Building REDD Readiness in the Masito Ugalla Ecosystem Pilot Area in Support of Tanzania's National REDD Strategy

Building on more than a decade of conservation work in western Tanzania, the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) brought together a broad consortium of organizations to respond to the Norwegian call for REDD+ funding proposals in 2009. Once they obtained funding for the initiative in Kigoma, known as Building REDD Readiness in the Masito Ugalla Ecosystem Pilot Area in Support of Tanzania's National REDD Strategy, they helped establish a community-based organization linked to the Kigoma District Council called Jumuiya ya Watunza Msitu wa Masito (JUWAMMA). The objective of the initiative was to reduce deforestation and forest degradation driven by demand for agricultural land and fuelwood. Challenges include the exceptionally low per capita income and high population growth rate in the Masito Ugalla region, where the majority of households depend on natural resources, including NTFPs. Within this region, the REDD+ initiative primarily targeted seven pilot villages along the shores of Lake Tanganyika and included another eight villages surrounding general (open-access) lands in the Masito dry forest ecosystem in order to control leakages. In order to protect these forests, the initiative established forest patrols, encouraged beekeeping as an alternative income source and enhanced capacity and governance mechanisms for local communities and government institutions to administer and benefit from REDD+. Since funding for the REDD+ initiative ended in June 2013, JUWAMMA has continued working with the seven intervention villages to build on these initial steps.

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