Planning and Creation of Awareness on Participatory Forest Management at Village Level under TASAF II Funding Modalities

Participatory Forest Management (PFM) is a relatively recent concept in Tanzania that has only become enshrined in law since the passing of the new Forest Act in 2002 and Regulations in 2004. ORGUT has been pioneering community-based forest management in Tanzania since the early 19902. Forestry (like other natural resource sectors) does not feature as a high development priority in most poor rural communities and Tanzanian district council budgets do not have in place specific allocation mechanisms for the forestry sector. Besides, integrated and cross-sector approaches in planning for a sustainable use and protection of natural resources is not yet commonly practised at council level. These reasons collectively result in low demand for increased forestry sector activities during village planning and prioritization sessions. Given the above, the Tanzania Forest Conservation and Management Project (TFCMP) decided to engage a pool of service providers to raise awareness on Tanzania Social Action Fund (TASAF) modalities as well as facilitate planning of Village Participatory Forest Management projects in communities with an interest in PFM and in ways that comply with TASAF funding mechanisms and operational procedures. In total, 25 districts have been earmarked for TASAF II funding under PFM. ORGUT has so far been contracted to carry out PFM in three of these districts.

The two objectives of the consultancy provided in Kigoma Rural District were:

1. To facilitate 15 village level sub-project applications for assistance to establish PFM in 6 districts (total 90 villages) that comply with TASAF application procedures; and
2. To build the capacity of District Technical Staff to be able to facilitate TASAF II compliant PFM planning processes in the future.