Earth Day - 22 April 2016

Trees reverse the impacts of land degradation. They provide food, energy, and income. Trees help communities achieve long-term economic and environmental sustainability. They filter the air and help stave off the effects of climate change both globally and locally. They are a natural, resilient, and long-lasting safety buffer to extreme weather events such as hurricanes, floods, and blizzards. And the longer the trees/forests grow and stay in place, the more powerful these protections become. Earth Day Network works on the ground with organizations worldwide that strengthen communities through conservation. Using sapling and seed distribution, urban forestry, agroforestry, and tree care training, we have empowered rural and urban people alike to conserve, repair, and restore tree cover to their lands. We have already planted millions of trees on six different continents. You can help us continue this important work. 

Are we building strong 'ice' forest castle?

Two weeks a ago, all the media and cameras picked up the Tanzanian Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism on the hit and big news on monkeys who were just fasting their seat belts ready for departure to Southern eastern Europe - final destination to Albania.

This was the same press conference which sent home, the CEO of the Tanzania Forest Agency (TFS) together with senior directors. Tanzania Forest Service (TFS) was established in 2010 and is a semi-autonomous government Executive Agency whose establishment is supported by the Executive Agency Act (Cap. 245 Revised Edition 2009), the National Forest and Beekeeping Policies adopted in March 1998 and administered through The Forest Act (No. 14 of 2002) and Beekeeping Act (No. 15 of 2002) which provides legal framework for the management of forests and bee resources. TFS with the mandate to oversee the defunct forest division in which management effectiveness was almost forgotten. With establishment of TFS things began to move at unprecedented pace and results were plausible. 

Two weeks ago, the minister was irked by illegal harvest of logs in different areas, which he said was one of the reasons that prompted the suspension of TFS officials. He gave the recent example of Kalambo District in south west Tanzania, where several valuable logs were seized after it was realised that they were being transported to the neighbouring country without proper export documents. The ousting of TFS officals is expected to nearly collapse the strong insitutions which was coming up to work with partners in addressing the deforestation fronts which sent the country loosing almost 372,000Ha per year. We wait to see changes.