The Mpingo Conservation Project : Practical Conservation

The Mpingo Conservation Project is working along side the District Forestry Office in Kilwa, southern Tanzania, helping them to develop Participatory Forest Management (PFM) in the district. Under PFM communities are encouraged to set aside some of the forest growing in their locality as a Village Land Forest Reserve (VLFR), which will then be under the control of the village government. To do this they have to design and then follow a management plan for the forest which must be approved by the central government Forestry and Beekeeping Division (FBD). Once such a plan is approved then the village government owns the rights to all timber trees, including mpingo, within the VLFR.

Our particular focus is on the management of these high-value timber species, and especially mpingo, by local communities. Beyond the spotlight on timber, we are providing general technical and logistical assistance to the district in implementing PFM, and on-the-job training of staff in project management, IT and rapid forest survey techniques.

We are primarily working in 4 villages in Kilwa District:

Kikole village was introduced to PFM by Utumi, but the first selected site for their VLFR overlapped with the pre-existing Mitaurure Forest Reserve. However a better informed village understood the potential benefits a VLFR could bring, and second time around selected a site closer to their village which could be more easily managed. We helped them to assess their proposed VLFR and write a management plan for it. The VLFR is mainly open miombo and its principal asset is large numbers of mpingo. In 2005 it became the first village forest management plan to be approved by Kilwa District Council. In 2006 Kikole earned TZS 800,000/- (USD $670) when oil prospectors had to fell trees in their VLFR in setting out a seismic line to test for the presence of oil.
Kisangi Kimbarambara was the second village supported by the Mpingo Conservation Project to have a management plan for a VLFR approved by Kilwa District Council. The village lies on the opposite side of the Matandu river from Kikole. Their VLFR is nearly 2,000ha large and is mostly closed miombo which contains a wide variety of valuable timber species.
Ruhatwe was also introduced to PFM by the Utumi Project. Originally they designated an area of over 1,000ha rich in mpingo. Unfortunately it became the subject of a boundary dispute with neighbouring Migeregere, and in the meantime some unscrupulous loggers took advantage of the situation to loot most of the best trees. Migeregere and Ruhatwe are now hoping to manage that VLFR jointly, and Ruhatwe has nominated a new area, also rich in mpingo, for a new VLFR.
Migeregere was the site of the 1998 expedition, and we know it well. It has a lot of forest and mpingo is common around the village. As well as working with Ruhatwe on managing the previously disputed VLFR, Migeregere villagers have selected two areas suitable for establishing their own VLFRs.

We are also giving close assistance to a Community Based Organisation called Kilwa Farmers for Conservation of the Environment (KiFaCE), most of whose members come from the villages of Ruhatwe and Kisangi Kimbarambara. Involving grass-roots community organisations such as these will greatly strengthen the main PFM activities in the area.