by seeing the early woodlot planters’ benefits.²¹

In Isimani area, where maize farming started seriously after the Second World War,²² the farming process led to clearance of many of its natural vegetation. Peasants emulated what they were told by the nongovernmental organizations and by planting trees. Because Isimani area is a semi desert peasant were educated on planting trees which that could grow well in that area. Yet there were reports of some village leaders who were prohibiting these free environmentalists in planting trees in their traditionally owned lands, despite the exhaustion.²³ There was another group of individuals as well as the middle-class people who were from Iringa Region but staying in Dar es Salaam who were pro-green environment who organized a fund raising via social medias (WhatsApp and Facebook) of which many people were enthusiastic to contribute and some were even ready to take part in planting trees to reclaim the lost green vegetation. The main challenge in this direction especially in the Kilolo district was that the planting was pro-plantation forests than natural forests. Therefore, while the campaign to planting trees was vibrant in many people from Iringa, the main challenge was that of planting trees that were pro-moneymaking than returning its natural vegetation.

5. Environmental efforts towards addressing the degradation, 2010–2020

Iringa Region became one of the major regions for exporting timber by 2010s. This signified that the desire for planting trees increased tremendously. The leading region in the Southern Highlands was Njombe, making Iringa the second with Mufindi and Kilolo taking the lead [8]. With the growing high demands of construction materials internally and externally, the people of Iringa planted many trees to respond to these demands that are, in a way, part of addressing the environmental degradation.²⁴

The income of the people of Iringa Region, specifically in many villages of Mufindi and Kilolo districts, was directly or indirectly connected to forest products and/or non-timber forest products. For example, the then district commissioner said to the author that “everyone in Mufindi district was a forester knowing or unknowingly” (author’s emphasis).²⁵ The situation of planting trees in Iringa region was similar to what happened in Asia at Kumaon highlands in the Western India Himalayas whereby rural areas’ people at the beginning of mass campaigns on planting were slow to adhere to afforestation between 1911 and 1916. After the long process of campaigning on planting trees via the local governments, the villagers became stakeholders of environmental conservations as the case for Mufindi. Before these initiatives, the villagers used fire as a weapon to threaten government measures in addressing degradation processes ([12], pp. 1–26). To emulate this example from Asia, it was noted that in the Iringa district where there were big maize plantations in the Isimani division and tobacco plantations by Greeks way back to 1940s to early 1970s, people had at the beginning were not enthusiastic to plant trees but after seeing the benefits they started planting trees which could grow in their environments. Individual farmers had decided to use terracing in their day-to-day maize and tomato farming. Terracing was once one of the main cause of villagers’ resistances to the British colonial rule policy on environmental conservation in the Uluguru Mountains, in Morogoro region.²⁶ The people of Isimani have learnt this through nongovernmental organization that went to give public education on environmental degradation and the measures to mitigate.²⁷ Farmers in these areas of Iringa district were alarmed by the decline of food crops harvests; hence, they decided to use agroforestry measures in their farming.

The Mufindi district administration was well concerned with the environmental conservation in the rural areas to the extent of formulating a by law on use of terracing in the farms in the slops and practicing mixed farming in the whole district. The administration argued that the farmers were to be educated on avoiding monoculture agriculture where peasants produced a single crop for many years without changing. Added to that was the proper grazing methods as it was noted that the peasants who owned cattle used vast of hectares for grazing a process, which not only increased environmental degradation but also hardened the lands.²⁸ The opinion of the Mufindi district was shared by an agroforestry expert and a researcher at the Sokoine University of Agriculture. The expert was quoted as saying “agroforestry is the panacea for all problems related to fire woods and hunger, as everyone will produce the two items at his/her farm”.²⁹

Generally, at this phase, environmental conservations were given higher priority in Iringa region as some of the people in the rural areas were benefitting from activities related with forestry-related activities. Some villagers in Kilolo and Mufindi districts were acting as middlemen for land buyers from within their villages and from towns. The middle men benefited as there were certain amount of money they accrued as per their business.³⁰ Moreover, it was noted that many villagers who had planted their trees earlier of at least 6 years were selling their logs to the people who wanted to buy them, and it was noted that the Chinese were becoming good customers of such logs.

