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8.2.2.2.2 Management authority under REDDAs a final activity in the first stage, and as a result of Village Assembly meetings,Village Natural Resource Committees were democratically elected and created, andgiven the main management responsibility of the forest. When creating these VNRC´scertain criteria were laid out for their establishment and operation.Table 53: Establishment and responsibilities for the VNRC’sThe committee is made up of at least 12 people but no more than 15. At least one third are women andmembers should be above 18 years of age. At least one representative from each sub-village arerepresented which holds knowledge about the forest and its resources. Half of the members should beliterate. They are elected by the village assembly on four year terms. They should not be members ofthe village council although the chairman can attend the meetings together with the VEO.Through bylaws, VNRCs have the legal mandate to manage the village forest reserves on behalf of thecommunity. This is done by patrolling the forests in question, and to our understanding, enforce therules by giving out fines and sanctions. Reports are written and given to the village council, which hasthe responsibility of oversee its performance.The VNRC will receive training on carbon measurement and be a part of the monitoring, reporting andverification process that is required for REDD payments. This will be done in collaboration withexperts from TFCG/MJUMITA. The members will also attend seminars on forest conservation andREDD.Source: (Kibuga, Nguya et al. 2011)At the time of our visit, our three selected villages had just gone through stage oneand elected their VNRC, or “Mkuhumi group” 46 as they called it, but none of the threevillages had started land use planning.When assessing the villagers‟ thoughts and expectations concerning the establishmentof REDD in their respective villages, we asked who they thought would manage theproject “well” in their village, and quite a few answered they were unsure or did notfeel the local or village government would be able to do so and was rather in favour ofa specially elected village committee or with NGOs, as outlined below:46 Mkuhumi means REDD in Kiswahili236