Planting forest gardens in Tanzania
Context
Tanzania is an East African country, situated just south of the Equator, which is home to around 60 million people. Its climate is varied due to the nature of its typography, with hot and humid low plains on the east, and generally cool highlands in the north and south. Tanzania is well recognised for its renowned tourism destinations including Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain, and the Serengeti’s annual wildebeest migration.
The Serengeti National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to its outstanding universal value, is an indicator of the high degree of biodiversity and abundant wildlife in the country.
Due to its geographical location, Tanzania also hosts an array of rich marine and coastal ecosystems including estuaries, reefs and mangroves. These coastal areas not only provide vital habitat for wildlife which supports local livelihoods, but also assist in reducing the impact of extreme weather events such as floods.
With over a thousand bird species and nine endemic bird areas, biodiversity in Tanzania is tough to beat. It is also home to the 10th highest total number of IUCN Red Listed threatened species in the world, some of which include the kipunji monkey, the Matilda’s horned viper, and the amani forest frog. This reflects the critical importance of maintaining the high degree of biodiversity in Tanzania, which unfortunately, is on the decline.
Tanzania’s natural resources are under threat, and approximately only one third of the country’s environment is formally protected. Due to agricultural expansion and increased urbanisation, it is estimated that Tanzania has lost at least one-third of its ecosystems and biodiversity hosted within forests and wooded areas over the past few decades. In addition, overexploitation, land degradation, and deforestation are some of the key drivers amplifying these issues. It is therefore vital that measures be taken to address the threats to biodiversity in Tanzania, and to aid in reforestation efforts.
Planting Partner
Trees for the Future (TREES) has planted more than 250 million trees since it was founded in 1989.
In addition to enhancing ecological and environmental benefits at planting sites around the world, TREES’ staff are experts in agroforestry, which combines agriculture and forestry to create integrated and sustainable land-use systems. TREES aim to address the problem of degraded and over-worked lands by providing farmers with tree seeds, technical training, onsite planning and assistance, and an overall reclamation and business plan for their future.
TREES works with the Clinton Development Initiative (CDI) to train and equip local farmers within the Community Agri-Business program to plant trees consisting of agroforestry, fruit trees, and timber trees to improve agriculture sustainability and livelihoods development. This involves delivering appropriate, effective tree-planting support through training, extension of a loan package that includes trees and vegetable seeds, tree sacs and a few tools to help farmers to plant trees within specific target communities.
Project
This project will take place in Iringa, a region in the south of Tanzania which stretches along the ridges and valleys of the Udzungwa Mountains. Currently, farmers in Iringa are predominantly planting one or two types of crops. This method of planting leaves farmers incredibly vulnerable to extreme weather events, pests, and market fluctuations. In addition, most farmers operate individually, with little to no support and access to overcome obstacles in agricultural production and formal markets. To combat this, TREES’ projects utilise their tried and tested Forest Garden Approach. This involves a unique training programme that teaches farmers how to plant thousands of trees to protect their land and bring nutrients back to the soil, helping them to improve the size and quality of their crop yields.
The trees that are planted in the Forest Gardens revitalise the local landscape and help create new business and market opportunities for the farmers, which enables them to diversify their income and be more resilient to climate change. The Iringa Forest Garden project will run over the course of two years, starting in May 2022 through to December 2023 and will plant upwards of 1.8 million trees over this period. It will involve around 600 local farmers.
You can read more about Forest Gardens here.
See the project on Restor here.
Latest project update
This year’s planting season has gone incredibly well! Farmers enrolled in the Iringa CDI3 Forest Gardens program planted a huge 600,000 trees in January, and another 603,000 in February – this means over two thirds of the trees for this project have been planted in just 2 months!
Farmers are already seeing the benefits of their Forest Gardens, which continue to produce fruits and vegetables despite low rainfall. This shows how important these projects are for the health and wellbeing of the farmers and their families.
Climate Solution #15
Tree plantations on degraded land
Degraded pasture and agricultural lands, or other lands corrupted from uses such as mining, are ripe for strategic planting of trees and perennial biomass. This can take a variety of forms—from seeding dense plots of diverse indigenous species to introducing a single exotic species as a plantation crop.
Fast-growing, dense plots of native species show that afforestation can draw down carbon, while supporting biodiversity, addressing human needs for firewood, food, and medicine, and providing ecosystem services such as flood and drought protection.