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.

Completing the Circle: African Caucus elects representatives for Permanent Indigenous Peoples’ Committee (PIPC) of the Forest Stewardship Council, in Tanzania.

Members of the Permanent Indigenous Peoples Committee together with African caucus, in Dar es Salaam Tanzania

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is an international, non-profit organization founded in 1993 by environmentalists, social interest groups, responsible retailers and leading forest companies to develop standards. These standards are based on the ‘10 principles for forest stewardship’, by which forests can be responsibly managed. They also make sure that environmental, social and economic needs are balanced, and that long-term and healthy forest management plans are put into practice.

FSC certification is internationally recognized as having the most rigorous environmental and social standards which define responsible forest management. Its great strength lies in its ability to encourage communication between people with different interests, ideas and philosophies. Bringing together businesses, governments and communities provides a unique tool for dealing with the complex issues surrounding forestry.

The FSC Permanent Indigenous Peoples’ Committee (PIPC), is one of the important committee for discussing and championing indigenous people issues. PIPC held its last meeting in Dar es Salaam from 3-4^th June 2014. The meeting was hosted by FSC East Africa sub region office, led by Regional Coordinator, Paul Opanga in collaboration with Tanzanian FSC Standard Development Group under the chair of Isaac Malugu. WWF Tanzania, is keenly supporting FSC initiatives in Tanzania and currently facilitating the development of national FSC Standards.

This event was held to make recommendations to the FSC Board that will strengthen and renew the engagement of Indigenous peoples in FSC.  At the beginning of 2014, Indigenous Peoples from four (4) international region; Canada, Latin America, Northern Europe-Russia, and Asia-Oceania, met and successfully nominated members to the committee. The African Caucus was the final for completing the circle and called together to provide guidance to the PIPC and nominate its representative(s) to the committee. Adam Ole Mwarabu from Tanzania was unanimously elected to represent the Africa region. Adam comes from Indigenous maasai communities of Tanzania. Edna Kaptoyo from Kenya was also elected as alternate from East Africa. The Batwa communities of Central and West Africa will be represented by Venant Messe from Cameroon and Louise Kavira from Republic of Congo. 

The revised Principle Three of the FSC Principles and Criteria is the strongest ‘normative’ statement on Indigenous Rights concerning a natural resource sector amongst all certification systems globally.  With the formal adoption of United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Free Prior and Informed Consent gaining strength daily, engaging and informing the FSC system is critical as indigenous people advances for their rights and partnerships in relation to the forest, their traditional territories

In closing the caucus, the PIPC Chairperson and Executive Director of National Aboriginal Association from Canada,said, “ envision a strong committee strengthening Indigenous Peoples’ FSC engagement around the world in partnership with, by, and for Indigenous Peoples in the forest on a permanent basis”. The PIPC membership lasts for 10 years with two terms of 5 years. The next FSC General Assembly will be held in Spain and PIPC looks forward for active participation.

Tanzania’s MJUMITA earns WWF award

MJUMITA has been rewarded with WWF Sweden´s annual environmental prize, Jihde award.

The award signed by Hakan Wirten – Secretary General, WWF Sweden has been presented to Rahima Njaidi on behalf of MJUMITA on March 20th 2014 in Dar es Salaam by her Royal Highness Victoria, the crown Princes of Sweden.

The Jihde Award from "Elisabeth Jihde´s Memorial Fund" was founded in 1999 for rewarding important conservation efforts in memory of Elisabeth Jihde, a Swedish woman deeply involved in nature conservation in Africa.

“The 2014 Jihde prize is awarded to the network organization MJUMITA for their uniting and creative work that has developed participatory community forest management groups.

Today, MJUMITA is recognized by decision makers as bearers of knowledge, innovators and as a respected voice advocating the importance of community based natural resource management in Tanzanian society says Bell’Aube Houinato, Country Director, WWF- Tanzania.

"Thank you your Royal Highness for this award. It really is an honour to be here and to receive it. I like to take this opportunity to thank you for acknowledging our efforts in making a difference in the forest sector for the benefit of the communities. We take this award as a challenge to make us work harder to enable the communities benefit from these valuable resources, says Rahima Njaidi, Executive Director of MJUMITA.

MJUMITA is a community forest network of community groups involved in Participatory Forest Management (PFM) in Tanzania. The network provides a forum for capacity building, advocacy and communication for these groups. MJUMITA currently has 110 affiliated local area networks (also known as CBOs), in 13 regions, 30 districts and 452 villages involved in participatory forest management countrywide. The total number of MJUMITA members is more than 10,000 communities. MJUMITA members are managing more than 1,880,500 hectors of forest both under Community Based Forest Management-CBFM and Joint Forest Management -JFM.