Bulk of REDD Payments to benefit communities in Tanzania

Finnigan Wa Simbeye in AllAfrica.com via the Tanzania Daily News: Government has agreed to let 80 per cent of payments done under Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) to go to communities which protect forests.

An official from Africa Wildlife Foundation, Godlisten Matilya, told a Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Mitigation Programme meeting held in Dar es Salaam over the weekend that after a lot of lobbying by environmental activists, the government has agreed that communities have the responsibility to protect forests hence should pocket the bulk of payments to be made under REDD.

"It's communities that guard these forests because the government has inadequate forest officers to patrol these forests hence it's logical that REDD payments should benefit them," said Mr Matilya. According to Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, Tanzania has over 33.5 million hectares of forests of which 13.5 million are state owned while 18 million belong to communities and the rest are owned by private companies, institutions and individuals.

Experts estimate that when a REDD regime becomes effective next year after the expiry of Kyoto Protocol, the country may earn up to 300 million US dollars from carbon credits bought by polluting industrialized countries. "These payments will greatly encourage communities to conserve forests as they have done for several years," Matilya pointed out....

Lake Manyara in Northern Tanzania. The lake is seen from the Great Rift's rim, that is also clearly visible on the right of the picture. On the lower part of the picture, the small patch of tropical forest is part of Lake Manyara National Park. Shot by Clem23, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license