Background

‌‌‌REDD+ Pilot Projects

The REDD+ readiness process in Tanzania started in 2008 with the signing of a Letter of Intent between the Governments of Tanzania and Norway and the design of the UN-REDD National Programme for Tanzania. Since then, a large number of activities and initiatives have been developed and implemented and Tanzania has turned into a very dynamic REDD+ country. This would enable Tanzania to be considered for participation in performance-based REDD+ mechanisms by 2016.

Lesson learnt from REDD+ Pilots Projects

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 11 August 2015

KITE research group (University of York, Department of Environment and Geography) is partner of World Wide Fund for nature (WWF) Tanzania, the Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) and WWF-US in the project “Enhancing Tanzanian Capacity to Deliver Short and Long Term Data on Forest Carbon Stocks across the Country”.The project started in January 2011. In December 2014, the Royal Norwegian Embassy approved WWF’s request of expenditure after 31st December 2014 to allow finalization and reporting. The project final report was sent to RNE on the 9th of April, 2015.

The goal of the project was: to contributes to the establishment of the national Tanzanian carbon trading system, established to reduce GHG emissions from the deforestation and degradation of Tanzanian forests, thereby slowing climate change.

The purpose of the project was “to contribute core data to the Tanzanian national MRV system that forms a part of the comprehensive forest carbon monitoring system for the country, and build capacity for sustainability in the future”.

Six outputs were presented in the project document:

• Output 1: 120 Baseline carbon plots established
• Output 2: Hemispherical photographic survey of carbon plots established
• Output 3: Utility of LiDAR Technology further tested in Tanzanian forest habitats
•  Output 4: Soil carbon surveyed across Tanzanian vegetation types
• Output 5: A range of future scenarios for changes in carbon stock produced
• Output 6: Capacity building, dissemination and communication of project outputs undertaken.

The project was designed to address the following element of the REDD+ themes set by the Government of Tanzania (GoT) and RNE:

Baseline studies and methods for estimating deforestation, carbon sequestration and emissions and some elements of participatory methods for monitoring, assessing, reporting and verifying.

The project partners were already linked through the Valuing the Arc Programme (2007–2012) operating in the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania. The Project Advisory Committee has representatives from Vice President Office, Prime Minister Office, Tanzania Forest Service (TFS), Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Water, National REDD+ Task Force, NAFORMA Project, University of Dar es Salaam, SUA and Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Mitigation (CCIAM) Programme.

Poster presentations: