HAF TANZANIA: Battles the monster of deforestation

CUT a tree plant trees, this is a common Tanzania policy motivated by Tanzania’s President, Benjamin William Mkapa. The Kenya’s commonly known motivator Waangari Maathai represents the good efforts that Kenya has on forest conservation.

Uganda represented by the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) and the National Forestry Authority (NFA) have also been contributing much on the sustainable development of forestry resources in Uganda. Rwanda and Burundi have not been left behind on these efforts despite the fact that they have been much effected by civil wars.
How does it enjoyable if you plant trees-fruit trees very near to your house and resting during hot period.

All three East African countries share the problems of small, fragmented areas of forest under extreme pressure of encroachment and exploitation. The remaining forest patches make up less than three percent of the land area in the region and these forests are often heavily degraded. It has been suggested that the forest cover in East Africa was much more extensive some millennia ago. Yet, precise information on the history of the forest cover a country or region needs, it has been generally accepted that the few remaining natural forests in East Africa are too precious to lose.
Sleeping out of your house and getting rest during the day time while it is too hot keep you feeling as somebody who resting in Kilimanjaro mountain

Yet, even without delving too deeply into the discussion about the definition of forest cover, etc, it is clear from the information presented and from other sources that these is still a reduction of the area of natural forest taking place in the region. This reduction is due to clearing for agriculture and settlement, with mining, smallholder encroachment and urban development having impacts in localized areas.

The reduction of natural forest is partly compensated for by an increase in tree cover on farmland and in plantations in some areas of the region. Yet, this type of tree cover does not offset the threat to biodiversity, which accompanies the decrease of natural forest area. Forests in East Africa can be found on private land and on government land.

To make sure that harvesting of trees is done in a sustainable manner, the laws, rules and regulations are important. In Tanzania the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism (MNRT) intends to implement the strategies such as sharing of harvesting information plans between district and village governments, strengthening check points by allocating qualified staff and working tolls, intensifying law enforcement activities like patrols and education the general public on the laws rules and regulations governing harvesting and trading of forest products.

It has been found that some districts did not involve village governments in the process of issuing harvesting licences, some individuals harvest more trees than the number allowed in their licenses.
Other findings include, that districts have no harvesting plans and lastly companies and individuals rushed to harvest in Lindi and Mtwara regions after the opening of Mkapa Bridge on Rufiji River.
Uncontrolled high rate of tree harvesting is taking place in the country’s natural forests especially in Lindi, Mtwara and Coastal regions. To ensure that communities living adjacent reserves are involved in the harvesting process, companies and individuals must apply for harvesting licenses to the District Forest Office (DFO). Even though cases are always heard about individuals harvesting without the DFO permission.

However last year, log harvesting was prohibited for a year in order to make tree harvesting assessment, recently, this August the ban of tree harvesting was lifted to legalize the act again.

In Kenya, the Forest Bill 2005 and Forest Development Policy sessional paper no. 9 of 2005 define the future investment opportunities in the Forest Sector. They offer a scope for the involvement of other stakeholders such as the local communities, the private sector, NGO’s and CBO’s to engage in tree cash crop farming.

This gesture means to enhance the availability of production inputs such as timber, pulpwood and wood fuel for manufacturing industries, opportunities for financiers/ lenders, converters and marketing agencies to engage in productive economic activities.

In the meantime a recent study about trends in forest cover in Kenya concluded that ‘in spite of intentions stipulating that forest excisions (from government forest reserves) should cease, degazettement continues, and the forests that are excised are ofen significant in terms of biodiversity or in size, and important criterion in the maintenance of biodiversity.’ The study furthermore concluded that since 1986, Kenya has lost about 15,000 hectares of natural forest due to excisions.

The management of Uganda Government forests has gone through a long history since 1898. For about 70 years, these forests were managed through a system of rigorous scientific methods based on elaborate management plans, research and structured practices that contributed to the maintenance of a reasonable resource base.

There is increasing realization among the agencies mandated to manage these resources, that old policies, legislation and management practices are no longer adequate to meet the new challenges of forest resource conservation.

In situations where these policies and legislation have been considered generic enough to allow innovations in forestry management, resource managers have encountered problems interpreting old practices in the context of new management approaches. In order to address this growing anomaly in forest resource conservation, collaborative forest management efforts have been initiated by donors and some resource managers in the management of forests such as Mount Elgon, Bwindi, Budongo, Mabira, Rwenzori, Kibale, Semliki and Buto-Buvuma.

