For Tanzania's emerging REDD policy to successfully build on existing community based natural resource management structures, a critical analysis of the outcomes of existing policy approaches for ecosystem services and poverty alleviation is needed. Our research addresses this aim, and provides an analysis of Tanzania's four prominent natural resource management programmes. Our analysis focuses on impacts on poverty alleviation (PA) and ecosystem services (ES). The research, conducted between June 2011 and April 2012, involved a 10-months period in Tanzania engaging with key policy and academic experts and reviewing relevant literature. Programmes relating to forests, environment and development as well as to community-based natural resource management in Tanzania were reviewed. These were further analysed based on governance themes, namely their level of: (1) decentralisation; (2) intersectoral integration; (3) community access to resources; (4) operational simplicity; and (5) equitable benefit sharing (both within the local community/user groups, and between governance levels). We derive a relative assessment of the degree of influence (High, Intermediate, Low) and nature of influence (Positive, Neutral, Negative) of the programmes on ES and PA outcomes. Building on this analysis, we provide contextual insights and recommendations specific to Tanzania for nascent policy initiatives (e.g. REDD ). The need for such contextual recommendations has been profoundly stressed.