Africa-Press – Tanzania. THE Eastern Arc Mountains Conservation Endowment Fund (EAMCEF) is a Trust Fund that was established and functions as a long-term and reliable funding mechanism to support community development, biodiversity conservation and applied research projects, which promote the biological diversity, ecological functions and sustainable use of natural resources in the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania.
The Eastern Arc Mountains in Tanzania and Kenya are among the most important areas for the conservation of biological diversity in the world. The conservation of the mountains on Tanzanian part is being supported by EAMCEF.
EAMCEF Executive Director, Mr Francis Sabuni, says the vision of EAMCEF is to see that the Eastern Arc Mountains and the people who depend on them live in harmony as one sustainable ecosystem. The forests and mountains will provide goods and services – from water to electrical power, from food and cash crops to medicines- for the people of Tanzania.
And the world community will benefit from a protected biodiversity hotspot and a major carbon sink reducing global warming and mitigating climate change impacts.
“We catalyse resources to foster conservation of forest biodiversity in the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania through investment in sustainable community development and livelihood improvement, sustained financing for protected areas management and financial support to applied biodiversity and climate change research,” says Mr Sabuni.
EAMCEF successfully implemented a five year (June 2011-May 2016) project ‘Improving Conservation of the Eastern Arc Mountains Forests in Tanzania’, targeting nine protected areas, namely Amani, Nilo, Chome, Magamba, Mkingu, Uluguru, Kilombero and Uzungwa Scarp Nature Reserves and the Udzungwa Mountains National Park.
The project implementation was undertaken through field partners in the 11 priority district councils where the nine protected sites lie – Muheza, Korogwe, Mkinga, Same, Lushoto, Mvomero, Morogoro, Morogoro Municipality, Kilombero, Kilolo and Mufindi.
Whereas project partners coordinated and supervised the implementation of the project activities in the field, EAMCEF issued project grants to facilitate the interventions in three thematic areas – forest conservation and management; community development and livelihood improvement; and, applied biodiversity and climate change research.
Mr Sabuni says that while implementation of forest conservation and management projects aimed to achieve effective biodiversity conservation and improved forest condition of each of the nine priority sites, community development and livelihood improvement projects aimed to improve the economic wellbeing and social welfare of the communities living adjacent to the priority sites through provision of alternative livelihood options and income generating activities.
Applied biodiversity and climate change research projects were implemented in order to generate useful information for informed decision making and conservation planning for effective conservation of the target forest sites.
“Following successful completion of the project in May 2016, EAMCEF initiated a process to document the results and impacts realized from the implementation of the project in order to present the progress, share the experiences gained, lessons learned and approaches of best practice adopted in implementing the project,” he notes.
A field survey was then undertaken towards the end of 2017 whereby stories contained in this documentary were narrated by the project beneficiaries in some few selected sites. It is our sincere hope that you will find the stories interesting and useful.
He is happy with the way projects are implemented in different districts in conjunction with district councils, and the way conservation of most forests in Eastern Arc Mountains chain. Funds are used in raising awareness of importance of the forests in the mountain chains as well as the environment conservation.
Mr Sabuni unveils that initially, EAMCEF operated as a component of the World Bank (WB) under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism whereby a total of US$ 2.4m credit facility was used to finance activities and operations of its seven-year first phase from 2002 to 2009 that was the establishment phase.
The executive director says that funding of the second phase was initially planned to come mainly from incomes generated from the investment of the endowment capital secured from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) commitment of US$ 7.0m as well as additional resources acquired from other sources through fundraising activities.
“There have been many projects under different reserves (under Tanzania Forests Services) and Udzungwa Mountains National Park (under Tanzania National Parks – Tanapa) to meet the targets we have set and to date we have dished out 6bn/-,” says Mr Sabuni.
He adds that apart from supporting the reserves directly to ensure conservation and fortification of boundaries, they are supporting villagers around the conserved areas through establishment of projects such as beekeeping, chicken rearing, cattle and piggery projects.
The executive director mentioned others as fish farming, improvement of crops growth and such as sunflower, vegetables and tree planting. Other projects are being implemented in schools as well as by vulnerable groups such as the youth and people living with HIV.
