The current debate on climate change, especially with respect to the role of
REDD projects and the push for the recognition of community (participatory)
forest management as a carbon mitigation option represents a potential for
communities to receive benefits from carbon sequestration. A recent study in
Tanzania has estimated that communities can receive financial benefits in
thousands of US$ annually from the sale of their forest carbon credits. This
notwithstanding, such kind of projects is expected to generate potential
social and environmental costs with related risks of conflicts if benefit
sharing and governance issues are not well addressed. However the
identification and prioritization as well as the economic value of all these
benefits and costs are still premature. An understanding of what these
expected benefits from sustainable forest management and REDD projects are,
how their (total) value can be assessed and who are stakeholders and actors in
participatory forest management (PFM) can be useful in formulating equitable
benefit sharing mechanisms based on principles of “good governance” that could
be adopted in REDD projects implementation. The paper deals with these topics
on the basis of empirical results based on a participatory action research
carried out in the Angai Village Land Forest Reserve, Liwale District, in
Tanzania in 2010. Guidelines for formulating governance mechanisms to reduce
risks of negative social consequences and enhance benefits from PFM_REDD
projects for local forest resources management are proposed. Equitable benefit
sharing in PFM is considered one of the most important issues for community
cohesion and conflicts solving/managing and in the avoidance of leakage or
other risks in REDD projects
