Kilwa missing out on timber revenue
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Thursday, 08 November 2012 15:11
digg_url = ' + location.href + '; digg_title = 'Kilwa missing out on timber revenue'; digg_bodytext = ''; digg_bgcolor = '#ffffff'; digg_window = 'new'; By Sylivester ErnestThe Citizen ReporterKilwa. With water bodies of different kinds, forests that are home to various precious trees, arable land capable of producing ample harvests and diverse minerals; Tanzania is in no doubt one of very few countries endowed with a lot of natural resources, making it literally rich.
Residents would have been better off if these resources and others like the recently discovered oil and gas available in Tanzania were properly managed.
The story has been different, however, with residents especially those living in resource-rich areas remaining poor despite taking part in conserving some of them, such as forests, and helping in their sustainability.Kilwa District, the most northerly in Lindi Region is one such area with abundant wealth in forests, among many others. Save for the eastern part of the district, which has the wealthy Indian Ocean, it is surrounded by forests and the famous Selous Game Reserve to the west.
With a vast area of 13,920km² of which a large part is covered by forest, the district and its people would have been expected to benefit abundantly from the resources.
Out of the 93 villages, less than ten have benefited from the forests, with numerous cases of timber smuggling by people from distant areas being reported. Also, some villages have found themselves in problems due to border disputes.
On the other hand, the problem has been on the management issue, with authorities failing to put in place mechanisms to curb issues like timber smuggling, illegal game hunting, charcoal making and harvesting of other forest products.
Causing a headache also is the availability of many illegal ports, which facilitate the smuggling of timber to areas as far as Zanzibar, Dar es Salaam and even the Islands of Comoro, according to Kilwa District executive director, Adoh Stephen Mapunda.
He says the vastness of the district and a shortage of resources have made it difficult for the authorities to tackle the problem.
“We have only two old speedboats while the smugglers have more modern vessels than we do…it is a challenge to bring them down,” says Mr Mapunda.
Despite these challenges, Mr Mapunda says, there have been efforts involving the community to fight the problem with Participatory Forest Management (PFM), an initiative to involve the locals in conserving the surrounding forests. He said the indication was that all was going in the right direction.
“Through partnerships with other NGOs and the community, we recently managed to confiscate about 2,000 timber which was being smuggled by criminals,” he says adding; “…we have since given the timber to Kilwa Secondary School which will use it to make 70 beds for their dormitories and others to the college of Community Development.”Campaigns like Mama Misitu, which aim at building public, private and non-governmental partnerships as well as networks related to sustainable use of forests and timber products have also emerged.
Many local organisations such as the Journalists Environmental Association of Tanzania (JET) are working hard to promote participatory forest management processes. This is to ensure that communities increase their rights over their land and forests as well as strengthen their capacities to sustainably manage their forests.
Mama Misitu will work in eight districts during a 5-year project, which will take place between 2012 and 2016. There will also be a focus on national-level engagement, where Mama Misitu hopes to raise public awareness on the value of forests and their sustainable management to the nation.
Kilwa District acting Lands, Natural Resources and Environment officer Abushiri Mbwana says the council is losing a lot of revenues as timber and other forest products are being smuggled through unofficial routes.He also said that dishonest people were conducting illegal harvests in the forests.
According to the officer, the problem was being contributed by unavailability of natural resource officers in every ward who would be tasked with the responsibility of conserving the forests but due to limited resources, the posts were abandoned and so the responsibility remained with the district headquarters.
He says the PFM initiative has bore fruits especially as more villages continue to reap the fruits of community forest reserves.
“More importantly, every forest needs to have a manager... however, due to limited resources, we don’t have them so protection of the forests becomes fragile,” says Mr Mbwana.
Kilwa forest officer Mfangavo Mustafa says the district has more than 400,000 hectares of forest reserve with 219,000 hectares under the central government, 185,000 hectares under villages and another 54,000 hectares were being proposed to be under the district council.
Residents would have been better off if these resources and others like the recently discovered oil and gas available in Tanzania were properly managed.
The story has been different, however, with residents especially those living in resource-rich areas remaining poor despite taking part in conserving some of them, such as forests, and helping in their sustainability.Kilwa District, the most northerly in Lindi Region is one such area with abundant wealth in forests, among many others. Save for the eastern part of the district, which has the wealthy Indian Ocean, it is surrounded by forests and the famous Selous Game Reserve to the west.
With a vast area of 13,920km² of which a large part is covered by forest, the district and its people would have been expected to benefit abundantly from the resources.
Out of the 93 villages, less than ten have benefited from the forests, with numerous cases of timber smuggling by people from distant areas being reported. Also, some villages have found themselves in problems due to border disputes.
On the other hand, the problem has been on the management issue, with authorities failing to put in place mechanisms to curb issues like timber smuggling, illegal game hunting, charcoal making and harvesting of other forest products.
Causing a headache also is the availability of many illegal ports, which facilitate the smuggling of timber to areas as far as Zanzibar, Dar es Salaam and even the Islands of Comoro, according to Kilwa District executive director, Adoh Stephen Mapunda.
He says the vastness of the district and a shortage of resources have made it difficult for the authorities to tackle the problem.
“We have only two old speedboats while the smugglers have more modern vessels than we do…it is a challenge to bring them down,” says Mr Mapunda.
Despite these challenges, Mr Mapunda says, there have been efforts involving the community to fight the problem with Participatory Forest Management (PFM), an initiative to involve the locals in conserving the surrounding forests. He said the indication was that all was going in the right direction.
“Through partnerships with other NGOs and the community, we recently managed to confiscate about 2,000 timber which was being smuggled by criminals,” he says adding; “…we have since given the timber to Kilwa Secondary School which will use it to make 70 beds for their dormitories and others to the college of Community Development.”Campaigns like Mama Misitu, which aim at building public, private and non-governmental partnerships as well as networks related to sustainable use of forests and timber products have also emerged.
Many local organisations such as the Journalists Environmental Association of Tanzania (JET) are working hard to promote participatory forest management processes. This is to ensure that communities increase their rights over their land and forests as well as strengthen their capacities to sustainably manage their forests.
Mama Misitu will work in eight districts during a 5-year project, which will take place between 2012 and 2016. There will also be a focus on national-level engagement, where Mama Misitu hopes to raise public awareness on the value of forests and their sustainable management to the nation.
Kilwa District acting Lands, Natural Resources and Environment officer Abushiri Mbwana says the council is losing a lot of revenues as timber and other forest products are being smuggled through unofficial routes.He also said that dishonest people were conducting illegal harvests in the forests.
According to the officer, the problem was being contributed by unavailability of natural resource officers in every ward who would be tasked with the responsibility of conserving the forests but due to limited resources, the posts were abandoned and so the responsibility remained with the district headquarters.
He says the PFM initiative has bore fruits especially as more villages continue to reap the fruits of community forest reserves.
“More importantly, every forest needs to have a manager... however, due to limited resources, we don’t have them so protection of the forests becomes fragile,” says Mr Mbwana.
Kilwa forest officer Mfangavo Mustafa says the district has more than 400,000 hectares of forest reserve with 219,000 hectares under the central government, 185,000 hectares under villages and another 54,000 hectares were being proposed to be under the district council.
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