Mr Sabuni says the contract expired in May this year and from there they have been working on their own, catalyzing resources to foster conservation of forest biodiversity in the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania through investment in sustainable community development and livelihood improvement, sustained financing for protected areas management and financial support to applied biodiversity and climate change research.
Under EAMCEF and district councils, people, under groups, are enabled in economic activities so as to avoid entering the reserved forests for felling trees, collecting grass or putting fire when harvesting honey. There are good examples of how successful the beneficiaries have been.
Just a few people in Mkalanga village, Ukwega ward in Kilolo district of Iringa village believed that goats can be a good source of milk, just like dairy cows, and that the income from goat husbandry can change lives of the poor villagers.
Dairy goat husbandry seemed unusual and strange undertaking. Through sensitization and training meetings villagers were convinced that dairy goat husbandry is a feasible undertaking that they wished to try.
Mr Seth Chavala, a resident of Mkalanga village shares his story:
“Our dairy goat husbandry group is called ‘Mshikamano’; members were selected by the village assembly. I am a farmer but I can clearly say that I used to get very little from agricultural activities than it is now with goats.
“I started keeping goats in 2015 through EAMCEF support; I have an assurance of getting 1.5 litres daily, out of which I sell one little for 1,000/- and the family consumes the rest. In the past, my family and most people in this village were not able to afford milk as it was obtained somewhere far from here and a bit costly.
“The income I get from goats is used to cover for household needs, school fees and stationaries etc. Apart from milk, it was not easier to get farm manure than it is now. We were used to industrial fertilizers which destroyed our land, but now I get manure from goat and can grow vegetables. I no longer buy industrial fertilizers.”
In another goat project is Ms Nelia Kikoti. After keeping the goats, she notes, sold one goat for 70,000/- and used the money to pay casual labourers to work on her farm. She planted beans and sold the harvest for 450,000/-. She used her income from beans to build a bigger house for her family.
“My old house was too small for family members to fit in. When my goat gave birth; now I have seven goats, I sold one goat and employed some people to help up plant trees in my one-acre farm.
“I am also getting three litres per day; I normally sell two litres and consume the rest. Since then my life has changed a lot, I would rank myself to have moved from level one to level 10 – all because of dairy goat husbandry!” she says.
Another beneficiary is Izack Nyamoga, who says he was sponsored in avocado growing project by EAMCEF, and has since been efficacious. He uses manure from goats to grow avocado and that his trees are so healthy. During 2016. He sold avocados and got 210,000/- from three trees.
“In the past, I could only harvest a few avocados which were not enough for sale. I used the income to buy a television set and installed solar panel. Since I installed solar panel, my children can study a couple of more hours during the night than it was before with traditional kerosene oil lamp.
In Idegenda village, Kilolo district of Iringa, there are also some beneficiaries surrounding Uzungwa Scrap Nature Reserve. The forest is well preserved, because EAMCEF has enabled the people to have alternative economic activities so that they do not enter the forest and degrade what is the source of water.
Hearing of a forest conservation project one thinks of key actions such as forest patrols, boundary clearing and forest management plans. Ms Agatha Kipingi and her colleagues forming the dairy cow keeping group in Idegenda village tells their story on how (through) dairy cow keeping supported by EAMCEF has changed their lives and avoided heavy dependency on forests for household income.
“Our group consisting of 25 people was formed during the village assembly meeting when EAMCEF arrived in our village. we received trainings on dairy cow keeping and construction of proper shelters for the cows. EAMCEF gave us nine cows and 1 bull to start the project, as a group we now have more tha 23 animals in total,” she says.
“In my house we managed to install a small biogas feeder that utilizes animal dung to generate energy for cooking. I bought a stove and constructed a good kitchen. In the past, I used to spend hours and hours – up to six hours in the forests fetching for firewood.
“With biogas, I use the ‘saved’ hours to attend my cows and my farm. I no longer go to the forest as it used to be, but I also enjoy my new smokefree kitchen, and my husband is now comfortable to join me while cooking. The new kitchen has reduced up to 75 percent firewood consumption thereby reducing pressure on surrounding forests. If all households in Idegenda Village keep cow and switch to biogas…our surrounding forests (The Uzungwa Scrap Nature Reserve) will forever remain intact,” she says.
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