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Paying through our noses for failure to exploit the biosphere
2008-01-11 09:38:18
By Lusekelo Philemon
Communities living around the Eastern Usambara Biosphere Reserve (EUBR)have something to do in conserving the natural resources so as to reap more benefits and lift themselves out of poverty.
The Reserve is part of the Eastern Arc Mountain Range which is considered as one of the biodiversity hot spots in the world.
According to UNESCO, the biosphere reserve that covers an area of about 83,600 hectares, consists of sub-montane rain forest and lowland wooded grassland. It is characterized by high concentrations of endemic flora and is home to thirteen endangered bird species.
The transition area of the biosphere reserve includes commercial forest plantations as well as sisal and tea plantations.
Small-scale farming and cattle breeding are also important economic activities of the approximately 155,000 people in the area, according to the 1999, population census.
The biosphere reserve aims at promoting ecotourism as an alternative source of income for local populations and establishing local village forest reserves. Amani Nature Reserve and the Amani Botanical Garden are part of this unique reserve.
The reserve therefore offers diverse benefits that range from social, cultural and economic, though most of it has not properly been explored because of the low level of the community’s knowledge on conservation and appropriate skills.
Some of the viable benefits includes crop production, timber harvesting, honey production, medicines (from medicinal plants), and butterfly farming.
There are also endemic species of butterfly such as Hypolimnus antevorta that are exported to Europe and form part of the income-earning activities in the EUBR.
In some pockets, fish farming is also taking place. There are currently, more than 100 fish ponds in the area. The initiative started in 2001, with the aim of improving people’s livelihoods.
The country’s environmental experts have been always echoing friendly reserve conservation initiatives. Fishing alone offers multiple benefits to the communities around as they become free from malnutrition. People can easily access fish, which is very rich in protein.
Apart from that, the community would be able to earn an income from fish sales, thus reducing the pressure from utilization of forest resources, as well as getting out of the vicious circle of poverty.
Apart from local communities, there are other institutions that have enormously contributed to the management and utilization of this rare Reserve.
This includes Catchment Forest, Amani Nature Reserve, Longuza Teak Plantation, Muheza and Korogwe districts.
The Biosphere Reserve has its own unique features - it is full of endemic flora and fauna species, which mostly have not yet been studied to identify their core values to the ecosystem.
Within the Reserve, environmentalists say there are ecosystem services such as sources of water from the catchment forest. There are also tea estates that utilize forest products from plantations that are under dual management.
Unfortunately, the Reserve is threatened by unsustainable human activities such as illegal gold mining, and increased rate of cultivation of both food and cash crops that lead to fragmentation of land in the reserve.
Recently, alluvial gold was discovered in the nearby villages of Handei, Semdoe, Maramba, Mbomole and Sakale.
Mining activities in the area first started in 1995 at Mtai Forest Reserve in Muheza district, Tanga, where tommalin, green gannet, and rodolite gemstones were discovered.
The government, however, managed to stop invasion of the Forest Reserves that had severely destroyed the environment by felling valuable indigenous trees to dig up gold, according to WWF.
The discovery of this precious mineral brought in a multitude of people within a short period of time.
Artisanal miners, petty traders and small scale businessmen also flocked into the area.
Consequently the population of the area has increased with the number of people in areas like Sake village reaching an estimated 40,000 from only a few hundred a couple of years ago.
Some people have migrated to the area just to offer potential services to miners and other people in the area.
This has generally benefitted the community within and outside the area but after a short period of time the Reserve, which has an international recognition ,started experiencing unfriendly human induced practices that threatened the survival of its flora and fauna.
Vegetation was never spared from the wanton tree felling and exploratory pits dug along the stream courses, thus leading to heavy degradation of environment.
This reckless human activity therefore started jeopardizing communities` livelihoods, which directly or indirectly benefited from the reserve.
According to WWF, the activities are against the principles of sustainable management and utilization of resources.
``The Tanzanian government should do something to stop these destructive activities before an environmental crisis errupts in this important Reserve,`` Dr Hermann Mwageni, WWF cOUNTRY Representative in Tanzania was quoted saying.
The country`s environmental watchdog,National Environment Managemnt Council (NEMC) has recently made surveys on this viable Reserve and discovered that, artisanal gold mining still poses a serious threat to the survival of the Reserve.
Apart from destruction of aquatic sources, social and health impacts such as criminal activities including robbery, prostitution and spread of HIV/Aids are reportedly experienced in the area.
This has therefore become a threat to tourism in the Reserve because of insecurity.
Dr. Fadhila Khatib, NEMC Principal Environmental Officer, says that local communities around this potential Biosphere Reserve are not well-informed on conservation of the environment. ``That’s why the problem has been growing bigger. Something should be done to arrest the situation.``
The level of awareness of environmental conservation amongst these communities is very low as most of them have little knowledge on the concept of biosphere reserves.
This means that little has been done to promote biosphere reserves making most of its resources untapped and so failing to relieve people from the vicious cycle of poverty.
According to the NEMC expert, a biosphere contains several million species that are constantly interacting with each other and their environment.
So a harmonious relations between man and biosphere reserve is very important for mutual benefits.
This can be realized only if the public is informed of the subject matter; regardless of whether they have lived with the biosphere for years now.
Dr. Fadhila says it becomes imperative for every one particularly those living around the reserve to know the importance of preserving the country’s biosphere reserves.
``The public is not well-informed of how best they can be involved in the management of Reserve and what they stand to gain from it.``
She further explains that, this is an area that requires collective efforts to make the public well-informed on the wise use of natural resources and the environment.
Through Man and Biosphere program, NEMC plans to have TV programs that will address these issues for the benefit of the public and the country`s economy.
According to NEMC`s official, proper conservation of biosphere reserves would promote ecotourism and cultural heritage and hence improve people`s livelihoods in the area.
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