TNRF Updates - March 2009
The news update for March 2009 includes TNRF developments, and working group updates.
To see previous TNRF newsletters and eUpdates go to:
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- Mama Misitu: Public response the TV spots
- Mama Misitu: Radio programme now on air!!
- Biofuels study report available
- Report on the Kilosa meeting of the Tanzania Press Club
- Data collection about pastoral meat markets complete
Community Forums
The Maajabu Film Crew
Death announcement for Alan Rodgers - a great conservationist, investor in people and friend of Tanzania
We regret to announce the untimely death of Alan Rodgers, after a short illness on 31st March 2009. Alan worked tirelessly to promote conservation in East Africa and India. A full list of his accomplishments would be a long one indeed. The Tanzania Natural Resource Forum (TNRF) remembers Alan as a committed founder of the organisation and among its first Steering Committee members. Alan started his career in 1965 as a Game Warden in the Selous Game Reserve. He later worked for the University of Dar es Salaam, for many years in India with the Wildlife Institute of India as a UNDP-FAO consultant, and then with UNDP/ FAO-GEF in East Africa and more recently as the UNDP-GEF Technical Advisor for Biodiversity in East Africa, and as a Senior Adviser to ICRAF and UNDP in East Africa. Although Alan had medical cover, he was required to pay a portion of the bills. As he was in the Intensive Care Unit for nearly two months, the bills chargeable to his account are extremely hefty (in excess of US$ 35,000), and are placing a big financial strain on the family. Any financial contributions from friends to help defray these costs would be most appreciated. If you would like to contribute to the remaining costs, please contact the TNRF secretariat at info@tnrf.org. Bank account information will be available shortly online here. (No contribution is too small.)
For a full biography of Alan Rodgers, please go to: http://www.tnrf.org/node/9393
The Mama Misitu campaign on forestry governance has submitted a report of the public response to the informational mini-dramas on national television (TBC), and launched a radio programme. The report of the biofuels research of industry case studies is now available.
The Mama Misitu campaign
Public response to TV spots on illegal logging: The Mama Misitu office has received a wide response from the public to the February television mini dramas on illegal logging. The TV "spots" aimed to raise public awareness about illegal logging and encourage citizens to take action against the illegal flow of logs from community forests. After viewing the TV spots over 130 individual members of the public telephoned the Mama Misitu office in Dar es Salaam to report illegal logging in their communities. Telephone calls and text messages have come in from 15 regions and Kigoma, Morogoro, Rukwa and Kilimanjaro regions lead with the most reports. The callers provided information on the various types of illegal logging and timber trade incidences and generally kept their calls anonymous. The Mama Misitu office has submitted a detailed summary report to the Forestry and Beekeeping Division for further action. For more information on the public responses, please contact Rehema Mtingwa, Communications and Campaign Manager.
Radio programme is now on air!! Please tune in to Kikulacho on TBC Radio Wednesdays at 5.02 pm for Mama Misitu's entertaining, educational and interactive radio soap opera. The story portrayed in the radio programme is based on the experience of communities in Rufiji and Kilwa Districts, who stand witness to the shrinking of their forests due to corrupt and ineffective management systems. Despite the recent growth in the national timber trade due to factors such as improvements to the road infrastructure in the southern part of the country, residents such as those portrayed in Kikulacho receive little or no benefit from forestry revenue. The word, Kikulacho, literally meaning "that which eats you", refers to the community outrage at the rapid disappearance of Tanzania's forests. The WWF Tanzania Programme Office and the Mpingo Conservation Trust, who are the Mama Misitu campaign's lead partners in Rufiji and Kilwa, organized the discussions and interviews contributing to the radio production. Kikulacho listeners are encouraged to give their comments on air. The radio broadcasters will record all comments and report them to the Mama Misitu office. Kikulacho airs every Wednesday (with repeats on Sundays at 1.30 pm) through 20th May 2009.
Report on the biofuels industry case study is available: As the emerging biofuels industry in Tanzania becomes increasingly controversial in relation to community land rights, the TNRF research study on biofuels is ready for distribution. The report titled, "Biofuels, Land Tenure, and Rural Livelihoods in Tanzania", aims to fill information gaps and builds on reports recently developed by WWF Tanzania Programme Office, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and HakiArdhi. Putting the Tanzanian biofuels industry in the global context, the report reviews the investment trends and emerging impacts. Then, based on interviews and documents retrieved during the study in Kigoma, Arusha, Manyara and Coast Regions from four biofuels investors, their host communities and local governments, the report provides new in-depth information on the land acquisition process and existing business models and their impact on community development. After releasing the report TNRF plans to produce a summary version for distribution as a general reference during the development of the national biofuels policy. The report will also be included in a combined report of biofuels research findings from Mozambique and Tanzania published by IIED. This research report was commissioned by the Tanzania Forestry Working Group in collaboration with and supported by the IIED with additional support from IUCN.
