Benefits from biodiversity in the Coast Region

Over the last fourteen years, the Wildlife Conservation Society of Tanzania has been managing the Coastal forests of Pugu and Kazimzumbwi through the District authority with co-ordinated efforts of the donors, the government and other well wishers. The 'protect and don't touch' has been the main principle approach to the conservation of these forests. On the other hand, the local community has highly depended on the natural resources and products for their daily life and survival. This has lead to an intensive relationship between the managing authorities and the local communities living adjacent to these forests. Recently (1998), the National Forests Policy and the National Forests Programme was enacted calling for community participatory in resource management. Both National Forest Policy and the National Forest Program give full authority to the conservation of natural forests and wildlife in areas with high biodiversity through local populations, who significantly depend on the forest and wildlife resources and who should be sharing the costs and benefits of managing those resources. This project proposes income generation activities within the Joint forest management areas in Pugu and Masanganya forest reserves to explore the potential of these new approaches for natural resource management and conservation through sharing benefits of biodiversity-rich natural forests. The objective of the project is to engage women, men and youths in environmentally non-destructive income generation activities.

The project concept was introduced to stake holders in Mkuranga and Kisarawe districts in Coast region: government officers from district, wards and village levels, and local communities in the project areas. WCST project staff and other partners took part in a series of introduction meetings to put into the picture the details and expectations for all concerned. Through trainings in business management skills and revolving loan fund, women, men and youths learned to engage in environmentally non-destructive income generation activities. The tropical rain forests of Pugu and Masanganya are to a large extent more secured now than before the project operations as a small section of would-be destroyers are doing something else outside the forest. This however has not completely eliminated the threat as the project was not big enough to reach the majority of the people living around the reserves. Local communities are now involved in alternative income generation activities such as bee keeping , Horticulture, poultry keeping, soap making out of Neem tree extract, small shops, food selling , mushroom production (very small scale but looks promising) and others. There is increasing awareness by village district and ward leaders on environment conservation issues after being trained on participatory conservation approaches. This project has also provided a synergy with the CARE project working for Joint Forest Management (JFM)