CREATING A NEW FOREST AT KISAKI
Trees are vital. They give us oxygen, store carbon, stabilize the soil, and give life to the world’s wildlife.
Farmers in Kisaki Village (Morogoro) with the help of Kisaki Nature Conservation (KINACO) managed to grow several seedlings and made them ready for planting. TUKAONE Projects, cooperating with KINACO, had earlier conducted research around Kisaki village, located in Morogoro, on the approach to rescue the village from becoming a desert. Human activities on the forest, such as cutting trees for building local huts and burning forest for domestic charcoal needs, were the major factors that caused the village to have its forest land disappearing. Together, we planned ways to solve the danger.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Kisaki was village established in 1972 and registered in 1974 by the first president of Tanzania Mwl. Nyerere and Prime Minister Mfaume Kawawa. The main aim of the establishment of Kisaki village was to ensure security of the railway from Tanzania to Zambia.
THE PEOPLE
Kisaki original people are the Ruguru tribe. Their culture is similar with other Tanzanian culture, but they mainly depend on animal keeping and hunting for their livelihood. The animals kept are usually goats, cows and chickens. The Rugurus do depend on trees to build their local huts to live in. They usually prefer building just a simple house containing one room for parents and two rooms for separate boy and girl kids. The cooking place is always on an open hut outside. The houses are made using burnt bricks and wood from the forest. Kisaki has attracted recently more than three different tribes from other villages due to its attractive nature and naturally fertile land. The population estimate at Kisaki is about 25,000 to 35,000 inhabitants.
ATTRACTIONS
Kisaki village has various attractions which are Mikumi National Park, Selous Game Reserve and Hot Water Spring. The distance from Kisaki town to the Mikumi National Park office is 141 km and it is 21 km from Kisaki town to Matambwe Game Reserve. Kisaki is an important and essential wild life corridor, an area where animals cross from Mikumi National Park to Selous Game Reserve.
DANGER OF THE VILLAGE BECOMING A DESERT
The project was established following research KINACO and TUKAONE conducted on the wildlife and natural resources with human livelihoods taken into consideration. We were very much interested in Kisaki since that it is the Village in which the grandfather of the founder for KINACO came from, also to see how people can live in harmony with wildlife movements, since a great part of Kisaki village is a wild life corridor where animals pass from Selous Game reserve to Mikumi National Park. Many villagers have been killed with Elephants, Lions and sometimes Crocodiles when they go about their daily routines to fetch firewood, charcoal, medicinal herbs, or gathering wood for building their local houses! At Kisaki poor families will just go into the forest to cut down trees and take them for building their huts and selling some for little income. It was very unfortunate and sad when Tukaone Project Manager, Johnny Mwakalinga, heard that a school mate named Ally Hussein lost his mother when she went to fetch some medicinal herbs to save the life of her young daughter, only to be slaughtered by a leopard and killed. The human activities in the forest had a great effect on the health of the forest as many trees were cut down and burnt, putting the village in danger of becoming a desert in a near future. KINACO goal is mainly planting a new forest on the land, and also to promote and support other community income generating activities so as to reduce pressures and dependence on the forest directly.
By reducing dependence on the forest directly, our project believes that
the speed of tree cutting and burning will then be slowed down, the number of deaths due to human-wildlife conflict will be reduced, and the preservation of nature will be possible, leaving animals to live happily without human interaction. By introducing other means of modern cooking techniques, such as gas cookers instead of charcoal or firewood, by supporting good bee keeping practices whereby income can be generated without disturbing nature (forest or other living animals), providing farming education and support to encourage them to do farming, To conduct Training (our main target) to the community on nature conservation, by Educating the community on Sustainable utilization of forest resources.
Research
Tukaone and KINACO conducted research on the “causes of a severe forest cutting and burning”, which started on December 3rd, 2018 and ended on December 25th, 2018. This research covered the causes, effects, measurements, and recommendations regarding deforestation. The study compiled the information on December 28th, 2018. The research was conducted following the community’s concern about the perishing natural Kisaki/Selous forest in the area called. TUKAONE decided to take part in the research cooperating with KINACO by visiting and interviewing people residing in the Kisaki/Selous locality, writing down notes, and by giving small support of daily meals during the survey.
