Annual Report 2016-17

1

Executive Letter ......................................................... 2

What we Do ............................................................... 3

Where we Work ......................................................... 4

Key Achievements ..................................................... 5

Programmatic Highlights ............................................. 6

Community-Based Forest Management ..................................... 6

Sustainable Timber ................................................................... 10

Forest Certification ................................................................... 12

Monitoring & Research ............................................................. 13

Community Benefits ................................................. 14

Organisational Development .................................... 15

Financials ................................................................ 16

TABLE OF CONTENTS

At Mpingo Conservation & Development

Initiative (MCDI), we are more confident

than ever of the significant contribution

that our work is making towards conserving

the world's remaining natural forests, along

with their unique biodiversity and the

carbon stored within them. This year,

working with our Partners, the District

Authorities and WWF Tanzania we

supported 10 communities to earned TZS 570,975,522/- (USD

$261,365) from sustainable timber sales. We also expanded the area

of forests under community protection by more than 35%, to a total of

403,000 hectares (page 6). This is some 130,000 hectares more than

we thought possible when setting ourselves targets in our Strategic

Plan 2015-17. These community forests contain an estimated eight

million tonnes of carbon, and there is growing evidence that village

forest reserves are healthier and bring more benefits to local people

than forests under alternative management regimes (page 9).

Despite the value of our work, in the current climate with reduced donor investing in forestry conservation, it has become increasingly challenging for conservation NGOs to raise sufficient funds from to sustain their work. This is why, three years ago, we developed a Business Plan 2015-17: to map out and explore new and innovative ways to generate our own revenues in support of our cause. With both our organisation strategy and business plan up for review, it is time for reflection…

MCDI generated TZS 139.75M ($63,380) internally this year, through a combination of services provided to communities, timber buyers and through consultancies (page 16). We have been able to generate less income from timber buyers than we initially thought. Similarly, income generated through providing consultancy services has proven intermittent and unreliable. Our most reliable source of internal revenues has been the contribution for the technical services we provide which villages pay from timber sales. However the value of this revenue stream is comparatively small and the 5% contribution that we have been getting thus far is not sufficient to sustain our the core work of the organisation.

Moving forward, working with our key Partners (WWF-Tanzania, District Authorities & others) we will focus on increasing communal revenues from forest resources as a key strategy to increase our own internal revenues to support the communities technically. We have already made significant headway in laying the groundwork for this. We secured funds to purchase a portable sawmill and to pilot commercial-scale sawn timber production, initially in five villages (page 10). Our projections show that this could triple the income that communities are able to generate annually from timber sales. Continuing to increase these revenues will be a key priority as we plan our strategy and sustainability plan for the next three years leading to 2020.

EXECUTIVE LETTER

Makala Jasper

Chief Executive Officer

2

Mission

To advance forest conservation and community development in Tanzania by facilitating sustainable and socially equitable utilization of forest resources. utilisation of forest resources

Vision

Rural communities in Tanzania are sustainably managing their forests to support their livelihoods and economies

3

WHAT WE DO We are driving forest conservation and rural development in Tanzania by creating opportunities for rural villages to benefit from sustainably managing their forests

4

WHERE WE WORK

Rufiji District

Liwale District

Tunduru District

Kilwa District

Our work is centred in Kilwa District, south-eastern Tanzania, where we are supporting 12 rural villages to sustainably manage and benefit from

their forests through sustainable timber production while exploring other forest products to diversify revenue streams . Kilwa has extensive

forests which serve as important corridors for wildlife migrating from Selous Game Reserve (one of Africa's largest protected areas) to the

coast and through to Mozambique to the south.

Beyond this, through working with our Partners (WWF Tanzania,

District Authorities), other NGOs and a variety of consultancies , we

have helped 27 more villages in eight forest-rich districts across

southern Tanzania to secure tenure rights to their forests. Some of

these are also benefiting from their forests through sustainable timber

production.

4

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS

5

Expansion Area of forests under community protection

expands by 75,038 hectares

Sustainable timber 10 communities earned TZS 570,975,522/-

(USD $261,365) from sustainable

timber sales

Forest Certification Another community certified by

FSC, increasing the area of certified

forest by 12,042 hectares

Organisation Development Generated 2% of core costs internally

through service

provision payments

6

COMMUNITY-BASED FOREST MANAGEMENT

Proportion of village land set aside by communities for forest conservation

Area of forests brought under community protection - total of 403,000 hectares protected to date

Forest stewards trained

Communities reached, including 8 new villages this year

We expanded

community-based forest

management to eight new

villages in three districts this

year, supporting them to secure

tenure rights to 75,038 hectares of

natural forests. A further five villages

expanded their existing locally-protected

forest areas by 31,012 hectares. Since

2009, we have helped to protect more

than 403,000 hectares of Tanzania's

natural forests in this way

7

Eastern Tanzania - Kilwa and Rufiji

We supported an additional village in Kilwa

District to secure their forest tenure rights. The

local people in Namatewa village opted to set up

not one - but two! - locally protected forest

reserves for sustainable forest resources use.

