Advancing REDD in the Kolo Hills Forests (ARKFor) - African Wildlife

Advancing REDD in the
Kolo Hills Forests (ARKFor)
Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD)
and Protecting a Critical Landscape for Tanzania’s Wildlife and People
Forest Conservation Community Benefit Carbon Credits Wildlife Conservation
The African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) is an international conservation organisation headquartered in Nairobi,
Kenya, and focused solely on Africa. AWF’s mission is to work together with the people of Africa to ensure the
wildlife and wild lands of Africa endure forever. AWF has an integrated large landscape-scale approach, called the
African Heartland Programme, which is currently operational in nine landscapes across fourteen countries in central,
eastern, southern and west Africa. In each Heartland, AWF implements its work through four programmes: applied
science and research; land and habitat conservation; conservation enterprise; and capacity building. Climate change
and policy development are cross-cutting themes that are integrated into each of these programmes.

Advancing REDD in the Ko
AWF and Climate Change
AWF recognises the threat of climate change to Africa and is working to implement an integrated climate
change programme to:
1. Improve understanding of climate change through education, capacity building and training.
2. Reduce carbon emissions, forest degradation and deforestation, and generate community and
conservation income through carbon offset programmes.
3. Mitigate the impacts of climate change through large-scale conservation.
4. Improve monitoring, scientific assessment and modeling of climate change.
5. Help communities adapt to the impacts of climate change.
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Congo R.
Virunga
Samburu
Kilimanjaro
Maasai Steppe
Zambezi
Zambezi R.
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Maasai Steppe Heartland
The Maasai Steppe Heartland (MSHL), located in
northern Tanzania, is approximately 35,000 km 2 .
The area is predominantly covered by lowland
wooded savannah and grassland and is renowned
for supporting the world’s second largest density
of faunal biomass after Ngorongoro. Large
population of elephant (approximately 3,500),
large migratory herds of wildebeest and zebra as
well as locally threatened species such as oryx,
hartebeest, greater and lesser kudu, gerenuk
and eland are found in the Heartland. The MSHL
is also home to predators such as lion, leopard,
and the endangered African hunting dog. Bird
biodiversity is exceptionally high. The area is
also known as one of the world’s last surviving
large intact wild landscapes comprised of
national parks, controlled hunting areas, wildlife
management areas, forest reserves, wetlands
and community lands. The Lake Manyara and
Tarangire National Parks are ecological anchors
in the Heartland. The MSHL together with the
Ngorongoro Conservation Area and Serengeti
National Park form the northern tourism circuit,
which offers the greatest proportion of Tanzania’s
tourism contribution (approximately 18%) to the
national gross domestic product. The MSHL is
home to over 350,000 people, mostly pastoralists.

