Testing of Decision Making Tools for Village Land Use Planning and Natural Resources Management in Kilimanjaro Region

This paper focuses on participatory testing of decision making tools (DMTs) at village level to assist in development of land use plans (LUPs) for sustainable land management (SLM) in Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania. Data were collected using conditional surveys through key informant interviews with the project’s district stakeholders in each district, focused group discussions with selected villagers and participatory mapping of natural resources. Soil health, land degradation, carbon stock, and hydrological conditions were assessed in the seven pilot villages in all seven districts using DMTs as part of testing and validation. Results indicated soils of poor to medium health, and land degradation as portrayed by gullies and wind erosion in lowlands and better in uplands. Carbon and forest disturbance status could not be assessed using one-year data but hydrological analysis revealed that water resources were relatively good in uplands and poor in the lowlands. Challenges with regard to land use include increased gully erosion, decreased stream flow, reduced vegetation cover due to shifting from coffee with tree sheds to annual crops farming, cultivation near water sources, and overgrazing. Empowering the community with decision making tools at village level is essential to ensure that village land uses are planned in a participatory manner for sustainable land and natural resources management in Kilimanjaro and other regions in Tanzania.

An Opportunity to Switch Energy Sources in Institutions in the Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania and Benefit from Carbon Finance under the Sustainable Land Management Project

The sustainable land management (SLM) project is seeking to engage with public institutions to explore the possibility of using the energy-switch principle presented by the carbon market to reduce emissions from inefficient use of biomass energy and discharge of human waste into the environment. Such a switch will be a triple-win situation that improves the natural environment, reduces deforestation, and provides avenues for revenue generation. As such, it commissioned a study of the pattern of energy consumption in the institutions and the type of cooking stoves they employ. Results show that firewood (51%) is the most widely used fuel because of availability, affordability, and reliability. The study also found that 56% of the institutions use energy-saving stoves, which is an opportunity that the project can seize to encourage use of alternatives sources of energy as opposed to biomass. In addition, 88% of the institutions expressed willingness to switch to biogas for cooking. This is yet another opportunity for scaling up the dissemination of renewable sources of energy in the region. Better adoption and wider use of renewable energy sources will take place when innovative financing mechanisms are devised to cover the high upfront cost of installing renewable energy systems. This has been one of the main barriers to scaling up the use of renewable in the region.