This paper presents ecosystem (Miombo and Acacia woodland) restoration that has taken place in Shinyanga, Tanzania since 1985. Prior to 1985, the region had been degraded of its Acacia and Miombo woodlands (as part of tsetse fly eradication and cash crop-based agricultural expansion). As a result, these two ecosystems nearly collapsed. By 2004, more than 300,000 ha of woodland had been restored across the 833 villages of the region with an economic value of US$14 per person per month. Nearly every family had their own restored patch of woodland, while groups and villages had much larger areas of restored woodlands. While the details of this large-scale ecosystem restoration are reasonably well known, the underlying reasons for the success of the restoration are less well known. They go way beyond the technicalities of ecosystem restoration. The case study explores how issues of personalities, enabling policy, decentralized and participatory governance, gender, traditional knowledge, and institutions, contribute to woodland restoration (where all scales count — from small family forests to larger village forests). Both the more technical aspects of ecosystem restoration and all the socio-political aspects were central to this success. However, even these issues are part of ongoing processes of negotiating and re-negotiating local level governance and management arrangements. Overall the combination of the ecosystem restoration and governance arrangement resulted in more resilient communities, land use, and ecosystems.
