The Mpingo Conservation & Development Initiative : BP Consolidation Award Winners 2004

In 2004 the Mpingo Conservation Project won one of the top consolidation prizes in the BP Conservation Awards Programme. This allowed the project to register as an NGO in Tanzania, establish a permanent field office in Kilwa, south-eastern Tanzania, and develop links with local CBOs. We worked in partnership with Kilwa District Council to implement Participatory Forest Management (PFM), providing technical advice and support following the withdrawal of the Danida-funded Utumi Project.

In the two year period covered by the BP prize we supported the implementation of two new Village Land Forest Reserves (VLFRs) in Ruhatwe and Kikole, and expansion of PFM to two further villages: Migeregere and Kisangi Kimbarambara. Migeregere was the site of the 1998 expedition, and all four villages were visited by the 2003 one. The VLFRs in Ruhatwe and Kikole were established under management plans developed through the Utumi project, and we aimed to reach the same stage in Migeregere and Kisangi Kimbarabara by the end of the initial two year programme.

A highlight of that first phase was the first district-wide timber stocks inventory of any district in Tanzania, using innovative techniques that produced contrasting results to a Forestry & Beekeeping Division effort in defined forest blocks the following year. The inventory demonstrated that many of the most valuable hardwoods in Kilwa had been severely over-harvested, and were in danger of going commercially extinct the district.

MCP also commenced its village awareness-raising programme designing and distributing a selection of cheaply produced leaflets and booklets to inform rural communities about the true value of African blackwood and other high value timber species, and how they could capture that value under PFM. This achieved significant results when some of those communities then turned away prospective loggers or demanded more money from them, realising a 400% increase in the value of the village royalty.

A full report is available here. >>

However if we are to achieve lasting success the project needs to secure funding to continue for the next 10-15 years and to expand elsewhere in Lindi region. The first stage of this was achieved in 2005 when, together with Fauna & Flora International, one of the BPCP partners, MCP was awarded a grant from the Darwin Initiative to continue and expand the Project's activities until March 2008.