Wednesday, March 27, 2013


PRESS RELEASE

Dar es Salaam 27th March 2013

EU TO SUPPORT TANZANIA IN PROTECTING ITS FOREST

THE Joint Research Centre of the European Union (Institute for the Environment and Sustainability) and the Tanzania Forest Services (TFS) Agency under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism(MNRT) have today signed a collaboration agreement aimed to help to curb the alarming rate of deforestation in the country. THE CA is complementary to the on-going NAFORMA , the first ever National forest Assessment in Tanzania, initiate in 2009 and currently in its final stages.  Under the agreement, both sides have agreed to cooperate in mapping the land cover changes and forest degradation assessment in support to national readiness initiative for REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation).

The signing ceremony was held today Wednesday 27thd March at the headquarters of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism in Dar es Saalam.

Through NAFORMA, which is jointly financed by the Government of Finland and Tanzania,   with technical support by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), and the EU, Tanzania is mapping the entire country to assess its forest resources including the size of the carbon stock stored within its forests. This information will feed into better policymaking to ensure Tanzania’s most valuable forests are either conserved or utilized in a sustainable way. This would help mitigate climate change but would also help the country in other ways such as managing its water resources and sustaining biodiversity and rural livelihoods.

Under the agreement, European Union and the Tanzanian Government agreed to collaborate in obtaining scientific data needed to produce scientific information to meet data needs of potential future REDD+ mechanism, improving co-ordination and effectiveness of co-operation efforts between TFS-MNRT and the European Union in the field of monitoring forest resources in the United Republic of Tanzania and in African Countries in general.

Other areas of agreement are promotion of mutual interest and co-operation in understanding and resolving issues related to the feasibility of including forest degradation as a key activity of the REDD initiative, deepening of understanding of the scientific, economic and social issues relating to wood extraction as the main national source of energy. Specifically, it focuses on the estimation of fuel-wood supply forecasts and the prediction of fuel consumption under future energy scenarios in Tanzania, promotion of exchange of tools based on earth observation techniques, dedicated to deforestation monitoring and forest degradation detection and organization of capacity-building activities and scientific workshops in the domains of monitoring of forest resources.

On his part the Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Tanzania, Ambassador Filiberto Ceriani Sebregondi said that the Collaboration Arrangement marks a further step in the technical support provided by the European Union through the Joint Research Centre to Tanzania Forest Service Agency for sustainable forest management and also marks another chapter in our continued close collaboration with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

"The agreement gives the opportunity for both partners to benefit from each other’s skills on an equal basis. We hope that, as a result, the joint work of scientists at the JRC and forest managers here in Tanzania can be taken as a reference for other countries wishing to establish a comprehensive forest monitoring system that meets all aspects of the  United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change," said Ambassador Sebregondi.


For more information contact:
Tom Vens, Head Political, Press and Information Section EU Delegation to Tanzania 

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