Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
large mammals and reduced populations of smaller ones, and some
timber species are no longer of harvestable size due to past logging. The
true sustainable level of resource utilization on the mountain has not
been assessed, and will be dii cult to achieve because of the centuries of
exploitation that have already occurred.
A sustainable end point is dei ned
In the Ulugurus the maintenance of all
remaining forest cover, the reconnection of separated forest patches, and
full local participation in forest management could represent a sustain-
able end point. Having the funding in place to manage these areas forever
would also represent a sustainable end point. But such sustainability has
not been dei ned by the existing projects and given the scale of the area
and the problems that it faces in terms of population growth and resource
needs, reaching a sustainable conclusion is highly problematic. In simple
i nancial terms, the various government oi ces with a responsibility for
the management of the reserves on these mountains lack the funds to
ef ectively undertake their jobs. Moreover, the local populations are poor
and the forests do not provide them with much in terms of cash revenues.
It's much more proi table for them to convert the forests to banana plan-
tations or other forms of agriculture, at least in the short term. But the
forests have huge national cash value as a source of water to the capital
city and much of the industry of the country. They also have an interna-
tional value as the home of hundreds of unique species including species of
commercially valuable genera (African violet, busy lizzie, begonia, cof ee
and so on). If these indirect values could be captured using tax on water
users, or through other kinds of monetary system then the management
of the Ulugurus over the longer term could be ensured. The World Bank
has recognized the indirect monetary values to the Tanzanian economy
and started a trust fund mechanism for the region during 2002, with
initial capitalization of $7m. In its initial phase the trust fund will not
fund projects in the Uluguru Mountains, but may in future years. Current
projects through WWF-CARE-IIED are investigating whether the estab-
lishment of water payment schemes (Payments for Water Environmental
Services) is a viable conservation funding mechanism for the Ulugurus.
Such a mechanism could provide the required management funds, while
at the same time ensuring that the natural values required for Tanzanian
development (water supply) continue to be provided.
In many ways these forests epitomize the problems of ending an ICDP
programme - there is no end point because management interventions will
be needed forever to assist agriculture to improve, to resolve disputes over
land use, to maintain the existing reserves and so on. Working to develop
sustainable funding mechanisms is perhaps the only way to achieve the
