Eastern Africa Coastal Forest Programme: Regional Workshop ...

possibly the level of threats in the areas. Forest that are noticeably rich in species for
their size and forests with relatively high endemism Pugu, Rondo Plateau, Litipo,
Matumbi hills, Kichi Hills, Zaraninge, Pangani falls, Litipo, Pindiro and Mlola. More
surveys and analysis are required to obtain enough data before priority setting.
Since 1990s WWF realised the facts that coastal forests in Tanzania have global
biodiversity and national socio-economic values, and are highly prioritised by the
Forest Department through the Tanzania Forest Action Plan (TFAP, 1988) for
conservation due to their values, and are facing increasing pressure and threats
resulting from a combination of human activities including: shifting cultivation,
illegal timber extraction, forest fires, commercial and subsistence hunting, and
encroachment for farming and settlement.
In response, WWF began a project in 1991which strives to achieve the conservation
of coastal forests through a combination of active protection measures and local
community’s efforts, in collaboration with the Forest Department, district authorities,
village governments, local NGOs and other donor agencies. The goal of the project is
to conserve representative samples of lowland coastal forests in Tanzania. The
immediate objectives are:
Villages, districts and forest department have the institutional capacity to manage
and protect key forests in coast region
Ecosystems within forest reserves are conserved through efficient management
systems acceptable to, and including the participation of, local communities.
Local communities develop an alternative resource base to reduce pressure on
selected coastal forests
Local communities attain greater awareness on conservation and sustainable
resource use through a programme of education and awareness.
Biological and socio-economic surveys and monitoring provide a basis for forest
reserve management
Lessons learned and recommended next steps with EACF conservation:
• The current new national Forest Policy (1998) which advocates on involvement
of all key stakeholders in managing forest resources, is a good opportunity for
initiating a broader coastal forest programme involving a wide range of
stakeholders.
• Following tangible success of existing site level projects a scaled up regional
programme is now necessary as it allows for a holistic approach to tackling root
causes and ensure upgraded capacity for impact on conservation.
• Regulation of timber trade in the region needs emphasis in the proposed
programme borrowing some experiences by the people and plant programme in
Kenya, where wood caring project had much positive impact.
• The EACP should come up with longer proposed time frame (10-15 years) to
provide for more capacity building potential and involvement of partners.
• Assess alternative resource and income generating activities for human livelihood
and marketing options.
• The EACP should mainly be playing a facilitation role to the local partners and
very mini9mum implementation role at field level to strengthen local programme
ownership, responsibility, knowledge base and consequently sustainability of
programme initiatives.
• Considering scattered national coastal forest initiatives by different players there
is a need to establish national coastal forests network/partnership and EACF
initiatives co-ordinated in a regional scale.
Eastern Africa Coastal Forests - 11 - Workshop Report, Nairobi February 4-7 2002