Eastern Arc Mountains and Coastal Forests of Tanzania and Kenya ...

(b) manage the use and conservation of all indigenous state forests;(c) monitor and enforce compliance with the provisions of this act in respect of all forests inKenya; and(d) advise the government on all matters pertaining to the establishment, development,conservation and utilization of forests in Kenya.In addition to the Forest Act, there are about 77 statutes that deal with environmental legislation.Until 1999, there was no environmental legislation framework. Parliament passed theEnvironmental Management and Coordination Bill, 1999, into law on 15 December 1999. TheEnvironmental Management and Coordination Act (EMCA) came into force on 14 th January2000 and takes priority over all pre-existing legislation. The EMCA establishes nationalenvironmental principles and provides guidance and coherence to good environmentalmanagement. It also deals with cross-sectional issues such as overall environmental policyformulation, environmental planning, protection and conservation of the environment,environmental impact assessment, environmental audit and monitoring, environmental qualitystandards, environmental protection orders, institutional coordination and conflict resolution.Owing to financial and bureaucratic constraints, the act has taken several years to becomeoperational. Once fully operational, the act will have impacts on other legislation dealing withenvironment such as land tenure and land use legislation, forestry legislation, wildlife legislation,water laws and agriculture legislation. The act provides a good avenue for environmentalprotection and the establishment of an operational framework under the National EnvironmentManagement Authority (NEMA).TanzaniaPolicyThe Forest Policy of Tanzania (United Republic of Tanzania 1998) gives the responsibility ofmanaging forest resources to the forest sector in collaboration with key stakeholders. Among themain features of the policy are participatory forest management, decentralization andprivatization. These are radical divergences from the earlier policy and legislation, whichrestricted management to the state authorities and had a different approach to preservation andcontrolled utilization. These reforms are a result of emerging macroeconomic policies and localand global environmental management trends. They also recognize the rights of the communitiesand roles of the private sector in managing these resources. The overall goal and objectives arepresented in Box 1.The Forest Policy is implemented through the National Forest Programme (Ministry of NaturalResources and Tourism, 2001). The key challenges for this program are ensuring sustainableutilization of forest produce and meeting the national demand for forest produce such as woodfuel, sawn timber, non-timber forest products and other forest produce. The dependence on forestproducts by the majority of the rural communities for their livelihoods enables forests tocontribute to poverty reduction.31