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; and
REDD+ Social and Environmental Standards
provide 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).
Ends.
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