Most rural areas in Tanzania  host a large population, and they continue to suffer from the impact of deforestation. The problem will continue if no concrete measrues are taken to arrest the situation. The speed of deforestation in rural areas is almost at the same pace just like fastgrowing wicked social and environmental challenges  of  urbanization. 

The increase in deforestation goes hand in hand with the growing population in urban areas, resulting in increased inequalities and climate change threats.

In most cases  the increase in deforestation taking place in Tanzania, is explained by  limited energy alternatives for cooking at household level, and because  economic activities in rural areas are limited  to dry seasons and other factors.

Because of limited cheaper energy alternatives, firewood and charcoal remain the only easily accessible and reliable source of energy for cooking, while on the other hand processing charcoal and cutting firewood remain as main reliable economic activities for  people living near forests  areas.

On the  other hand, the main markets for charcoal and firewood are the fast growing in urban towns and a majority of their population are unemployed, poor and cannot switch or  afford other sources of energy for cooking - such as Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), solar (given high initiation costs which are substantial for average income earners) and electricity. In this respect, populations residing in the fastgrowing  urban towns of Tanzania save money by using  “cheaper sources of energy for cooking”.

Problem Solving Mission 

Recently, I went for a problem solving mission to a few villages in Msalala District Council. This  mission was constituted after realizing that  several villages have been left bare following massive cutting down of trees.

During the mission, I managed to spot the main users of firewood and charcoal in Msalala, and the main stakeholders involved in business related to cutting down trees. In other words, we caught them red-handed, and we wanted to learn very fast on how we could minimize this problem which need systematic approach in addressing it (see column one and column 2).

We needed a very fast way forward after realizing that these groups are involved  in that business because they don’t have many alternatives or  jobs, and  the users in villages and those in towns  have no access to cheaper alternative energy for cooking.

Therefore, we managed to quickly learn on why and what specific reasons were driving these communities to get involved heavily in cutting down trees, and what type of interventions could easily be mainstreamed in the local government budget. While brainstorming on how to counter the issue by using the local budget, we also had a quick discussion on related projects which were implemented in the past, we asked on why they failed so as to be able to come up with an implementation strategy. 

We managed to document a few solutions which have proved to work in their context and what they need is scaling up. (see column 2 and column 3). After that mission, we laid down the plan for the next steps which will involve putting together these solutions in a portfolio ready for experimenting to find out where and why they work in  a given context.

This article is related to Bio Briquettes - A solution to waste management and environmental challenges

By Godfrey C Nyamrunda, UNDP Tanzania Accelerator Lab Head of Experimentation