Are Poverty and Illiteracy to Blame for Forests Degradation? A Case Study of Mbeya Range Forest Reserve. Mbeya-Tanzania

In this study, a total of 350 households contained 700 individuals in Iganzo village were surveyed to study their literate and poverty levels and their impacts to conservation of the Mbeya Range Forest Reserve. The study included 350 women and 350 men. The majority of respondents were between the ages of 31-40 years old (53%), while the rest were between 41-50 years old (25%) and 21-30 years old (22%). The total income per day per household was calculated and averaged to 4,570 Tanzanian shillings that is equal to about 3 U.S. dollars. The average number of members per household was seven. It was reported that, there is a tremendous decrease in biodiversity composition of the reserve mainly due to poverty (80%) and ignorance (76%) of the people on the importance of the reserve. Other causes for this decrease were reported to be grazing of livestock in the reserve (23%), poor farming systems (68%), which resulted in soil erosion, encroachment (64%) through expansion of farms towards the reserve boundary and charcoal burning (34%). Respondents from Mbeya Urban Water Supply Authority and District Forest Office mentioned lack of funds (49%) and lack of experts (56%) as challenges that face the conservation of the reserve. It was revealed that 25% of respondents had never gone to school, 53% had primary level of education as their highest level of education, 20% had secondary education and 2% had first degree. The null hypothesis that poverty and illiteracy have a positive correlation to forest degradation was accepted based on these findings at a probability of p>0.85. Thus, it was concluded that poverty and illiteracy among Iganzo village residents are the main causes for the degradation of biodiversity in Mbeya Range Forest Reserve.