Tanzania ought to 'certify' its forests

To ensure sustainable management and use of forest products, there is a need to certify the country’s forests, a process which is done by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). The FSC mark on timber and non-timber products implies that the country is doing good work in managing forests.

Certification also helps to control illegal forest activities that make the country lose money because the products are sold in back markets and people are not paying taxes. By certifying forests, the government can also benefit from revenues generated through carbon claims as well as eco-tourism.

Peter Alele, Regional Director (Africa), Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) said Africa is losing a lot of its forests, nearly 4.4 million hectares per year. He said loss is huge, hence the need to enhance forest conservation which includes certification.

“The loss of forest in Africa is mainly driven by poverty and household food security income based style although there are some commercial and other factors including urbanization. Following the country’s development as well as construction of roads and railways, there is a need to step up further efforts to protect the forests and make sure the resources are used sustainably,” he remarked.

He added: “Forests in Africa are linked with people’s lives, 60 percent of people in Africa depend on forests for their day to day activities. This makes forests important in the continent.”

Allele said it is important to certify forests to also protect the restored forests for the landscapes to be managed sustainably. He said this is why FSC is partnering with governments and that through the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100), a country-led effort to restore 100 million hectares of land in Africa.

Under the initiative, Tanzania has made a commitment to restore 5.2 million hectares of forests.

“Once you restore and people living around the landscapes are still poor; they will need to continue destroying them because they fully rely on them,” said Alele, expressing hopes that a lot is happening under AFR100 as countries have less than seven years to restore the required hectares by 2030.

Anna Agasha, FSC Coordinator Eastern Africa—Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia and Rwanda said that Tanzania is one the countries with a large forest area compared to other countries in the region.

Agasha noted that Tanzania has so far certified less forests compared to other countries, adding there are still a lot of illegal forest activities such as cutting of trees for timber.

“The illegally harvested timbers are sold at cheap prices and they are of poor quality. People are attracted to cheap prices, this affects the demand for forest certification not only in Tanzania but in Africa,” she said, urging stakeholders to increase awareness on certification and its benefits.

“We need to further educate people on the importance of certifying forests using the FSC system. Certified forest products and non-timber products can fetch better market prices and boost government revenues through taxes.

“People cannot implement what they do not understand; they must know the value of certification to embark on the exercise. The market for certified goods is not well developed in Africa, with exception of South Africa,” she stated, adding that, there are a lot of forest products in the market but the source is not clear.

She said in a situation where certified materials are competing with non-certified materials which are cheaper, it reduces the value of certified materials.

Tanzania Forest Services Agency (TFS) Chief Executive Prof Dos Santos Silayo said the government recognizes the importance of certification, noting, it is important for the process to consider the people living near the forests so that they are not affected

Prof Silayo said that in Tanzania, the forest sector provides almost 90 percent of cooking energy to rural dwellers while at international level, forest products were last year ranked sixth in contributing to foreign money ahead of minerals and other several products.

In Africa, 2 percent of the land is covered by forests while in Tanzania 15 percent of the land is covered by forests, said the TFS boss.

With support from WWF Tanzania, the government has since 2008 been engaged in processes to prepare the FSC National Forest Stewardship Standard (NFSS) for responsible forest management.

Through TFS, two protected forests—Longuza Forest Plantation and Amani Nature Forest Reserve have been selected as pilots—Forest Management Units (FMUs) for forest certification.

IN promoting sustainable forest management, the government is seeking forest management certification for two natural and plantation forests which will be the pilots Forest Management Units (FMUs) for forest certification.