Ngumburuni Forest Reserve in Rufiji District, Coast Region
is in danger of extinction from escalating deforestation and induced human
activities such as farming and settlements in the conservation zone. This was
unveiled at a training session for journalists that involving foresters and was
spearheaded by the Tanzania Forest Conservation Group (TFCG) under the Mama
Misitu Project in collaboration with the Tanzania Natural Resources Forum
(TNRF). Hadija Kitango, Amina Ally and Juma Mkwanywe are among environmental
activists who took part in the training, heaping blame on local leaders
overseeing the forest reserve, claiming that they were behind encroachment in
the forest reserve. “This forest is badly damaged…trees are cut and houses have
been built in the forest reserve and
those people who invaded the forest reserve claim to have all the blessings
from village leaders,” Hadija Kitango complained. “We have made a follow-up, so
that we initiate action to remove invaders from the forest but we’ve failed
because they were given the permits to settle in the protected forest reserves by
village leaders around the forest zone,” she said.
The Tanzania Forest Services
(TFS) has been blamed for collecting levies from those making forest products
without using a portion of those funds to villages around the place, or invest
in their socio-economic development. Another challenge that fueled destruction
in the Ngumburuni Forest Reserve is a poor understanding of the Forest Act of
2002, meant to provide for the management of forests, and repealing certain
laws relating to forests and for related matters. The facilitator of the
training from TNRF, Cassian Siang'a suggested that forest laws be written in
simple Kiswahili so that more people become aware of what is provided therein. In
recent years, the 5,100 ha forest has been singularly under pressure with
massive harvesting of trees, scarred by deep-rutted tyre marks of the vehicles
ferrying the logs. The villagers said the logs are ferried at night. Villagers
and local leaders say the syndicates operate with the full and tacit backing of
some district officials manning the department of forestry, as well as the
police. The forest reserve has some rare animals, various tree species suitable
for construction and rivers catchment areas now under the threat of drying up.
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