For Burundi and Rwanda the situation is not very bad as the Nyungwe forest ii 980 km2 of tropical montane forest, contiguous with the Kibira National Park in Burundi. Combined, these two protected areas form the largest bloc of forest in east Africa – between 1,500 and 2,300 metres in altitude.

Important for its population of endemic species, Nyungwe ranks high in the priority setting it has a high diversity of primate species with 13 species recorded for the forest. Of particulars interest are the large social groups of Angolan Colobus (Colobus angolensis), which may number over 400 individuals.

These are the largest aggregation of this species known in the world. Nyungwe also contains a variety of habitats including montane forest, bamboo, grasslands, swamps and bogs, and is very mountainous. Thus it has great potential as a tourist destination. Furthermore, the number of primates and endemic birds that can be seen (more than elsewhere in east Africa) complements well the visit to mountain gorillas in the north of Rwanda.
However Nyungwe faces a variety of treats, but recently, the greatest problem have been fires that have occurred in El Nino years and have destroyed large areas of the forest. Research to look at the most cost-effective methods is currently undertaken.

In Tanzania and most developing countries, deforestation mostly occurs because of different needs that the society is concerned with especially domestic needs such as fuel wood, but the forests are also a source of income from non-wood forest products (honey, tannins, gum Arabic etc) and tourism. According to the National Forest Policy (United Republic of Tanzania MNRT 2998), about a quarter of the forest area is devoted to national parks, forest reserves and game reserves. All these areas are reportedly under management although no information was provided for FRA 2000 on the area of forest management plans. In latest revision of the National Forest Republished in 1998, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism declared that sustainable management of the resources is a major issue to be addressed and that it will also try to promote sustainable forest management outside forest conservation areas. These forests are subject to conversion to other uses such as shifting cultivation and grazing and also suffer from degradation due to repeated forest fires.

For sustainable development restrictions to access of forest reserves must be taken as a serious business Kenya forest has been effected in a severe way in relation to an increase in population in the country; the demands for wood products have increased tremendously. Timber is needed in large quantities to construct houses in both rural and mostly urban centres.

Large forests are being excised and cleared to make housing estates and other development oriented projects. The Taita Hills forests have not been spared and where there were large forests, small hill evidence of a once well-canopied green bloc of hills teaming with rivers and streams, birds and wild animals.

The demand for settlements has taken a tremendous toll on the forests and small farm units can be seen on the steep slopes, which were once covered by forests. High population e.g. the population density in Mgange which is just below vuria peak ranges between 224 persons per sq km . to 1416 persons/sq km. or 7,081 persons living in an area of only 5.0 sq km.

To avoid further destruction of the forests, the government has gazetted some of the hill forests and has reduced the movement of the population into the forests.

Other problems such as the scattered natures of the forests and the hill forests makes monitoring efforts of illegal felling of trees for timber difficult.

Fires during the dry seasons when neighbouring farmers clear their land frequently break out and often cause considerable damage to the forest hills. Once burnt, the forests take many years to recover and by then erosion will have done irreparable damage to the slopes which were once protected by the trees.

The communities also have no idea of the importance of some of the species in the forests and they often bring down the trees without knowing that they grow only in the Taita Hills and nowhere else in the world. Their own knowledge has also been neglected in conservation programmes and their needs such as firewood, timber, forage for their cattle, domestic water etc. have been exhausted on their farms and they depend on the forest guards and permits have to be obtained from the district forest office.

Lack of land adjudication and survey has led to some areas of some forests being claimed as ancestral land and trees being cleared for land preparation within these forests. Wild animals living in these forests often raid the farms nearby and the farmers have a negative attitude towards the Kenya Wildlife Service and the forests.

Once in a while there is a forest that is burnt down by arsonists getting rid of the wild animals. These are but a few of the problems facing the forests.

