The Northern Tanzania Maasai Carbon Project

The Northern Tanzania Maasai Carbon Project spans seven villages of Simanjiro district in Manyara region, and Monduli district in Arusha region of Tanzania.

The Northern Tanzania Maasai Carbon Project spans seven villages of Simanjiro district in Manyara region, and Monduli district in Arusha region of Tanzania.

Faced with the harsh impacts of global warming characterized by unpredictable climate conditions and years of devastating droughts where some farmers lost 80% of their cattle, they now have experienced a  a very strong El Niño phenomenon that brought abnormal rains and flooding.

Forest degradation, deforestation, overgrazing and maladapted farming practices have intensified the land pressure. At the end of the drought season, the landscapes look bare with a few tufts of scattered grass and results in unproductive farmland.   Trees, that have historically been cut for firewood, are in much lower numbers than a couple of decades ago.

Nearby, the more than 2,850 sq km Tarangire national park, is home to a diverse variety of wildlife, including more than 550 bird species, 2,500 elephants, tree-climbing lions, cheetahs, giraffes. Zebras, wildebeest, antelopes which come to the Simanjiro plains during the mating season

Elephants visit the villages at times. Leopards hunt in the forests near the farms. This wildlife is a source of potential economic development for the villages and is organised into a Wildlife Management Area to manage the co-existence of human activities and wildlife and grow the tourism opportunity.

Unfortunately, the wildlife can be destructive, harmful to humans and the land.  Wildlife and livestock must share the scattered grass. Human and wildlife conflicts are numerous, and climate change exacerbating this conflict.

But there is a hope. In the centre of this degraded landscape, there is a hill with a forest.

The story of this forest is what Arbreen wants to replicate. Twenty years ago, this forest was degraded. But a decision was made to reduce access for grazing, and has now resulted in a regenerated forest which is used by villagers as a grass reserve during the most intense drought periods.

Working closely with district and village governments, and with the technical support of the experts of Sokoine University of Agriculture, Arbreen has conducted:

  • Land cover and resource mapping
  • Tree inventory
  • Opportunity cost analysis
  • Feasibility study
  • Implementation of our pilot project on 1-Ha.

 

The area will be home to our first super-scale forest which will span over 200 sqkm, representing 10% of the seven-village area.

It is anticipated to sequester in excess of 2 million tCO2e during its first 30 years.

We know well that the success of a forest project must be a success for the communities and the people who live on that land.