Tanzania

The global demand for timber resources has been highlighted by Tanzania's Minister for Natural Resources, who has called on international investors to entrust more of their money to alternative funds such as timber funds.

Ezekiel Maige told a gathering of international businessmen in the East African nation that the national demand for timber and its byproducts had reached 5 million cubic metres, while the nation's timber farms currently only had the capacity to produce 1.2 million cubic metres.

A PLAN to start baseline survey in Rufiji delta by World Wildlife Fund for Nature which wants to help villagers get paid through REDD, has suffered a setback from the torching of farm huts and cutting down of coconut trees by Mangrove Management Project officials last October.

Reduce carbon emissions from deforestation and degradation plus (REDD+) has been developing in Tanzania since 2008 and the government is working on the development of a national strategy and action plan, as well as institutions that will enable it to implement a national REDD+ scheme.

Replacing community conservation of mangrove forests at Rufiji delta in favour of fortress conservation by the state to meet carbon trading needs will not work.