Though the current literature does not show that Tanzania is one of the countries that host a considerable number of Chinese engaged in forest-related business, the reality on the ground is that Mufindi district host a big number of these Chinese in Chinese. These Chinese were becoming a factor for land use change as many people were planting trees to be sold to the Chinese timber and plywood’s factories. In Mufindi district, the Chinese had their presence through investing in more than 20 timber-related factories at Mafinga town (the headquarters of Mufindi district) and its outskirts.³¹ The Chinese had invested in making plywood for the internal and external market. From Mafinga town Chinese factories, it seemed that the aims for the establishment were for exports to China (their home country). This was due to the fact that China was becoming the major player in the global forest products market, both as a producer and consumer. The Chinese investment in natural resources especially in forests in Africa is not new, however, as they have been exploiting natural forests in Mozambique, Sierra Leone, and DRC ([15], pp. 155–162, [16], p. 309). The current case of Tanzania is new as the Chinese are investing into state- and privately-owned plantations. These investments started in early 2010s; however, plywood factories started effectively by 2015 were galvanized by the ever-increasing demands of construction materials in China, which had imposed a ban on logging their own forests as part of broader efforts to protect its forests ([17], p. 151). In Mufindi district, they started by buying state-owned logs in the Sao Hill Forest before turning to the privately owned forests mainly eucalyptus and pines species. By buying the native logs, indirectly, it meant more planting of trees in the district. Interestingly, the Chinese enterprises at Mafinga town were loved by private woodlot developers as they found them a fine solution for their trees that were once rejected by timber businesspeople of which they (timber traders) claimed that their logs were not straight enough for timber. The Chinese were acknowledged to be the opposite buyers as they bought “every size of tree, straight and crooked.” Because of this nature of the market of logs, villagers from Mufindi and Kilolo districts were lured directly and indirectly to increase the acreage of plantation forests. By increasing the acreage of trees to meet the Chinese market, they increased the number of lands that were under plantation forests. The bottom line of this argument is that the Chinese factories based in Mafinga town have assured the foresters (state and private) of the readily available market; hence, almost everyone would like to plant trees to meet the demands of the Chinese factories. In a way of responding to this market, indirectly, there was also signs of land grabbing among people themselves and sometimes with the state.³²

When the villagers were asked about excessive planting of exotic trees—especially pines—in their food crop farms, they responded that their land was exhausted and the staple food crops they produced, maize and beans, had a lower market value than timber.³³ They cited the Chinese as key factor as they could easily get money as they sold trees of even 5 years for millions of monies. One elderly villager was heard as saying, “I can buy food for the whole year by selling only five big trees from my tree farm.”³⁴ This narrative signifies that trees were more expensive than food crops. Indirectly, tree planting was changing not only the traditions of farming but also the identity of the local people who were used to the cultivation of maize and beans as staple food.

At Mafinga town among the Tanzanian timber traders, the Chinese were seen as a threat to their business as they (Chinese) bought logs from the woodlot owners the trees for higher prices than the Tanzanian timber business people.³⁵ The businesspeople claimed that the Chinese were likely to bring shortage of timber for the construction industry in Tanzania in the coming years as their prices attracted many farmers to sell their trees at almost every age, and indeed, at the same time, the Chinese stimulated more tree planting in the rural areas of Mufindi and Kilolo districts of Iringa Region. While the timber business had all these allegations towards the Chinese traders, the farmers were very happy with the presence of Tanzanian the Chinese as they claimed that they benefitted more than the “exploitative” prices of Tanzanian timber traders of Mafinga town. In essence, the price of logs doubled when the Chinese opened their factories. Above all, the Chinese were congratulated for opening the best hardware shops at Mafinga town of which the surrounding community acknowledged that it had genuine simple machines for their timber industry. All these deeds by the Chinese added to more pressure on land for more afforestation and indirectly increased the size of afforested area in the region, and henceforth, these efforts are well acknowledged as new wave of planting trees. This is what scholars such as Jacovelli referred to as the undefined “new wave of investors in the forestry sector.”

The knowledge of the villagers on planting trees in their woodlots, however, proved to be very low. Therefore, a large number of the villagers who planted trees in their farms were more or less forced to plant to respond for the market forces availed. Above all, they had no capital to buy land or new technologies for expanding their woodlots. Through planting those trees, they ameliorated the climate of Iringa Region. The farmers had woodlots with trees ranging from 5 to 20 acres.³⁶ These villagers and, indeed, some forestry staff members in Mufindi and Kilolo districts were more than willing to reveal the size of their tree farms. Many were proud to reveal the size of their farms possessions as it was a manifestation of high social status in their communities. Some village leaders were having their tree farms as well. At Nundwe village, one village executive officer was quoted saying that “I have already bought my piece of land in the village through village elders and I planted five acres of pine [Pines Patula] trees”.³⁷ Their understanding was that it was a shame for any inhabitant in Iringa Region to own no tree farms.³⁸ Therefore, owning trees farms in Iringa was slowly becoming a cultural identity of the region and beyond. Some youths at Bomani area, a timber-trading center in Mafinga, went further by suggesting the author to buy their land for planting trees as well. It was noted that beyond being agents in the timber-trading center, they were also agents of land selling and transfers in the rural areas. Therefore, the salient feature of the love of education on planting trees in these three districts of Iringa Region was that the farmers engaged with the planting of trees during the rainy seasons especially in Mufindi and Kilolo districts. In the semiarid areas of Iringa district, the villagers engaged with tomato farming. It was in the tomato farming that the use of terracing was emphasized by nongovernmental organizations and the state. One tomato grower in Isimani division was heard as saying, “my one-acre farm is producing more tomatoes after abiding with agroforestry and terracing measures.”³⁹

