Land reforestation project a huge success in Tanzania

Reforestation is one priority that World Vision Tanzania (WVT) focuses on. In 2008, the office identified several potential reforestation projects including an area in Makindube Area Development Programme (ADP).

WVT organized a stakeholders’ meeting with members of Makindube community, including community leaders, government leaders from division levels down to village level, and ADP committee members, to share the idea of reforestation. To drive the message home, a WVT officer presented a case study of reforestation in Ethiopia and the community members unanimously agreed to allocate communal-owned land for reforestation.

In 2009, WVT visited the community and found the land that was allocated for the reforestation project in place. Independently, the community had allocated the land and established their own by-laws that prevented animals and human activities on the allocated land. Because of that there was a great change on the land, including some growth due to natural regeneration.

A community leader who was extremely happy to see the land rejuvenating had this to say: “We are so happy and thank God you made us understand the importance of preserving our forests and land. We believe that the rainfall will now come and that there is likelihood of seeing some wild animals coming back to the land.”

The community elected a committee to be responsible for supervision of the reforestation project; the community also prepared a plan on how to manage the forest. Some of the plans include:

• Sensitizing the whole community at sub village levels on the need for sustainable use of land and forest products
• Demarcating the whole area as a community managed forest (Makindube Reforestation Project) which is about 20,000 hectares
• Identifying community security guards who will be responsible for ensuring that the land is protected

Makindube ADP is funded by World Vision Switzerland, and is located in the Kilimanjaro Region.  The area was severely degraded over decades from over-use and exploitation.  With the loss of forest cover through deforestation and poor natural resource management over the last 30 years, the contiguous villages to the tract witnessed severe degradation of the local ecosystems, which in turn affected agricultural productivity and livelihood options. The area had natural forest lands but now is primarily used for animal grazing and wood collection from the remaining shrub land.

The community was involved in the project design, testing and implementation stages. The Makindube Reforestation Project is a manifestation of community involvement and participation in issues affecting their lives.