Where Belt and Road meets our Green Wall
Recently ForestPlanet and our local partners in Tanzania celebrated what to most would seem like a very small victory. We finally got word that the Tanzania Forest Service (TFS) had given us written permission to plant trees (mostly mangroves) on government land located in two important districts. This hurdle had been un-cleared for months, and now the way is open for us to revitalize ~40,000 hectares of degraded land. This translates to ~100 million trees, so we have our work cut out for us since we’ve only planted ~400,000 trees to date.
Our trees start with good healthy seeds
The written permission forms had apparently been misplaced at the TFS office, so like most bureaucratic issues some direct action was required. In many places such a situation might be resolved with an email or two. Not so in rural Tanzania. It required our partner’s driving in person to the closest forest service regional office, a six hour round trip journey over narrow and sometimes congested (cattle!) roads. It also involves shocking costs, as the price for gasoline is about $5.50 US per gallon, which is a typical day’s wage in this country. To their credit, they got it done.
There are multiple resource-rich countries that struggle with infrastructure challenges, and many may experience massive development in the next few years. China’s Belt and Road Initiative (map right), a colossal plan to create trade routes and infrastructure networks that connect Asia, Europe and Africa, could well affect even the small villages and wildlife reserves where we are working. The issue is one of balance: adding necessary infrastructure in a manner that respects the delicate connections between local ecologies and economies.
Tanzania tops the list of China’s port project investments at $10.4 billion USD for four projects. These ports, along with the African continent’s growing highway (map below) and rail networks, should bring needed economic development to a country wrestling with rural poverty. For example, we are seeing first-hand the opportunities that a Chinese-built road connecting the Tanga region to Dar Es Salaam’s deep ports are bringing to isolated villages along the route.
Like anywhere else in the world, these advances pose very real challenges to Tanzania’s natural resources. New and reliable roads of course bring many benefits, while quite likely spurring development and the sprawl of towns and cities. This is exactly why ForestPlanet and our partners are focused on securing land use rights now, and then getting millions of trees planted as soon as possible.
So how do we not only minimize losses but actually gain ground in such a rapidly changing landscape? A good part of our work involves communicating how reforestation is also critical to the economic development of local communities. In other words, we have an “and” mindset, rather than “either/or”.
We start with the most direct economic benefits of reforestation. This comes in three main forms:
- employment by our local tree planting partner organizations;
- expanding opportunities for other livelihoods, such as planting mangrove trees that help support local fishing stocks; and
- providing free trees to small farmers to use for agroforestry, such as cultivating avocados and other fruit-bearing trees
We fully recognize that the value of reforestation will not be appreciated unless we address the circumstances that drive many people to cut down trees in the first place. As perfectly stated by the late environmental activist and leader Wangari Maathai: ‘The biggest stress on the land comes from human desperation.”
Economic benefits are, of course, only some of the many co-benefits of our work. ForestPlanet addresses the majority of the U.N.’s other Sustainable Development Goals, most notably those related to human and environmental health. For instance, through payment for the collection of native tree seeds – which is predominantly done by women and children – we help meet the goals of no poverty, zero hunger, gender equality, decent work and economic growth, responsible consumption and production, and climate action.
The Green Wall Project is specifically aimed at halting the Sahara Desert from spreading further south, destroying arable cropland in its path. The Sahara poses no immediate threat to our projects in Tanzania, but the concept of establishing a living, breathing, and planet-cooling boundary is the same. The challenges we face in this work are many and varied. Some days it just involves trying to get a piece of paper signed, and others it’s trying to stay ahead of the ambitions of a global superpower.
Your support is very much appreciated to continue our work in Tanzania and other places in Africa. Please consider donating today.
Working with Local Villagers to Plant Millions of Mangroves!