East Usambara Catchment Forest Project - Work Plan 1997

Introduction

General Status of the Project

Implementation and achievement of the project activities for the financial year 1996 has been encouraging. One of the major project strategies has been that of increasing interaction with the local communities.  The local communities are one of the primary project  target groups.  Village level activities planed by the local people and  supported by the project staff have increased.  These include Elders in Conservation programme (ECP) (Village elders visits and " lectures" to schools, tree nurseries for women groups, individuals and schools, beekeeping activities, village forest reserves increase habit of tree planting etc.

The Handei Village forest reserve which had some bottlenecks in finalizing decisions was finally inaugurated on 30.10.1996 and thus completing the list of village forest reserves as stipulated in the Project Document.

Biological surveys within forest reserves by Frontier - Tanzania were conducted in Mtae FR,  Kwamngumi FR,  Kwamarimba FR and Draft reports for the previous surveys are now available.  Efforts to rescue non gazetted forests continued and as a consequence Bombo East I & II totalling  1671Ha were surveyed and listed as a Proposed Forest Reserves.

On gazettement of proposed forest reserves the achievement hasn't been encouraging.  The speed of declaring Mlinga FR has been very low at the MNRT headquarters.  Ward Development Committee Minutes for approving gazettement of proposed Forest Reserve such as Nilo could not be available as expected due to complaints of people regarding inadequate crop compensation.  Efforts has now been intensified and some minutes for Mtai (enlargement) Mlungui, Semdoe,  Bombo East forests have been obtained.

Forest reserve patrols have on the large part been successful as pitsawing incidences are at the minimum in most forest reserves.   Exception for this problem is on Mtai FR close to Maramba "A" villages where pitsawing have been evident.  This is due to population pressure and closeness of the affected forest area to Maramba which is now becoming an urban centre.  Efforts to involve the villagers in fighting the problem are intensified with a deliberate decision of giving full responsibility to them on control while considering basic utilization needs to the villagers.

Capacity building to project staff through training has been encouraging.  Emphasis has been put on both field as well as project HQ staff.  One M.Sc programme has been completed at SUA and one is ongoing at ITC (The Netherlands).  Writing skills have improved in the project as a result of short in-service training.

Ecological Monitoring activities through collaboration with other sectors e.g. Meteorological and Water department continued well.  Data collection at hydro and meteorological stations continued.

Activities related to the establishment of the Amani Nature Reserve were given highest priority for 1996.  Construction of  the rest house at Sigi and rehabilitation of the Old German building which will be the HQ for the ANR started and progress is encouraging.  Finalization of the construction and rehabilitation will be a priority in 1997.

Correspondence on the Covenant signing on Tea Estate leasehold forests were intensified and what remains now is the mere signing.  All minutes related to the gazettement of the ANR were made available and despatched to the MNRT to continue with the subsequent gazettement steps.  The 1997 fiscal year should be the year of declaring and gazetting the Amani Nature Reserve.

Project Components and Outputs.

Main Implementation Strategies in 1997
Major strategies for the implementation of the activities this year will be aimed at:

• Protecting and conserving biodiversity and forests for catchment purposes.
• Fortifying collaboration and participation of local people and other relevant organisations.
• Continued innovations in developing more approaches to forest management especially thorough the village forest reserve creation and management approach.
• Formulation and development of systems which ensure long term sustainability, particularly for financial and institutional matters of forest conservation.

Management planning for the Amani Nature Reserve will be a top priority activity.

Along with this exercise, involvement of the local communities will be part and parcel of the entire process.

Emphasis in Catchment forestry activities will be placed on completing the backlog of pending activities especially the gazettement of proposed forest reserves.  Moreover, arrangements for villages forest management will be initiated.  A case study on responsibility and revenue shaving with local communities on a forest reserve will be tested.

In village forest reserve creation and management "farmer-to-farmer" extension techniques will be employed instead of the sole dependence of project staff as the extension agents.  Visits will be arranged for villagers from areas where the village forest reserve concept has tasted working to visit beginners and vice versa.

With the employment of a Farm Forestry Adviser interaction of the project and local people will be improved.  More analytical and clear participating approaches will be applied to ensure sustainability of farm forestry activities.  Monitoring of various activities under the farm forestry component will be strengthened.

The Elders in conservation programme whose co-ordination in now under an Elderly Shambaa expert will be transferred to the field staff and only occasional monitoring evaluation role will be attached to the expert.

Training to project staff will be emphasised and priority will be attached to practical field work whereby project staff will be trained together with farmers e.g. on Soil Conservation and erosion control on farmland.

Promotion of research and monitoring activities will continue to be through collaboration with relevant institutions like TAFORI, Dept of Meteorology, Water Deportment, UDSM etc.

The project will however be keen to work on more specific issues which are clearly relevant to the project activities and objectives.

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