TFS set for 62.7bn/- worth projects to scale up forests preservations -

By STAFF REPORTER, Dodoma

THE Tanzania Forest Services (TFS) is under implementation of three major projects for scaling up preservation and improvement of the forest sector in the country.

The 62.7bn/- worth projects, being funds accrued from the development partners, include ‘Integrated Landscape Management in the Dry Miombo Woodlands of Tanzania (DSL-IP), “Building the resilience of forest biodiversity to the threats of climate change in Tanzania’s nature forest reserves’ and ‘Integrated Approach to Sustainable cooking solution’.

Addressing a press conference yesterday in Dodoma Capital City, TFS Conservation Commissioner, Professor Dos Santos Silayo said implementation of the projects was due to a mutual understanding and good cooperation between Tanzania and other countries.

Going into the project’s specific details, he unveiled that the ‘Integrated Landscape Management in the Dry Miombo Woodlands of Tanzania (DSL-IP) was spending a total of USD 6.9million.

“The key objective of this project is to help curtail and reverse the negative trend of land degradation and loss of biodiversity in the degraded areas of the Miombo forests in western Tanzania by using an integrated landscape management approach, ” he informed.

The other project, the ‘Integrated Approach to Sustainable Cooking Solution, according to Prof. Silayo involves more than 34.3bn/- (Euro 12,500million).

“This project aims to promote sustainable forest management and wood-fuel production in rural areas with an overall aim of enhancing environmental sustainability, in particular the sustainability of the wood-fuel value chain,” he explained.

Together with that, he communicated that the package includes implementation of the third project, dubbed “Building the resilience of forest biodiversity to the threats of climate change in Tanzania’s nature forest reserves’.

He said the robust initiative is worth around USD4.8 million.

“The project is for carrying out activities to build the capacity of forests of nature reserves to withstand the negative effects of climate change by building forest protection infrastructure, strengthening activities to increase income through eco-tourism, together with other activities meant to heighten incomes to the communities surrounding forests, ” he unveiled.

Moreover, informing over the TFS’s achievement in developing the forest sector during the 2022/23 fiscal year, the Don stated that TFS had managed to establish one major tree farm in Makere area of Kasulu-Kigoma, occupying at least 65,000 hactare.

“Apart from establishing the tree estate, we also managed to expand two farms, including Mtibwa (12,000 hactare) and Pagale range and Longuza at 400 hactares extent,” he expressed.

During the past fiscal year, he added that TFS had successfully produced 25.9 tons of tree seeds and planted a total of 32,735,653 seedlings of numerous tree varieties at different areas of the 24 public tree farms available across the country.

“Othere seeds were distributed to the relevant stakeholders in the private sector in the country,” he added.

He said so far, TFS has managed to plant a total of 6,909 new trees as well as replace trees at a total of 2,434 at different state-owned tree farms in the country.

Dwelling over the other success obtained during the past financial year, Prof. Silayo said TFS managed to conduct a special forest inventory at a total of 42 forests (1,031,293 hectares) across the country, and later on developed the relevant management plans.

In the same vein, he informed that, during the period, TFS had also to upgrade 15 forests to the level of national forest parks, and other five national natural reserves forests, occupying a total of 58,216 hectares.

Similarly, he said during last year, TFS received a total of 4bn/- from the monies that was disbursed by President Samia Suluhu Hassan for supporting improvement of forests preservations and tourism in the country.

“With the amount, we managed to construct at least five modern entry gates at different five nationa parks, but also, the money assisted us to construct a 97km road, as well as a 190.5km-long tourists walking trails at 11 parks,” he expressed.

He also added that through TFS’s internal work plan, they have managed also to improve the country’s ecological and cultural tourism attractions by rehabilitating at least 231.7km of tourists trails, and 643.54 roads within forests.

Tanzania Forest Service (TFS) is a semi-autonomous government Executive Agency whose establishment is supported by the Executive Agency Act (Cap. 245 Revised Edition 2009), the National Forest and Beekeeping Policies adopted in March 1998 and administered through The Forest Act (No. 14 of 2002) and Beekeeping Act (No. 15 of 2002) which provides legal framework for the management of forests and bee resources.