While completing the data collection for the joint applied research study on the contribution of pastoral meat to the national economy the Task Force partners participated a visit to Kilosa District to hear opposing sides of the debate over land use and evictions of pastoralists. The results of the visit will be used as discussion topics during an upcoming meeting with the Pastoralist Parliamentary Group in Dodoma in April. The Task Force continues to streamline partner activities related to wetlands grazing management, the Wildlife and Grazing Lands Management Bills, and disseminating updates on range conditions.
Task Force report on the Kilosa meeting of the Tanzania Press Club: Although Task Force partners have long been active in the ongoing conflict resolution in Kilosa District the recent escalation of the conflict and national efforts to subdue the conflict have led the Task Force to take represent pastoralist concerns formally in an upcoming meeting with Members of Parliament. The Task Force participated in the Kilosa meeting of the Tanzania Press Club from which detailed accounts from farming and pastoralist residents have been recorded in a Task Force report. The report also provides the perspectives of journalists covering the evictions of pastoralists for their newspapers and records proposed future resolutions for the conflict suggested during the meeting. The Task Force will include the report in its upcoming meeting with the Pastoralist Parliamentary Task Force which is to be held in late April. The Task Force partners are committed to facilitating national level discussion on the guiding strategy behind the evictions in Kilosa and elsewhere. Central questions include: "Why are the evictions taking place?" and "What factors influence the evictions from one place to another?"
Data collection about pastoral meat markets complete: The Task Force's joint research study on the contribution of the pastoral meat market to the national economy has finished data collection in Arusha Municipality. Known as a Value Chain Analysis the research findings will be used as background information during upcoming advocacy initiatives to improve pastoralist livelihoods. Task Force members interviewed local residents in locations around Arusha ranging from livestock traders, pastoralists, butchers, supermarkets, nyama choma stands and abattoirs. The interviews gave the opportunity to record the major trends, challenges and opportunities related to buying and selling meat produced by pastoralists. The results of the data analysis will published in a report for public distibution as part of the Task Force's strategic commitment to information sharing. The Value Chain analysis of the pastoral meat economy is funded by Kimmage-IIED with additional support from VetAid Tanzania and Ereto NPP.
For more information on the ongoing Value Chain Analysis of the pastoral meat economy go to http://www.tnrf.org/taxonomy/term/146. The Pastoralism and Livelihoods Task Force, which is chaired by PINGOs Forum (http://www.pingosforum.net/), has the collective mandate to support training, research, networking, information sharing and policy advocacy for bridging the gap between pastoralists' needs and national policy to improve livelihoods.
The Ujamaa Community Resource Trust in partnership with TNRF facilitated a visit throughout Longido District to introduce the Community Forums initiative to local women's groups. The visit received a positive response from the women in Longido and will start to establish women's leadership forums.
Led by the Ujamaa Community Resource Trust (CRT), the Community Forums team visited all wards in Longido District to introduce an initiative to support women's groups to engage more effectively with local decision making bodies, including customary leadership institutions and local government. The effort to increase the participation of women in decision making aims to strengthen long term goal of reducing the double marginalization of women due to domestic violence and lack of political involvement. Women are often on the frontlines of natural resource management, because women are responsible for water and firewood collection by virtue of the traditional household labour divisions. As water and forest resources become scarcer, the direct involvement of women in resource allocation and management becomes crucial to conflict management. In Longido's villages key issues of concern identified for further debate by the women residents included domestic violence caused by alcoholism among men and the lack of land rights for women. The general response of the women to Community Forum's proposal was positive and steps are being taken to lay the groundwork for women's leadership forums at the ward level throughout Longido District. The women's leadership forums will have links to the customary leadership institutions of men at the ward and district levels.
The Maajabu Film Crew has joined forces with the Community-based Biodiversity Conservation Films project to enhance local participatory filmmaking and support to local filmmakers. The Maajabu office has now expanded to include its new Field Coordinator and CBCF staff!
TNRF welcomes the Community-based Biodiversity Conservation Films (CBCF) project to its offices in Arusha where Maajabu and CBCF will be working closely over the next year to create films exploring community experiences with natural resource management. CBCF is a Darwin Initiative funded project that seeks to train young conservationists how to make films highlighting environmental issues in various parts of Kenya and Tanzania (www.biodiversityconservationfilms.org/). Over the past year CBCF has generously sponsored the Maajabu team to attend film production trainings and has provided filming equipment for use in the Maajabu office. Together with CBCF and Maajabu's new Field Coordinator, Erica Rugabandana, Maajabu is able to expanding is services for showing and producing films. The Maajabu-CBCF partnership will produce and screen tailor made films for use in local environmental education programmes and policy advocacy initiatives based on the expertise of TNRF partners, working groups and the general public. The new partnership also allows for additional services including film equipment loans for local organizations, customized film trainings and film editing support. For a full service offering please contact Erica at e.rugabandana@tnrf.org.