lo Hills Forests (ARKFor)
Kolo Hills Carbon Project, TANZANIA
AWF is implementing a three-year pilot project on Reducing
Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD).
The project, referred to as Advancing REDD in the Kolo Hills
Forests (ARKFor), is located in Kondoa District, north-central
Tanzania. The project area covers approximately 56,291
hectares and includes 21 villages encompassing government and
community land. Three government forest reserves are included in
the project area: the Salanka (8,337 ha); the Isabe (4,249 ha); and
the Kome (4,047 ha). These reserves fall under the jurisdiction of
the Kondoa District Council, a key project partner.
The hills and escarpment in the project area are dominated
by miombo (Brachystegia spp.) woodlands. The topography is
characterized by two distinct physical features: vast plains and the
Kondoa Irangi Hills, known as Kolo Hills. The Kolo Hills have an
average altitude of 1,800m, with an average annual rainfall ranging
between 800-900mm. The prevailing soils are moderately fertile
red sandy loams and clays that are suitable for the growth of shortcycle
maize varieties, sorghum, beans and finger millet. The plains
have average elevation of 1,200m and the climate is semi-arid with
an unreliable growing season of less than two and a half months.
The soils are sandy with low water storage capacities and are
suitable for the growth of such hardy crops as bulrush millet and a
variety of sorghum. Grazing is the most common land use in
this zone.
The main economic activities in the area are crop cultivation
(nearly 70%) and agro-pastoralism (nearly 27%). The population
of people in the project area is approximately 62,000 while
households are about 14,000.
The Kolo Hills Forest is the Headwaters for the Tarangire River,
which is the main source of dry season water for wildlife inside
Tarangire National Park. Should the river flows decrease, impacts
on aquatic and riparian habitat and wildlife would be significant.
Tarangire National Park is part of the larger conservation complex
that forms the MSHL and the northern Tanzanian tourism circuit.
Threat to the Forest
The communities are dependent on the forest for n variety of uses.
The drivers of deforestation and forest degradation are (charcoal
36%; timber 32%; building poles 26%; and firewood 6%). Shifting
cultivation and agricultural expansion drives most of the harvesting.
The annual rate of deforestation is 0.46% and forest degradation
rate is 5.2%. This severely threatens the existing 1.76 million
tons of Carbon (CO 2
) in target forests of 22,030 ha; and 0.81 million
tons of carbon (CO 2
) in the 34,200 ha of the surrounding areas
or leakage belt.
The Kolo Hills REDD project has been set up to:
• Halt deforestation and degradation on approximately 22,000 hectares
of core forest through development of alternative livelihoods for
forest-dependent communities.
• Market and sell carbon credits to support the conservation of this
critical forest and support community livelihoods.
• Reduce CO 2
emissions from deforestation and forest degradation
through improving land and forest management by enforcing land use
management and participatory forest management plans.
• Develop the capacity of local communities and government in
understanding and addressing REDD issues, including forest
carbon management and trading.
• Share learning and promote networking for better climate change
for forest management and conservation policies and practice.
Accomplishments:
Carbon quantification completed, 2.6 million tCO 2
in the
project area.
Drivers of deforestation assessment done.
PIN completed.
PDD and socio-economic study are near completion
Capacity building for REDD, including training of
trainers, completed.
Farmers trained on conservation farming. This work has
demonstrated an eight-fold yield increase.
Ten villages developed and approved village land use plans, five
of which were submitted and registered at the ministry level. The
approval of these plans is the first step towards securing land
tenure for communities.
Thirteen villages formed a Joint Forest Management (JFM)
Association and drafted a general JFM plan for two government
forest reserves.
Twenty one Village Forest Scouts have been trained on forest
law enforcement and forest management. To date, 87 men and
62 women have been trained on land use planning, REDD, JFM
and forest conservation.
Alternative livelihood assessments completed and some initiated.
AWF assessments indicate that the ARKFor REDD project in the
Kolo Hills will lead to 2.6 million tons of carbon (CO 2
) emissions
saved from avoided deforestation and forest degradation. Given
the current market rates for carbon credits, this could generate
between $52,000 and $105,000 annually. Additional carbon
mitigation activities could create more carbon sinks and generate
additional income from enhancement of carbon stocks (increasing
carbon stock by promoting regeneration) in existing forest areas;
as well as creating new carbon sinks through reforestation.
While payments to communities from REDD may not be sufficient
to cover opportunity costs of forest conservation, investments
associated with REDD projects, together with the credits,
provide communities with development paths which are reducing
pressures on forest systems.

AWF is seeking support for the Kolo Project and a buyer for the
carbon credits. For more information about the Advancing REDD
in the Kolo Hills Forests Project please contact:
Photo Credits: Paul Lampert, Andrea Athanas, Billy Dodson and AWF.
Kathleen H. Fitzgerald
Director, Land Conservation
Nairobi, Kenya
kfitzgerald@awfke.org
Tel: 253 729 406222
Andrea Athanas
Senior Program Design Officer, East Africa
Arusha, Tanzania
aathanas@awfafrica.org
www.awf.org
Technical implementing partners:
CAMCO, Selian Agricultural Research Institute (SARI), UDSM, and Kondoa District Council