Juma Ramadhani Mwangi
AFR100 Focal Point
Through creation of village land forest reserves (VLFRs) and alternative income generating activities such as butterfly farming, fish farming and agroforestry, communities were able to generate new sources of revenue while protecting their forests. This has been done to restore one of the larger forest blocks within this hotspot and contains species such as the critically endangered long-billed tailorbird and the endangered Usambara weaver.
In Tanzania, addressing extreme poverty is a big motivation driving reforestation and agroforestry practices. Different stakeholders oversee and engage in the planning and supervision of all tree planting to accelerate adaptation to climate change as well as to find alternative solutions; especially for rural people.
Restoring and managing degraded mangroves increases resilience of the ecosystems and adaptation to climate change by the country. Tanzania Forests Services (TFS) collaborates with various stakeholders from in and outside the country including the communities in conservation and management of mangroves. Mangrove forests face existential threats from human activity and climate change. Forestry experts also point to an "invasive" lianas plant species that affects mangrove growth. Their restoration and sustainable management are a priority for Tanzania, and it increases water availability, cools environment and it stands for biodiversity and ecosystem services.
Stakeholder involvement
The establishment of the LDN National Working Group (NWG) was among an initial steps of the LDN target setting process to identify and engage key stakeholders from the key government sectors including agriculture, water, natural resources and tourism, finance, livestock and others relevant national organizations, international organizations (World Bank, UNDP, FAO, WWF and others), universities (Dar es Salaam, Sokoine), private sector, central and local government, None Governmental Organizations (NGO) and International NGO.
A coordinating mechanism/platform
Policy measures and coordination to achieve LDN are primary means for the government to communicate nationally and internationally the planned steps to achieve LDN. The LDN targets reflect Tanzania’s ambition for achieving LDN taking into account the magnitude and status of land degradation in the country, social economic activities, natural resource management, environmental issues and ecosystem based on the LDN response hierarchy to avoid, reduce, and reverse land degradation and desertification. To oversee the implementation of the LDN targets cross sectors and other entities a coordinating mechanism/ platform involves different stakeholders that include Government, NGOs and private sector.
Capacity building
Establishing pilot centers on landscape management practices; organized awareness-raising public meetings for farmers; study tours to different districts are set to gather technical experiences on land use planning, and to accelerate the implementation of FLR work packages with necessary knowledge. Timely training workshops are organized to mainstream LDN into existing land use policies and programs, and this creates ownership in implementation of the identified activities.
Partnership
Partnership is very important for better implementation of Land Degradation Neutrality set Targets. The Government of Tanzania through relevant ministries works in a partnership initiative implemented by the Secretariat and the Global Mechanism of the UNCCD, with support of the following partners: France, Germany, Luxembourg, Republic of Korea, Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, European Space Agency, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Global Environment Facility, ISRIC-World Soil Information, International Union for Conservation of Nature, Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, Soil Leadership Academy, United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme, World Resources Institute, Communities, Private Sector. Tanzania will engage more partners and stakeholders for successful implementation of Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) and Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN).
Tanzania aims to ensure that global and regional agreements, like the SDGs in Tanzania, are adequately mainstreamed into national development planning and implementation frameworks to reduce land degradation and to achieve to achieve a position of no net loss of healthy and productive land by 2030.