These villagers who planted trees for timber and for protecting erosion prepared their own seedlings. Some of them especially those from Mufindi were subsidized with seedlings they got from Sao Hill Forest and Panda Miti Kibiasahara organization.⁴⁰ With regard to proper silviculture practices, the knowledge of tree farmers was of low quality.⁴¹ The village farmers had poor spacing of trees as they admitted that they were not educated about tree planting. The ministerial officer responsible for plantation forests at one time told the author that the poor knowledge of the farmers was to be solved by the district forest officers. With regard to this case, the district forest officer in Iringa district testified by saying, “we are underfunded to the extent that we cannot visit the private forest developers in their villages.”⁴² The district authorities’ foresters in Tanzania were administered by the Ministry of Regional Administration and Local Government, which was and still is the biggest ministry in Tanzania; henceforth, the foresters had less priorities. Yet despite of all these problems, the private forest developers could make the three districts green by planting trees in their respective villages. There were few advanced ones with regard to knowledge and capital on forest development. These could buy land and plant trees. On the ground, few were people around the districts, while others were from far away such as Dar es Salaam, the business hub of the country. These private farmers were concentrated at some villages such as Mapanda in Mufindi district. Mapanda village was cited as the best village for planting trees in Mufindi district, albeit with complaints of land grabbing with well-to-do people allegedly with politicians being involved in the saga.⁴³

The villagers harvested these trees whenever they thought they could get any wood of any girth. One timber-trading woman at Mafinga town was quoted as saying, “the villagers are forced to rape these young trees because they are pressed with financial problems like school fees for their children.” She used the term “rape” to imply the young trees were prematurely harvested by the villagers.⁴⁴ The Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism spokesperson on plantation forestry was of the opinion that the woodlot developers from the adjacent villages benefitted from knowledge disseminated by the Sao Hill plantation by coincidence. It was by coincidence as the aim of educating the villagers by Sao Hill Forest management was not to make them full-fledged foresters but at least to make them have low skills of developing their own trees so that they can depend on themselves rather than relying on the state forest—Sao Hill. He said that before 2000, there was a tendency among the villagers to depend on the Sao Hill plantation for everything.⁴⁵ He revealed that the ministry had once organized a workshop on harvesting technology for the surrounding community. Mathias Lema sympathized with the village woodlot developers by saying the right foresters who were meant to assist the village woodlot developers were the district foresters, but they were arguably underfunded. One district forest officer was quoted as saying, “we are underfunded to the extent that we have failed to visit the woodlot developers in their respective farms.”⁴⁶ By being administered by this ministry, their importance was very limited as the ministry had many sub dockets to deal with. Above all, the politicians (councilors and members of parliament), who served for a five-year tenure, were, sometimes, not proactive in long-term projects such as forests planting.⁴⁷ Because of such problems in the local administration in Tanzania, many foresters preferred to work under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, where, according to them, they could utilize their potential to the maximum. They were underutilized, and indeed, they were a disappointed group.⁴⁸

While planting trees was becoming a panacea for many individual as they benefited by getting money through increased crops and directly selling of timber at state level, the main investors in the region were also well monitored through laws and bylaws to ensure that they abide with environmental conservation measures. The tobacco farmers in Iringa district, for example, who were curing their tobacco from the natural forests were advised to stop and use other alternatives that were not detrimental to the environment.⁴⁹ They were advised to use woods from Sao Hill plantation forest. Sao Hill plantation forest is the biggest owned solely by the state and was one of the projects that benefited from foreign aid—especially from the World Bank, which provided loans for two tenures (1976 and 1982). The provision of these loans by the World Bank between 1976 and 1992,⁵⁰ a period of economic problems in Tanzania, ensured the survival of this plantation forest, which is an asset in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism.⁵¹ As private planters increased, other woods for curing were obtained from Kilolo district. The woodlot developers enjoyed another circulation of money by selling their logs to the tobacco farms. Above all, the tobacco farmers used electricity to cure their tobacco.⁵² All these measures were part of embracing environmental conservation in Iringa Region.

6. Conclusion

This chapter has used Iringa Region in Tanzania because of its big number of agricultural economic projects to gauge the level of awareness of the state, nongovernmental organizations, and individuals on environmental conservation. The article used archival sources and oral interviews that were corroborated by secondary sources. Basically, the paper has argued that Iringa Region had a precedent of colonial economies that were taken over by the independent government way back in 1962. These agricultural colonial projects were in form of settler economy or plantation. Some of these colonial projects such as that of Sao Hill Forest were brought in Iringa to ameliorate the environment, which were deemed brought by the type of agriculture of the natives. This chapter therefore goes against this colonial thinking by arguing that there are various efforts in Iringa conducted by the state, nongovernmental organizations, and individuals in the process of environmental conservation. The initiatives are many, but not limited to, conducting awareness by the state and by nongovernment organization and individuals. The peasants have heeded to these orders brought in by the state; hence, they have become participants in environmental conservation in the region, albeit with economic motives as the readily market for timber-related products has lured them. In essence, this chapter argues that though there is huge scholarship on environmental degradation in Africa, it is equally important to acknowledge the various efforts taken by individuals, nongovernmental organizations, and, indeed, the state in ameliorating the climate, by using the case of Iringa Region in Tanzania.