CoForEST Project Overview
Overall Project goal: Sustainable, community natural forest management that transforms the economics and governance of forest product value chains and contributes to climate change mitigation and adaptation. The CoForEST project is designed to contribute to Tanzania’s development vision by supporting domestic value chains in forest products including sustainable charcoal and timber.
The project seeks to achieve the project goal through three inter-connected outcomes:
Outcome 1: Scaling-up CBFM and piloting a sustainable financing mechanism The capacity of national, regional and local authorities and community members is strengthened to implement and scale-up CBFM in ways that diversify livelihoods and reduce deforestation.
Outcome 2: Dialogue on supportive policies and sustainable financing A supportive policy framework and financing mechanism for communitybased forest management and sustainable natural forest-based enterprises is in place.
Outcome 3: Research, monitoring and learning Research and learning institutions in Tanzania are generating new knowledge about enterprise-oriented CBFM and are integrating this in student learning.
What is community-based forest management?
Under Tanzanian law, communities have the right to establish village land forest reserves (VLFRs). The community is then responsible for managing the forest and may collect and retain revenues from forest products. Revenue from harvesting permits is used to pay for reserve management and community development projects. What are sustainable forest-based enterprises? The CoForEST harvesting model aims to sustain the biodiversity and other ecosystem services provided by natural woodland. By combining our understanding of miombo woodland ecology and standard forestry methods, the project has piloted sustainable timber and charcoal harvesting. After an area is harvested, natural regeneration is encouraged through careful fire management and exclusion of other disturbances such as livestock and agriculture.
Project Area
The project will operate at national-scale with district-level support for CBFM provided in seven districts: Kilosa, Morogoro and Mvomero in Morogoro Region; Lindi and Nachingwea in Lindi Region and Kilolo District in Iringa. An additional district will be added in 2021.
Project Duration
The CoForEST Project will operate for three years from December 2019 until November 2022. The CoForEST project follows on from the Transforming Tanzania’s Charcoal Sector project (2012 – 2019). Find out more about CoForEST For more information about the project, please visit: www.tfcg.org/what-we-do/develop/sustainablecharcoal/
Project Partners
The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) is Switzerland’s international cooperation agency. The project is financed by SDC. info@deza.admin.ch www.sdc.admin.ch
The Tanzania Forest Conservation Group (TFCG) is a national NGO whose mission is to conserve and restore the biodiversity of globally important forests in Tanzania. TFCG is the lead partner in facilitating the implementation of the CoForEST Project. tfcg@tfcg.or.tz www.tfcg.org
The Tanzania Community Forest Conservation Network (MJUMITA) is a national network of community groups involved in participatory forest management. MJUMITA is responsible establishing a self-sustaining CBFM model in Morogoro Region and for supporting communities to advocate for policies that are supportive of CBFM. mjumitaorg@mjumita.org www.mjumita.org
The CoForEST Project is being implemented in collaboration with: – the President’s Office for Regional Administration and Local Government, – the Division of Environment in the VicePresident’s Office, – the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, – Local Government Authorities in seven districts, – Regional Secretariats in five regions – Sokoine University of Agriculture, – The Tanzania Forestry Research Institute – the Africa Forest Forum.