FINNIGAN WA SIMBEYE, 1st December 2009 @ 12:00, Total Comments: 0, Hits: 3241
AN agreement of compensating farmers and other forestry plantation owners in the developing countries through Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, will not benefit local farmers unless some restructuring is done to the current payment system regime.
Aconsultant with the Vice- President's Office Department of Environment, Mr Andrew Williams, said the current participatory forestry management project has failed to benefit farmers at the grass root directly.
"Assuming that an agreement on REDD is achieved at the Copenhagen meeting, there are further issues for Tanzania as a country to get right nationally, if REDD is to work for Tanzania's citizens and its forests," Mr Williams pointed out.
Mr Williams who is a senior associate consultant with United Kingdom based Kilimanyika Limited, argued that the REDD principle requires that people who are responsible for managing the country's forests receive payments proportional to performance.
"While it is important that government institutions managing state forests are paid for the forests they manage and enhance for REDD, the most important stakeholders for REDD in Tanzania are communities-- or villages," he argued.
Kilimanyika Ltd which has a subsidiary office in Arusha, has been contracted by the VPO's Department of Environment with Norwegian funding to offer consultancy services on the country's preparations towards Copenhagen Summit.
The REDD initiative which is Norwegian government's brainchild in addressing climate change, seeks to compensate farmers and plantation forest managers for every tree which they own.
Experts argue that well managed forests help absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere which is blamed for global warming. Industrialized countries of the North are blamed for emitting more carbon dioxide in the process of production, hence the need to compensate farmers who assist to mitigate such negative effects of development.
Through a participatory forestry management, communities have not been able to get fair compensation for managing their forests well.
"Thus despite over 1,400villages engaging in PFM – a substantial achievement by government supported by its partners -- after 10 years of investment only one PFM site in Tanzania has been allowed to sustainably harvest its forest and retain the revenues after tax (or its equivalent)," Mr Williams pointed out.
The government with funding from Norwegian government is currently undertaking various initiatives to enable local forestry plantation managers and farmers get payment to maintain their trees.
Norwegian Embassy Counsellor responsible for climate change,Mr Ivar Jorgensen said recently that a NOK 100 million (over 24bn/-) grant has been offered which has already benefited three local institutions.
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