AfricaPress-Tanzania: RESIDENTS of three wards in Tanganyika District, Katavi Region have every reason to smile after earning over 1.3bn/- from forest conservation.
The citizens from three wards, comprising of eight villages were able to sell 231,580 metric tons of carbon dioxide this fiscal year to Carbon Tanzania.
Katavi Regional Commissioner Juma Homera told the “africa-press” over the weekend that next year the same villagers are expected to earn up to over 10bn/- from carbon offset to Carbon Tanzania.
Carbon Tanzania is a firm that measure the amount of carbon dioxide emissions produced in various ways, including protecting forests and planting new trees in specified precincts.
For instance, protecting one tree equals to offsetting one metric ton of carbon.
RC urged villagers to continue conserving forests, emphasizing that the carbon output trade did not depend on smokers but on conserving the environment and forests.
Equally, Mr Homera said out of earned over 1.3bn/- each right villages from three wards will earn over 130m/- .
He listed the beneficiary eight villages as Katuma, Mpembe, Kipanga, Lefa, Mwesse, Lugonesi, Bujombe from three wards of Mwese, Kasekese and Katuma.
Similarly, he said leaders for the eight villages should ensure that each village uses part of the earned fund to set up a dispensary and establishing pharmacies in their respective areas.
“I am urging leaders from the eight villages to make use of the money for Community Health Fund (CHF) of which 5,707 families with a population of 34,000 will have access to CHF cards,” noted RC.
He further explained the success story was made possible after eight villages entered a contract with Carbon Tanzania.
Official figures indicate that more industrialized Kenya is leading the pack of emitting an annual average of 11.2 million tons of carbon oxide but accounts for just 0.04 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gases fumes production.
Tanzania is the second in East Africa with an annual 10.1 million metric tons of greenhouse emissions equivalent to 0.02 per cent of the carbon dioxide products.
Uganda produces 0.01 per cent while both Burundi and Rwanda emit less than that.
According to the United Nations’ statistic database, the entire African continent churns out just 3.6 per cent of the total global greenhouse gases productions per year.
