FORESTRY MONITORING

Introduction

For several months, the Forestry and Beekeeping Division has been in the process of developing a national monitoring database that will generate national data on the state of Tanzania’s forest resources and the range of goods and services that it generates. This new system, commonly known as "NAFOBEDA", the National Forestry and Beekeeping Database, has been now been developed and it will be introduced to 33 district councils in some of the key forest districts in Eastern, Central and Southern Tanzania over the coming months.

NAFOBEDA operates at two main levels - the district and at national levels. Data is captured at the district level from a range of different sites and forest managers. Examples include - village governments who are managing a village land forest reserve or a village forest management area within a forest reserve, a district catchment forest officer with responsibility for catchment forest reserves, a mangrove officer who is responsible for mangrove forests, or an NGO who are actively supporting PFM processes in selected communities. The basic unit of data collection is a specific forest reserve with a defined area and known boundary. This means forest reserves, either National Forest Reserves, Local Authority Forest Reserves, Village Land Forest Reserves, Community Forest Reserves or Private Forest Reserves form the basis for data collection and compilation. The "forest manager" (such as village council, district council, FBD or a private company) is responsible to collect and forward information about the forest to the district focal point (usually the DFO). The DFO then enters the data into the database and once a year forwards this to FBD for national compilation. This is illustrated below.

NAFOBEDA will capture village data through simple data collection sheets, that Village Natural Resource Committees will be required to fill and forward on a quarterly basis. The forms, in Kiswahili are entered by hand, and capture only very basic information, such as revenues, expenditure, harvest of timber and non-timber forest produce, patrolling efforts and the effectiveness of the village committee. A sample form (in English) appears below:

Villages undertaking PFM are required to demonstrate that they are managing their forests according to the management plan. Up until now, there has been no established way in which villages can report on their progress and keep district or FBD staff informed regarding their management activities. This form, as part of NAFOBEDA, ensures that village governments are able to report in a standardised way and demonstrate effective management. Monitoring, in other words, becomes part of the overall agreement between the government and the community.

One of the main objectives of NAFOBEDA is to provide a single, institutionalised, national system into which all relevant data can be captured. Until recently, individual projects have tended to have their own monitoring systems, which operate during the project duration, but quickly die once the project closes. NGOs, projects and donors will increasingly be requested by FBD to ensure that relevant data supported by their activities are forwarded to NAFOBEDA for national compilation. Many of the development partners supporting FBD directly, such as Danida, MFA Finland and World Bank have already indicated that they will use the indicators in the NFP for their own impact monitoring purposes, and support the establishment of the NAFOBEDA, rather than project-based monitoring. This process of harmonising the efforts of donors and government, is part of a wider one designed to strengthen government systems of forest administration and support under the umbrella of the National Forestry and Beekeeping Programme (NFBKP).

The sub-programmes, however, have vertical complementarity in terms of availability of information on forest resources management planning and making appropriate decisions. Land use planning is key in supporting forest development and provides a basis for appropriate management of different forest types. The Logical Framework Matrix for all sub programmes is given in Annex 7.

Another key objective of NAFOBEDA is to provide information for stakeholders beyond the forest sector. Given that forests play an important part in the governments campaign against poverty, it is hoped that NAFOBEDA will be able to keep key stakeholders such as Vice Presidents Office, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Planning and Empowerment informed of the wider benefits of sustainable forest management. The National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty (Mkukuta) explicitly mentions PFM and forests as a key asset used by the rural poor in the struggle against poverty. Key indicators from NAFOBEDA will inform the Mkukuta monitoring system - which tracks governments overall efforts to reduce poverty. In addition, NAFOBEDA will be linked to the Tanzania Bureau of Statistics overall database - called the Tanzania Socio-economic database (TSED), which provides a wealth of data on household incomes, livelihoods and other social indicators.