Forest governance calls to end illegal harvesting

Climate Change Summit - Who promised What?

http://mashable.com/2014/09/23/un-climate-summit-country-promises-map/

Partnership engagement - taking a course of concerted efforts and action in locally controlled forests

Press Release

Partnership to Implement Participatory Forest Management (PFM)
in Ruvuma Landscape

Tunduru District Council, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Tanzania, Mpingo Conservation Development Initiative (MCDI), Mtandao wa Jamii wa Usimamzi Misitu Tanzania (MJUMITA) have embarked on a 3 year programme (2014 – 2017) to scale-up Participatory Forest Management (PFM) in Ruvuma Landscape of southern Tanzania. This partnership will seek to support 15 communities in Tunduru District to legally own, manage, and benefit from their local forest resources.

The aim of the partnership is to improve village forest governance and local livelihoods by:

·         Supporting communities (technically and financially) to establish Village Land Forest Reserves (VLFRs) from which they can sustainably harvest and sell certified hardwood timber, among other forest products;

·         Helping local communities to develop and implement innovative and sustainable business models for responsible forest management; and,

·         Increasing local capacity to understand and advocate for improved rights to natural resources.

This partnership is building on long-standing experience of:

1.    Tunduru District Council, who have worked to advance Community Based Natural Resources Management through initiatives such as PFM and Wildlife Management Areas in the project area since the late 1990s;

2.    MCDI in implementing PFM and innovative business models in Kilwa District, where they supported 7 rural communities to get user rights and management control over more than 100,000 hectares of forest in just 10 years;

3.    MJUMITA in supporting institutional set-ups of local communities implementing PFM initiatives in Tanzania, where the organisation has been operating in Lindi Region and Rufiji District of Coastal Region since 2002; and,

4.    WWF-Tanzania in Ruvuma Landscape, particularly through its network on business models for forestry governance and wildlife management. Their work to improve village forestry governance in Tanzania has been supported financially by WWF-Sweden, who have invested substantially in wildlife and forestry in the Ruvuma Landscape. The country sincerely appreciates this support.

The four entities intend to achieve the following set of results by the end of the three year partnership:

·         Communities will legally own their forests and have better capacity to implement effective Community Based Natural Resource Management initiatives (CBNRM);

·         The livelihoods of forest-dependent rural communities in Tunduru District will be improved as they begin to benefit from managing their forests;

·         Communities will have better access to markets for forest products and be using the money generated to reduce poverty and enhance rural development;

·         Communities will have better governance systems for natural resources, including increased capacity to understand, analyze and advocate for improved rights;

·         Collectively, these benefits will provide incentives for local people to manage forests responsibly, thus protecting the environment for future generations.