Tanzania’s forest cover is eroding: focus now on enhancing forest area

(5 minutes read)

· Over the past many years, Tanzania is losing 483,859 hectares of forests annually to charcoal production, which is creating consternation among the government agencies and other development focused entities

· The Tanzania Forest Conservation Department in collaboration with Mjumita — a nonprofit group working in several villages in the Morogoro region has prepared land-use plans for increasing the acreage
under forest

· The government is also mulling a plan to limit charcoal use in Dar es Salaam and other urban centers as a measure to minimize environment degradation.

Over the past many years, Tanzania is losing 483,859 hectares of forests annually to charcoal production, which is creating consternation among the government agencies and other development focused entities.

According to the government data, the country with 48.1 million hectares of forests has the highest rate of world. This is created by the excessive demand for charcoal, used as the main source of energy in kitchens in urban areas. The government is taking steps to control the deforestation of the forest resources in association with voluntary groups. It is experimenting with a unique model in several villages to produce environmentally friendly charcoal after several failed attempts to ban it.

The Tanzania Forest Conservation Department in collaboration with Mjumita — a nonprofit group working in several villages in the Morogoro region has prepared land-use plans for increasing the acreage under forest. The measures being planned include dedicating village land for forest reserves. Of which, 10% of the area is designated
for charcoal production, beekeeping, and timber harvesting. The scheme is successful not only in creating more forest land and sustainable charcoal production, but also helping local villagers to earn income. In just five years, the villagers have earned a total of US$200,000 through charcoal sale, timber harvesting and bee keeping.

Tanzania’s charcoal industry is worth US$650 million a year, employs hundreds of thousands of people as producers, transporters and retailers. According to the World Bank, Tanzania generates only 10% of the tax revenue from the charcoal business, which is very less compared to the volume of business and the potential to trade the item.

The government is also mulling a plan to limit charcoal use in Dar es Salaam and other urban centers as a measure to minimize environment degradation. The city consumes half of the total charcoal produced in the country. To minimize the use of charcoal, the government is trying to diversify cooking energy resources to limit charcoal use.