Social acceptability of alternative forest regimes in Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, using stakeholder attitudes as metrics of uncertainty

The study evaluates social acceptability of three alternative forest management regimes: state-controlled management; community-based management; and collaborative management involving multiple stakeholders. Villagers, foresters, park employees, entrepreneurs and environmentalists were surveyed. A fuzzy-logic based possibility schema for evaluation of forest stakeholder attitudes is developed, and empirically used to investigate stakeholder attitudes towards these alternative forest regimes in Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. Non-parametric statistical analysis is used to draw statistical inferences. The three regimes are ranked based on efficiency, justice, and (un)certainty criteria. The results indicate that the conventional bureaucratic forest regime is falling out of favor in the interests of multi-stakeholders forest management. Due to strategic significance of Mount Kilimanjaro forest resources, and diverse interests of multi-stakeholders (local to global), complete devolution of power to local communities did not gunner an overall favorable social acceptability, either, among the surveyed stakeholders. The findings, however, support a strong desire for increased societal participation in the form of collaborative multi-stakeholder forest management. This outcome calls for significant policy changes to increase participation, as well as harmonization of values and institutions of different stakeholders as a pre-requisite for negotiation among the stakeholders in Mount Kilimanjaro who seek to co-ordinate their activities for sustainable forest management.

Research Highlights
► We model forest stakeholder attitudes towards alternative governance approaches.
► We compare community-based, collaborative and centralized approaches in Kilimanjaro.
► We rank the regimes using efficiency, justice and uncertainty criteria.
► Collaborative, multi-stakeholder participation is the most socially desirable.
► Decentralization will enable the desired stakeholder participation and negotiations.