Bio-diversity

Context: The Eastern Arc is one of the world s renowned biodiversity hotspots. However, despite its global significance, the Eastern Arc is facing a number of threats including encroachment for agriculture, deforestation for fuel wood, building poles and lumbering and bush fires. Most of these threats are attributable to mankind. They are carried out by people deliberately. However, in some cases people do actions that degrade the forests without knowing the degrading consequences of their actions. For example, in the wards of Mikese and Gwata, ordinary villagers participate in practices of deforestation and forest degradation of Nguu, Nguru and Uluguru forests, all of which forms part of the Eastern Arc. Examples of these malpractices include encroachment of forest reserves for agriculture, tree cutting for fuel wood and other domestic purposes like building.. Therefore, this project intends to (i) increase this knowledge to the ordinary villagers with the view to making them refrain from forest degradation malpractices (ii) train local communities in alternative income generating opportunities (iii) Support them to grow their own fuel wood instead of harvesting it from natural forests. About the Proponent: The proponent (TESCO) is based in Morogoro. It was established in 1997 and registered as NGO in 1998. TESCO s key objectives are (i) Biodiversity conservation (ii) Advocacy for environmental sanitation and preventing spread of communicable diseases. Project s Primary Objective: To sensitize the local communities in the two wards of Mikese and Gwata so that they participate in the conservation of biodiversity- rich mountain forests of Nguu, Nguru and Uluguru with the view to reducing rate of biodiversity loss. Implementation Strategies: Baseline survey to capture and document current situation Training of Trainers (ToT) whereby 150 trainers will be trained so as to train others in the two wards Introduce the concept of household fuel wood/wood lots farms Establish tree nurseries to provide tree seedlings for household based fuel farms. Use schools where possible Local study visit to broaden local communities conservation horizon.

Tanzania