COMMUNITIES living at coastal villages in Kibiti and Mafia districts in Coast Region as well as those living in Kilwa District in Lindi region are expected to benefit from a mangrove project known as ‘Mangrove Management for Climate resilience and improved livelihood’ under World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
The project, worth 3. 3bn/-, will be implemented from this year up to 2025 in three countries of Tanzania, Mozambique and Madagascar.
WWF Country Director Dr Amani Ngusaru said this recently in Dar es Salaam at the launching of the project which was attended by different environment stakeholders and representatives of the villages from the project areas.
The project will mainly focus on strengthening community management of important mangrove areas while strengthening climate change adaptation within the areas.
Poor coastal communities will get their rights to manage and benefit from restored mangroves while their vulnerability to climate related risks will be reduced and sustainable, climate – resilient livelihood opportunities and enterprises will be developed.
“For us WWF, this is the biggest project in mangroves protection we have implemented in the country. Before that we had another mangrove project which focused on researches, policies and other related issues,” he explained.
In another development, Dr Ngusaru said that the country’s coastal area where WWF has been working since 1995 has been promoted by the United Nations Education Scheme and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) to Biosphere Reserve status.
He attributed it to the collaboration between WWF, National Environmental Management Council ( NEMC), TAWA, Tanzania Forest Services (TFS) , TANAPA and Marine Parks and Reserves Units (MPRU).
Guest of Honour Prof Dos Santos Silayo, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of TFS, said the government is doing different initiatives to increase protection and restoration of the environment to cope with the fast increasing effects of climate change, whereby mangroves projects is one of the initiatives.
“Mangrove reserves are one of the earliest reserves in the country as from year 1928. Behind mangroves there are a lot of resources. We are going to know much about mangroves benefits through this project as our country is now building the Blue Economy,” he stated.
