Description of the assignment
The Rufiji Delta, located in Tanzania, is one of the most significant mangrove ecosystems in East Africa, crucial for both biodiversity and local livelihoods. It supports a diverse range of flora and fauna and provides essential ecosystem services such as coastal protection, fishery resources, and carbon sequestration. Recent data show that the Rufiji Delta supports over 30,000 local people who rely heavily on these mangroves for their livelihoods, including fishing, farming, and harvesting forest products. However, these mangrove forests are under threat from overexploitation and environmental degradation due to unsustainable human activities. Additionally, the region faces challenges such as poverty, limited infrastructure, and environmental degradation.
To respond to these, the Government of Tanzania, through the Tanzania Forest Service (TFS) Agency and Wetlands International, with financial support from the Blue Action Fund (BAF), developed and approved the management plan for the Rufiji Delta Mangrove Forest Reserve, hereafter “Reserve,” for the period 2021/22–2025/26. This Mangrove Management Plan, hereafter “Plan” is divided into four distinct forest zones, each with its specific purpose and regulations aim to balance environmental preservation, sustainable resource use, and economic development in the Rufiji Delta region, namely: (i) the Production Zone spanning 30,000 ha, where sustainable harvesting of forest resources (including mangroves) is allowed, with harvesting licenses issued according to the harvesting plan and prevailing government notice and guidelines; (ii) the Total Protection Zone, encompassing 23,255 ha, aimed at preserving vegetation and associated fauna while allowing only non-destructive and consumptive, scientific uses and protective functions, with no harvesting permitted and activities like research, training and other environmentally friendly activities like ecotourism, beekeeping and worshiping permitted with permits; (iii) the Development Zone, where carefully controlled developmental activities at both the commercial- and village-level such as fishing, beekeeping and minor uses of mangroves tree products are promoted, along with potential economic development like saltpans and aquaculture ponds, and areas designated for scientific, educational and demonstration purposes/ activities; and finally, (iv) the Rehabilitation/ Recovery Zone, spanning 7,000 ha, focused on allowing the regeneration of degraded mangroves, with different methods employed and varying recovery periods.
Following the development of this Plan, the deforestation of mangroves has been rescinded since October 2021, allowing local communities to obtain licenses for harvesting mangroves for poles only. This decision was informed by the forest inventory carried out in 2018 by TFS, which determined forest stocking levels, volume, biomass, carbon stock, and resource distribution, leading to the establishment of harvesting quotas limited to three specific mangrove species (Rhizophora mucronata, Ceriops tagal, and Avicennia marina) within designated production zones.
To further support mangrove conservation and sustainable management, the Plan recognises key local institutions, including Village Natural Resources Committees (VNRCs) of all adjacent villages to the Reserve, beekeeper’s cooperatives, fish farmer’s cooperatives, BMUs, traders, hoteliers, and mangrove pole/ log dealers. The VNRCs provide a foundation for Joint Mangrove Forest management, linking the implementation of the Village Natural Resources Management Plan (VNRMP) and the Rufiji Delta Mangrove Forest Reserve Management Plan. As a result of this, the villages, the Village Councils, NGOs, LGA and CBS and VNRCs representative in collaboration with TFS, will prepare joint management agreements for the Rufiji Delta Mangrove, an agreement that will be between such villages, NGOs, and TFS. Each village will be supported in preparing and reviewing by-laws related to the management of the mangrove forest reserve, which will be used to manage the forest reserve in the area of the Reserve allocated to a particular village for management. Additionally, schools, women’s groups, and individuals involved in farm forestry will also be trained to strengthen their involvement in the management of the Reserve.
Description of the services provided/ main activities
The main objective of this consultancy is to undertake a bio-rights feasibility study to enable Wetlands International and TFS to implement the bio-rights mechanism within the Rufiji Delta, serving as a community incentive for implementing the Plan for sustainable development of communities and mangrove conservation. To achieve this overarching objective, the following specific tasks will be conducted:
- Undertake a village bio-rights feasibility study to understand opportunities and challenges in implementing bio-rights; and inform the selection of the villages and communities to implement bio-rights mechanisms and a plan for the management of mangrove areas in each village;
- Undertake policy analysis to understand how bio-rights initiatives are linked to policy in various ways;
- Undertake tenure rights analysis;
- Undertake law enforcement status and procedures;
- Align existing approaches by reviewing several other approaches that are advocated nationally, regionally, and globally and have significant potential for linkage to bio-rights, and propose which approach to be applied in the Rufiji Delta to meet the challenge of efficiently channelling financial benefits to local communities to ensure the sustainable use of resources;
- Review and propose how CB-NRM can be applied in the Rufiji Delta;
- Review and propose community-based savings schemes such as VICOBA, among others, that have made significant investments in community-based savings schemes in which local community groups use their own income to generate savings to fund development activities;
- Review and propose ecotourism attractions and mechanisms to be applied in the Rufiji Delta;
- Review and propose the advantages and disadvantages of labelling products such as honey and timber, among others, from the Rufiji Delta to ensure compliance with labelling requirements;
- Review and propose how bio-rights can be adapted in the Rufiji Delta, i.e., as micro-credit conversion,
- Payment of Ecosystem Services (PES), or community-based revolving fund;
- Identify and mapping the key stakeholders and create a stakeholder engagement plan in the Rufiji Delta;
- Identify and propose ways (steps) of involving communities in implementing bio-rights.