The combined area of these forests covers

12,042 hectares of miombo woodlands and

highly biodiverse East African coastal forests.

In addition, five of our existing community

partners in Kilwa and one in Rufiji

opted to expand their existing

locally protected forest areas

by 31,012 hectares.

27,177 Beneficiaries

174,485 hectares of forests

260 forest stewards

13 Communities

In partnership with WWF-Tanzania and District Authorities, we helped five

more villages in Tunduru District - Namakambale, Mindu, Songambele,

Ngapa and Msinji - and two villages in Namtumbo District - Kitanda and

Mtelawamwahi - to own and protect 42,207 hectares and 20,789 hectares

of natural forests, respectively. This culminates in an impressive 63,000

hectares of important wildlife habitats.

23,212 Beneficiaries

89,574 hectares of forests

190 forest stewards

9 Communities

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Southern Tanzania - Tunduru and Namtumbo Districts

We are more confident than ever of the value and importance of our work at mitigating climate change, conserving biodiversity and helping to promote sustainable development and lift rural people out of poverty. There is increasing evidence to suggest that locally managed forests in Tanzania are healthier (denser with larger trees and fewer wildfires) and bring more social benefits (better governance and improved rights to access forest resources) to local people than those under alternative management regimes. The community forests where we work may also be the last stronghold for an indigenous tree (Erythrina schliebenii, locally known as Mnungunungu) previously thought extinct. We have been working with communities, WWF-Tanzania and Kilwa District Authority to revive these trees by propagating and replanting 1,590 individuals, thus helping to secure the species into the future.

4.1 An effective tool for biodiversity conservation

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5. SUSTAINABLE TIMBER

5.1 Sawn Timber We put in a bid to get funding for a portable sawmill which will enable communities to add value to their local hardwoods through sawn timber production. After such successful trials last year, which generated 18% more income for local people than raw log sales, we were confident this was the right direction in which to go. We secured funding from the Addax and Oryx Foundation for a three year project to purchase the sawmill and pilot sawn timber production initially in five villages. The portable sawmill is expected to arrive from Canada in August 2017. This, combined with a solar kiln funded by our major partner WWF, is expected to lead to a three-fold increase in community earnings from timber after just one year.

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This year, ten communities earned TZS 570,975,522/- (USD $261,365) from sustainable timber sales. They sold seven different types of hardwoods to 24 buyers in Tanzania and internationally. Total earnings to date exceed TZS 1.2 billion ($610,000) in 18 villages.

10

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Honey

We supported local beekeepers in three villages - Kikole, Kisangi and Nainokwe - by working alongside Kilwa District Beekeeping Officer to train them in modern techniques, including how to build and use modern beehives, to select suitable sites for attracting bees, to effectively harvest honey and wax. The 68 men and women that participated in the training went on to build 124 beehives which have been placed in apiaries in their village forests. We will monitor how successful they have been at producing honey over the next year.

Other non-timber forest products We worked with WWF to identify and map out potential markets for six non-timber forest products in two villages - Machemba and Sautimoja - in Tunduru District. The six products identified by local stakeholders as having the highest potential for sustainable trade were Mkuma, Mgongo, Chanasa, Baobab, Mtundi and Cashews. The next step will be to actively identify potential partners and investors to kick-start trade. Partners involved: WWF-Tanzania, WWF-Namibia, Tunduru District Council and MJUMITA.

5.2 Alternative forest livelihoods

6. FOREST CERTIFICATION

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For yet another year, our community partners maintained

their title as the only villages in Africa to be managing

their natural forests to meet internationally high

standards set by the Forest Stewardship CouncilTM

(FSCTM) - Some have held this title for the 8th

year running!