Causes of deforestation summarized as:
- Domestic use for charcoal and firewood
- Increased use of woods/trees for building house purposes
- High use of firewood for making burnt bricks
- Lack of other income generating activities
- Little awareness on the importance of conserving environment
- High need of children desks in schools
Effects summarized as:
- Interferes and confuses rainfall seasons
- Perishing of the conserved natural forest of Kisaki
- Interfering and disturbing the wildlife existed in the forest (wildlife Human Conflict) along the corridor
- Human deaths due to killings by dangerous animals especially lion, leopard, rhino, big snakes bites etc
- To destroy water sources
- Some people died caught up in the fire as a result of ignorant forest burning
Measures & Recommendations:
At the end of our research, both KINACO and Tukaone proposed some measures to be approached immediately which were: to put notices and advertisements in different parts of the Village regarding strong legal actions to be taken against anyone who will be caught up cutting down or burning the forest, by buying a few young trees and starting a tree nursery and distributing the trees to the most affected areas first, organizing education on environment conservation and explaining the effects of ignorant forest burning.
Recommendations
Government with other organizations should take part in facilitating education on the environment, helping and suggesting ways in which the people in the area could improve their income, and education on better farming practices such as bee keeping instead of cutting/burning trees.
More about KINACO
Kisaki Nature Conservation Project (KINACO) is a not for profit making CBO (community based organization) establishes on January, 2018 and having its office located in Kisaki village, Morogoro. The main objective of Kinaco is to promote and help conserving natural forests, creating new forests, providing education on environmental conservation to the communities, and management of natural areas such as Kisaki Hot Spring Land. Kisaki is currently operating as a sub project under TUKAONE projects.
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
- To recruit 30 community volunteers, and 10 (KINACO) members who will participate in the project implementation
- To inform the local community and the KINACO members on the importance of having trees on and conserving our Hot Spring land.
- To plant 800 trees in three different phases.
- To promote and encourage villagers to set aside areas for farming activities.
- To develop and evaluate work plans for each volunteer and (KINACO) work site
- To organize (KINACO) and community awareness activities about weeds/ feral animals/ biodiversity to protect the planted trees.
- To guide volunteer and (KINACO) work in accordance with the organization’s
Objectives AND goal as well as bush regeneration techniques and safe work practices
- To obtain grant funding
- To share information with other natural resource management organizations via reports, meetings, email networks and newsletters.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION AND IMPLEMENTATION
A workshop was held to generate interest in the project and to discuss the importance of planting trees in our environment to secure our natural features. This workshop provided more information on the value of the project, project identification, collection and storage of species, tree planting and protection techniques, weed control, irrigation, and an example of a successful planting project on our land.
In order to have a healthy tree in the future; the tree must be planted properly. And to perform it accordingly the following guidelines will be used to assist (KINACO) and community members in planting their trees properly. Prior to planting, remember to move the tree by the root ball or the container. Never grab it by the trunk, etc.
KISAKI NATURAL CONSERVATION PROJECT BENEFITS:
- Employment to more than 30 local peoples
- Conserving Kisaki`s natural Hot Spring land and will help minimizing the Wildlife-Human conflict along Kisaki wildlife corridor
- It will help bring awareness in conserving nature
- Less people will go into the forest and hence reduce Human deaths caused by animals such as elephants, leopards, lions and big snakes!
- Promoting and training the community on creating other income generating sources
- Putting community first through active participation in the reforestation program while we also think about creating sources of alternative income for them to feed their children and families.
TUKAONE SUPPORT TO KINACO
KINACO will need some kind of support from Tukaone to help implement some of its goals in conserving nature and creating new forest. KINACO have a need of around $350US to help it process its Registration certificate, to help it buy 100 new trees, and to buy manure, 5 trolleys, and to help pay for watering costs.
