Tanzania to spend USD 4.5 Million in restoring 5.2 million Hectares of the country’s Forest cover under AFR 100
Arusha.
The 55 African countries will need to plant at least 1.8 million Hectares of trees each, in order to achieve the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative, which aims to restore 100 million hectares by 2030.
Known as the ARF 100 the project is also an ambitious mission, which is expected to cost the continent USD 17.8 Million in total.
Tanzania is among the countries undertaking the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR 100) a country-led effort supported by a number of development partners.
The Conservation Commissioner of the Tanzania Forest Services (TSF) Agency Prof. Dos Santos Silayo, explained that so far, Tanzania with support from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Germany Government is working to restore 5.2 million hectares of forest cover on the country’s landscape.
It was revealed that the Tanzanian initiative will cost over 12 billion/- equivalent to USD 4.5 Million.
Silayo was addressing delegates during the inception workshop for the ARF 100 project running under the theme of ‘supporting AFR 100 by engaging with small scale forest and farm producer organizations!’
“We extend gratitude to the Government of Germany and FAO for the financial and technical support to the project on Achieving African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100) through Forest and Farm Producer Organizations,” said Prof Silayo.
The TFS Commissioner revealed that mainland Tanzania has approximately 48 million hectares of forest, equivalent to 55 percent of the total land area of 88.6 million hectares.
Zanzibar, on the other hand, has an estimated forest area of 106,500 hectares, equivalent to 40 percent of its total land area.
The permanent secretary in the President’s Office, Regional Administration and Local Government (PO-RALG), Benard Urassa said forest resources directly contribute 3.9 percent to the national Gross Domestic Product.
“That is excluding the contributions of other dependent sectors and the fact that they help reduce effects of climate change, but despite their importance, our forests face several challenges, including encroachment for agriculture, livestock grazing, mining, settlements, and illegal logging,” he said.
In Tanzania, forests are also major components of tourism and wildlife conservation.
Statistics indicate that Tanzania loses approximately 469,000 hectares of forest annually, mainly for firewood and charcoal burning, which is equivalent to emitting 43 million tons of carbon dioxide.
The Environment and Natural Resource Management Officer at FAO, Geoffrey Makanga said 10.3 million Hectares of trees are lost annually around the globe and that the area of primary forest worldwide has decreased by over 80 million hectares since 1990.
The FAO official explained that Agricultural expansion continues to be the main driver of deforestation and forest degradation and the associated loss of forest biodiversity.
Large-scale commercial agriculture (primarily cattle ranching and cultivation of soya bean and oil palm) accounted for 40 percent of tropical deforestation between 2000 and 2010, and local subsistence agriculture for another 33 percent.
President Samia Suluhu Hassan during the recent East African Heads of State Summit said the country was resorting to alternative sources of clean energy including wind, solar and hydroelectricity in order to save the trees.
This degradation is caused by unsustainable activities such as farming in water sources, steep slopes, and hills, as well as haphazard logging.
Tanzania joined global efforts to conserve and restore forests under the Bonn Challenge initiative. The country has pledged to restore 5.2 million hectares by 2030, as part of the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100) goal.
Some facts about Global Forests according to FAO
Forests cover 31 percent of the global land area.
Approximately half the forest area is relatively intact, and more than one-third is primary forest especially naturally regenerated forests of native species. This is where there are no human activities, and the ecological processes are not significantly disturbed.
The total forest area is 4.06 billion hectares, or approximately 5 000 square meters per person, but forests are not equally distributed around the globe.
More than half of the world’s forests are found in only five countries:
- The Russian Federation,
- Brazil,
- Canada,
- The United States of America
- China
- Two-thirds or 66 percent of forests are found in ten countries.
As of December 2019, a total of 20 334 tree species had been included in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN, 2019a), of which 8 056 were assessed as globally threatened (Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable).
More than 1 400 tree species are assessed as critically endangered and in urgent need of conservation action.