The presence of wars have contributed much to deforestation too in East Africa has suffered from many social problems. The Sudan is involved in a civil war in the southern part the country and Ethiopia, Eltrea and Somalia have been devastated by war. Much of the population of Rwanda crossed the border to seek refuge in Tanzania and Ugand. Refugees from Somalia are in Ethiopia and Kenya. The effects of war, combined with the severe climate, have placed increased pressure on the land and have had a heavy impact through deforestation. Fires are a major problem. Desertification has increased, especially in the Sudan where 13 of its 26 states have been declared “affected by desertification” by the UN Convention for Combating Desertification.

The deforestation problems have been known for quite sometime in these countries, and a number of organization for tree conservation have been formed, “The Tanzania Forest Conservation Group (TFCG) is a Tanzania NGO established in 1995 with the mission of ‘protecting forests of high biodiversity in Tanzania’.

In late 1991,the TFCG resolved to establish a network of community – based conservation projects in the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania and Kenya. Forest Management – boundary marking; regeneration; corridor planting and joint forest management.

Environmental Education – production of a newsletter, The Arc Journal (8 issues so far), which highlights environmental issues in the Eastern Arc Mountains; ongoing projects, their activities and their lessons learnt. The newsletter also appears in Kiswahili form entitled – Jarida la Safu ya Milima environmental education is conducted primary in village schools but also towards village groups. Farm Forestry and Improved Land use Management – the TFCG promotes this in an effort to increase self-reliance and increase rural peoples’ incomes by improving their farming systems.

The Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania and Kenya were recently the focus of an international conference in Tanzania (December 1997). The Mountains were becoming more prominent on the International conservation agenda.

People are becoming aware of the water catchments values (they support 5,000sq km of rainforest from cloud forest to lowland forest and woodland) of the mountains, as well as for supporting tea, timber coffee and vegetable farming and thus the livelihoods of people”.

Local forest management arrangements, which had existed under traditional tribal law, were effectively weakened. Thus, the forests often became open access areas for local people and forest use became based on a free for all situations: no longer controlled through local forest management arrangements, local communities started to overuse the forest.

This problem was further compounded by the fact that forest departments generally do not receive sufficient funds for forest conservation, since natural forests that do not produce timber are often seen as liabilities rather than assets.

In order to assure the proper management of forest conservation the Kenyans have organized strategies as to identify the groups that have an interest in the management of the forest. These groups include local communities living around the forests and using its products, and both government and non-governmental institutions. The next step is to enhance the commitment of these interest groups in the conservation and management of the forest, through a carefully designed sharing of the authority and responsibility for the management of the forests.

This is particularly relevant now that, due to economic reforms and Structural Adjustment Programmes, the role of central government becomes more focused on policy development and the responsibility for implementation is devolved to districts and other decentralized structures.

Furthermore the Kenya’s must really be glad of having Pro Wangai Maathai, who is an assistant Minister for Environment and Natural Resources in Kenya that participated fully with the environmental conservation on the extent of winning a Nobel peace prize for the recognition of her work of initiating and motivating people on the environment conservation and tree planting which is recognized Worldwide.

Elsewhere, Maathai is quoted in an American religious publication, Beliefnet, proposing the Easter Monday be dedicated to tree planting to celebrate Christ conquest of death. She said “If we could make that Monday a day of regeneration, revival, of being reborn, of finding salvation by restoring the Earth, it would be a great celebration of Christ’s resurrection.

She also said, “I always say somebody had to go into the forest, cut a tree, and chop it up for Jesus to be crucified. What a great celebration of his conquering (death) it would be if we were to plant trees on Easter Monday thanks giving”.

The policy environment in Uganda is ripe for collaborative forest management. The Constitution of Uganda (1995) recognizes for the first time the significance of the environment sectors.

The National Environment Management statute (1996) which established the National Environment management Authority (NEMA) emphasizes the importance of involving and empowering local councils and local communities in environmental management.

In addition, the Wildlife Bill (1996), which formed the Uganda Wildlife Authority, has a stated policy and legislation that recognizes the need to collaborate with and consult a wide variety of possible stakeholders, including local authorities and communities.

It is also crucial to note that the roles and responsibilities of local people in the management, conservation and use of secondary forests must be recognized and appreciated, since local communities are often highly dependent on this resource.

Empowerment and capacity building of these communities are key issues in stakeholder participation. Increasing access and ownership of secondary forests for local people and equitable cost and benefit sharing will further encourage the sustainable management of this resource.

Lwandiko is a student at the University of Makerere, Uganda.
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