The context of REDD+ in Tanzania: drivers, agents and institutions.
Abstract
Since 2009, CIFOR has implemented the policy component of the Global Comparative Study of REDD+ in fourteen countries: Bolivia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Laos, Mozambique, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Tanzania and Vietnam. In analysing national REDD+ policy arenas and emerging strategies, researchers have developed five areas of work for each country. These include a country profile, media analysis, policy network analysis, strategy assessment and a fifth area of specific policy studies to be determined by emerging research results. This country profile for Tanzania provides an overview on the socioeconomic and political context within which REDD+ policies and processes emerge. It explores the Tanzanian REDD+ policy processes and strategies at the national level, identifying barriers, limits and opportunities in national REDD+ arenas to inform future REDD+ design by providing research-based options for achieving efficient, effective and equitable REDD+ (i.e., the 3Es of REDD+). Both direct and indirect drivers of deforestation and forest degradation are at work, including forest conversion to small-scale agriculture, timber extraction driven by demand from national and international markets, fuelwood and charcoal, and population growth. The prospects for REDD+ rest on improving a number of issues: tenure arrangements, forest governance, reliability of long-term funding, benefit-sharing mechanisms, and technical, human and financial capacity. It is recommended that the continuation of support towards decentralized sustainable forest management and utilization of the participatory forest management model as an entry point for REDD+ initiatives. Participatory land use planning practices coupled with improved spatial planning and strengthening mechanisms against illegal activities entrenched in driving forest degradation are needed. In addition, for REDD+ to succeed it will need to challenge and overcome the powerful actors invested in and driving the business-as-usual model.