Getting REDDy in Tanzania : principles , preparations and perspectives

on 6 th november, the ambassador of norway launched the project 'Making reDD work for communities and forest conservation in tanzania'. the project is a partnership project between the tanzania Forest conservation Group (tFcG) and the tanzanian community Forest conservation network (MjuMIta). the project aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in tanzania in ways that provide direct and equitable incentives to communities to conserve and manage forests sustainably. the project is being financed by the norwegian Ministry of Foreign affairs as part of norway's commitment to assist tanzania to get ready for reDD. every year tanzania loses approximately 412,000 ha of forest. Much of this deforestation takes place outside of reserves, on unreserved land under the authority of Village governments. Whilst participatory forest management has succeeded in improving the protection of 2.3 million hectares of forest on village land, unreserved forests on village land are particularly vulnerable. reDD offers an opportunity to make 'forest' a more attractive land use by paying communities and other stakeholders to reduce deforestation and forest degradation on their land. reDD could also contribute to securing the longer term sustainability of existing village forest reserves by providing t h e a r c j o u r n a l I s s u e 2 4 t h e a r c j o u r n a l I s s u e 2 4 2 additional incentives to avoid deforestation and forest degradation within the reserves. If done in an efficient and equitable way, reDD could bring significant benefits to tanzania including contributing to poverty reduction, rural development, improved governance and the protection of the nation's forest biodiversity and water sources. For communities to engage successfully with reDD, they will need to address a number of technical, legal, financial and governance-related issues. the aim of the tFcG / MjuMIta project is to assist communities to find a way to address these potential barriers and to pilot ways in which this can be scaled up to benefit communities across the country. the project will achieve this by modelling an approach that allows communities to aggregate their emission reductions in such a way that transaction costs are reduced whilst meeting internationally recognised reDD standards. this will be achieved through the existing network of communities involved in participatory forest management, MjuMIta (Mtandao wa jamii wa usimamizi wa Misitu tanzania). the project …