| dc.description.abstract | Abstract This thesis explores and discusses the different motivations the inhabitants of the village Msilala have behind the forest conservation of the Daheni forest, the forest owned and managed by Msilala and the neighboring village Korowemba. I will discuss this based on empirical examples of the forest use and other forest activities done by the villagers of Msilala. I will show that different actors, who emphasize different uses of the forest as important, also have different motivations for why they believe the conservational work is positive. However, these motivations, on a deeper level, revolve around the same basic need: the need for rainfall in an experienced changing environmental reality. I will further trace a global initiative that was brought to the village from external actors, in the shape of a REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) project. This project’s impact, or rather lack of impact in the area, will be discussed with regard to the villagers’ motivation for forest conservation. I will argue that the REDD project is aimed at giving the villagers a new motivation of a more global kind for conserving their forest: carbon storage as a mean to reduce the global emissions of greenhouse gases and hence the global warming. I will argue that this new, global motivation was not incorporated into the villagers’ pre-existing reasoning, as it did not emphasize the factor that was important for them: the local environment, and rainfall. Keywords: Forest, Trees, Rain, Motivation, Conservation, Climate Change, Tanzania | eng |