We certified one more community - Namatewa - with the

FSC this year, meaning that there are now 14 villages

registered under the scheme. Their newly FSC-certified

forests encompass 12,042 hectares of miombo woodlands

and East African coastal forests. In addition, five existing

members of the scheme expanded their FSC-certified forest

areas by 38,012 hectares. Collectively, this has led to a 25%

increase in the area of FSC-certified natural community

forests in Africa, from 150,485 hectares in 2016 to 187,557

7. MONITORING & RESEARCH

20 13

We worked with partners to improve our participatory wildlife monitoring protocol so that we can better assess the impact of community forestry on the conservation of Tanzania's wildlife. We equipped and trained local forest management committees in 13 villages to use GPS units (courtesy of our partner, United States Forest Service) to monitor key indicator species in their forests, including the endangered African wild hunting dog and black and rufous elephant shrew, as well as vulnerable hippos, elephants, lions and leopards. Encounters with these species are monitored and compared both in areas where sustainable timber harvesting takes place (Harvesting Zones, HZ), and in highly bio-diverse coastal forest patches which are dedicated as conservation zones (No-Take Zones, NTZ). This approach enables us to work with communities to detect and quickly respond to any impacts that forest management might be having on high conservation value coastal forest habitats and their resident wildlife.

Villages have been using this new method for less than one year, but we can already see some patterns emerging:

African Broadbills and Dark-backed Weavers, which prefer denser forest habitats, were encountered more frequently in Coastal Forests than in Miombo Woodlands

Crested Guineafowl, which prefer more open habitats, were encountered more frequently in Miombo Woodlands than in closed-canopy Coastal Forests

8. COMMUNITY BENEFITS

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Ten communities invested 50% of the revenues they generated from sustainable timber sales, worth a collective TZS 263,764,000/- (USD $120,697), in the following local development projects:

Seven villages in Kilwa District

Paid school fees for 42 secondary school students | Built a village guesthouse with 18 rooms | Purchased 20 mattresses and 40 bed sheets for a village health centre | Built a village marketplace | Dug two water boreholes |Purchased 48 school desks and 10 school beds |Renovated five primary school classrooms |Built a primary school classroom in a sub-village | Issued birthing kits to 53 pregnant women | Contributed to building village dispensary | Install a solar power in the village dispensary | Purchased safety boots, health insurance and First Aid kit for the Village Natural Resources Committees and paid allowances to local people involved in forest patrols.

Two villages in Tunduru District

Built a primary school classroom | Purchased birthing kits for expectant mothers | Built a Village Office | Purchased motorbikes for use in forest patrols, paid allowances to local people involved in forest patrols and timber harvesting.

9.1 Sustainability We generated TZS 139.75M ($63,380) of our own funding internally through:

5% contributions for services from communities from sustainable timber sales TZS

26,481,305 ($12,010);

Service provision fees from timber buyers TZS 69,724,028 ($31,621); and

Through other sources TZS 43,548,385 ($19,750).

9. ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Proportion of core costs self-generated through service provision payments

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9.2 Collaboration and Learning

During the year MCDI & Kilwa District Authority, we hosted 157 visitors

from National and International levels who came for a study visit on suc-

cessful Community Based Forest Management and FSC Certification.

We attended and shared our work in 16 National and 10 International and

conferences and workshops.

9.3 Staff Capacity Building

Yuvenal Pantaleo, a member of our Management Team and Project Manager-

Ruvuma Landscape, completed his Masters degree program from the

Netherlands and has joined back the MCDI Team.

Doreen Karan, our Assistant Finance Officer, is in her final year of study at the

National Board of Accountants and Auditors to become a Certified Public

Accountant.

Kassim Ulega, our IT and Communications Officer, is in his second year of study

for a Bachelor's Degree in Information Communication Technology at the

University of Dar es Salaam.

Working with our partners, we have continued In-house training programmes

continued for all our Staff members.

0

500

1,000

1,500

World Wide Fund for Nature

LIMAS

Maliasili Initiatives

Finnish Embassy

The Addax and Oryx Foundation

Whitley Fund for Nature

University of East Anglia

FSC Smallholder Fund

NEPSUS

Size of Wales

Million TZS Our Donors

0

500

1,000

1,500

2,000

World Wide Fund for Nature

LIMAS

Maliasili Initiatives

Finnish Embassy

The Addax and Oryx Foundation

Whitley Fund for Nature

University of East Anglia

FSC Smallholder Fund

NEPSUS

Size of Wales

0

500

1,000

1,500

The Addax & Oryx FoundationLIMAS

10. FINANCIALS

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Expenditure

Spending was just over TZS 1.2 billion ($864,887) this year, 77% of which was used to support programmatic work.

77%

14% 8% 8%

Overheads

Staff

Programmatic

Income MCDI generated TZS 1,320,763,928 ($ 604,582) this year through a combination of:

Grants - TZS 1,181,010,210 ($535,606)

Service provision payments - TZS 96,205,333 ($43,631)

Other internal revenues - TZS 43,548,385 ($19,750)

CONTACT US | www.mpingoconservation.org | enquires@mpingoconservation.org | P.O Box 49, Kilwa Masoko |

facebook.com/MCDITanzania | @MCDITanzania