The Tanzania Forest Conservation Group (TFCG) in collaboration with Tanzanian Community Forestry Network (MJUMITA) has embarked on REDD project in the country to reduce green house gases emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in Tanzania in ways that would provide direct and equitable incentives to rural communities to conserve and manage forests sustainably.
The TFCG project manager Bettie Luwuge, said that recently in brief news conference the purpose is to demonstrate, at local, national and international levels, a pro-poor approach to reducing deforestation and forest degradation by generating equitable financial incentives for communities that are sustainably managing or conserving Tanzanian forests at community level.
She said that the project would last for five years and it is being carried out in two biodiversity hotspots namely Eastern Arc which includes Kilosa and Mpwapwa districts and coastal forests in Lindi district.
“We expect a total of 19 communities with over 140,000 ha of forests in Kilosa and Mpwapwa districts to benefit from the project where as in Lindi district, 17 villages with 75,000ha of forest would benefit” she said.
For their part, the villagers say, since REDD project started in their respective villages, it has defined new rules and roles on forest management identifying and creating new relationship between themselves, the district leaders, other stakeholders, and areas for improvement.
“The money accrued from the project has helped us pay for our children school fees, meet some of our requirements, enhance economic activities and improve basic social services in our respective villages.
They said community development projects agreed at village assemblies range from village dispensaries school latrine, VNRC activities, water project, power tiller, school desks, village office bricks.
Commenting on project strategy of implementation, Bettie said it involved site selection based on forest area, deforestation rates, stakeholder interest and biodiversity criteria, seeking for consent from participating communities, later participatory identification, and implementation of strategies to reduce deforestation including participatory forest management, land use planning, improved agriculture and other livelihood activities.
However, appropriate methodologies to generate emissions reduction including verifying emission reductions and channelling revenues back to the communities initially using project funds and finally but from time to time monitoring and communicating impacts, lessons, challenges and opportunities at various levels , to various stakeholders.
“This project is being carried out in conformity with local and international standards such as the United Nations Framework convention on climate change UN FCCC),United Nations Reduced Emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD), World Bank Strategic Environmental and Social Assessment and Environmental and Social Management Framework and REDD + Social and Environmental Standards” she said
She said the project would be validated according to the Verified Carbon Standards (VCS) and Climate Community and Biodiversity (CCB) standards.
She adds: Technical support from Forest Trend clarified the necessity to have two project designs document (PDD) for both Lindi and Kilosa and both the PDDs are at different stages for Lindi and Kilosa. However, the project has opted for the biocarbon fund methodology.
About climate community and biodiversity (CCB) standards updates, Bettie says CCB standards require that projects must generate net positive impacts on the social and economic well-being of communities and it must go beyond ‘do no harm
“At the project outset, communities identified concerns related to restrictions on access to land and forest products; elite capture of REDD funds, land grabbing, conflict within communities over distribution of REDD funds, increased human- wildlife conflict as habitat is better protected and conflict associated with enforcement of restrictions on access to forest products” she says.
The CCB standards
She says the available standards, UN FCCC guidance and safeguards, World Bank policies, UN-REDD Programme principles and criteria, and related guidance; andREDD+ Social and Environmental Standardsprovide a sound basis for integrating social and environmental concerns in REDD+ in Tanzania, from avoiding and mitigating adverse impacts to generating substantial and sustainable additional benefits.
A core component of the CCB Standards is the specification that the co-benefits of carbon project must - like carbon- be real, ‘additional’ and measurable. At the very least, specify that carbon projects must ‘do no harm’ to communities in the project area.
She named the seven social and biodiversity impact assessment (SBIA) stages as original conditions study and stakeholder identification, social projection, project design and theory of change, negative social impacts, risks and mitigation measures.
Also in the list is the selection of indicators, monitoring plan and data collection methods and finally data collection, analysis and reporting.
The Key Social and Environmental components of standards that should be promoted are stakeholders’ livelihoods improvement, environment al protection promoting good governance that promotes meaningful and effective participation of all relevant stakeholders, transparency and accountability including equity and rights, assessment and Monitoring Reporting and Verification. She says.
According to her, there are many reasons for REDD+ in Tanzania to incorporate these social and environmental safeguards and standards. While they have different strengths, these instruments generally reflect internationally recognized best practice and several points of broad consensus.
From the project therefore, it is clear that the communities, if well educated, can benefit a lot from the investment as they use their own natural and traditional forests for carbon credit schemes.
Likewise, national safeguards are really needed to ensure REDD contributes to the welfare of rural communities and environmental protection in Tanzania.
Globally, deforestation and forest degradation contribute nearly 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions annually. Thus a mechanism was developed under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to offer incentives to developing countries for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD).
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