Browsing by Author "Mangora, Mwita M."

Now showing 1 - 18 of 18
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    Designing a Mangrove Research and Demonstration Forest in the Rufiji Delta, Tanzania
    (2016) Mangora, Mwita M.; Shalli, Mwanahija S.; Semesi, Immaculate S.; Njana, Marco A.; Mwainunu, Emmanuel J.; Otieno, Jared E.; Ntibasubile, Elias; Mallya, Herry C.; Mukama, Kusaga; Wambura, Matiko; Chamuya, Nurdin A.; Trettin, Carl C.; Stringer, Christina E.
    Despite the growing body of literature on science and management of mangroves, there is a considerable knowledge gap and uncertainty at local levels regarding the carbon pool size, variability of carbon sequestration and carbon stocks within mangrove forests, mechanisms that control carbon emissions from degradation of mangrove forests, impacts of conversion to other land uses, challenges and opportunities associated with restoration practices and sustainability of ecosystem services. These concerns are valid globally, but they are particularly important in Africa due to limited research that has been conducted in the continent. The USDA Forest Service (USFS) and the Center for International Forest Research (CIFOR) have completed comprehensive studies on mangrove carbon in the South East Asia (SEA) and the Oceania (Donato and others 2011, Kauffman and others 2011) with financial support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as part of its Sustainable Wetlands Adaptation and Mitigation Program (SWAMP). By drawing from the reported findings, lessons and experiences from SWAMP, inter-agency consortiums of academic and research institutions and conservation non-governmental organizations in Tanzania and Mozambique, with technical support from the USFS Center for Forested Wetlands Research and financial assistance of the USAID Africa Bureau, are developing the East Africa Mangrove Carbon Project (EAMCP). This initiative intends to support capacity development, advance scientific knowledge, and improve data collection in the areas of measurement and monitoring of carbon stocks and the impact of utilization and degradation in mangrove forests. Ultimately, EAMCP aims to provide scientific information and capacity to inform effective policy and management actions for the secured future of mangroves in East Africa. The consortium in Tanzania is utilizing the EAMCP opportunity to establish a mangrove research and demonstration forest in the Rufiji Delta (MRDF). This facility will be officially designated and sanctioned within the administering government agency, the Tanzania Forestry Service (TFS). The designation will entail recognition of the site as a special use area, where activities are aimed at research, demonstration, and training for capacity development of academic and scientific community, practitioners and managers, and communities.
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    Ecological impact of tobacco farming in miombo woodlands of Urambo District, Tanzania
    (Wiley, 2005) Mangora, Mwita M.
    This paper examines the ecological threat of tobacco farming in Urambo District, the leading producer of flue-cured tobacco in Tanzania with other major producers being Tabora, Iringa and Chunya Districts. Structured interviews were conducted in four villages while 39 ModifiedWhittacker plots were laid in tobacco fallow lands for inventory of woody species to ascertain ecological performance and the impact of tobacco on species diversity, richness and standing stock functions. There was higher than expected species richness with a total of 115 tree and shrub species identified. Tobacco farming showed no signi- ficant negative effect on the floristic composition and stem density. However, the significantly reduced biomass and change in vegetation structure illustrate the potential loss in ecological function of the woodlands. Land clearing for tobacco planting account to an annual deforestation of 3.5% while on average a farmer requires 23 m3 of stacked wood only for curing per season which adds another 3% of deforestation. Shifting cultivation is no longer sustainable given the shortened fallow periods of 4 years. Improved barn structures, alternative sources of fuel like coal, tree planting, mixed cropping and cash crops that are environment friendly are recommended for ecological restoration.
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    Legal and Institutional Framework for Effective Management of Marine Managed Areas in Tanzania, Zanzibar Report
    (2012-01-01) Bernice, McLean; Abdul-Nasser, Hamed H.; Mangora, Mwita M.; Shalli, Mwanahija. S.
    The Swahili people in Zanzibar have traditionally depended heavily on sailing and fishing in the waters of the Indian Ocean for livelihood. Zanzibar’s marine and coastal environments are comprised of an interconnected variety of complex ecosystems. These ecosystems have supported and shaped the local culture, economy and social well-being of coastal Zanzibaris. The healthy functioning and continuous provision of goods and services by Zanzibar’s marine ecosystems rely on the wise management and protection of its essential habitats and resources. A few key actions are required to ensure that the direct and indirect benefits provided by the ocean are maintained into the future. Perhaps one of the most critical needs is to strengthen the legal and institutional framework for sustainable management and protection of marine and coastal resources and to ensure effective implementation of the laws and regulations.
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    Legal and Institutional Framework for Effective Management of Marine Managed Areas in Tanzania: Mainland Tanzania
    (2012) Mangora, Mwita M.; Shalli, Mwanahija S.; McLean, Bernice; Suguta, Heche
    Countries around the world are increasingly becoming aware of the need to protect and especially to manage the coastal and marine resources. In Tanzania, the government’s commitment is both state sponsored and through bilateral agreements with international donor agencies that advocate sustainable development through sustainable management of natural resources. To fulfil this commitment, a number of initiatives have been commissioned in Tanzania over the last couple of decades. One of these initiatives is exemplified by the Blueprint 2050 which substantially reviewed and drew a road map of management of coastal and marine resources for the present and the coming couple of decades. The Marine and Coastal Environment Management Project (MACEMP) was crafted as one of the various efforts to realizing this vision. This comprehensive project aimed at strengthening the sustainable management and use of coastal and marine resources in the territorial seas and Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The objectives of MACEMP was to enhance revenue collection, reduced threats to the environment, better livelihood for coastal communities and improved institutional arrangements for effective management of Marine Managed Areas (MMAs) in the country. MACEMP extended its support to the legal and institutional structures so that effective management of MMAs is realized through establishing a supported comprehensive system of MMAs in the territorial sea built on Integrated Coastal Management (ICM) strategy that empowers and benefits coastal communities.
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    Livelihoods of Coastal Communities in Mnazi Bay-Ruvuma Estuary Marine Park, Tanzania
    (Springer, 2014) Mangora, Mwita M.; Shalli, Mwanahija. S.; Msangameno, Daudi J.
    Marine protected areas (MPAs) are created to manage people’s behavior in their use of coastal and marine resources. Although MPAs have strived to deliver the objects of resource protection, they often face challenges in translating the accrued benefits into enhanced livelihoods of local communities in and around their areas of jurisdiction. We used Mnazi Bay-Ruvuma Estuary Marine Park (MBREMP) in Tanzania to appraise the scenario of pro-poor conservation. The purpose of comparison between park and non-park villages was done to verify the hypothesis that establishment and operations of MPAs impairs local socio-economic practices without robust provision of alternative livelihood safety nets. Agriculture remains a persistent livelihood occupation both in park and non-park villages. Artisanal fishing is a substantial livelihood occupation in seafront villages but a secondary activity in overall. Income and expenditure patterns indicated that non-park villages are better-off with significantly high income to expenditure ratios. Fishing make the most contribution to income in sea front villages as agriculture is doing in non-fishing villages. Impacts on livelihoods emanate from disrupted resource use patterns which significantly influence the communities’ perception on need, role and overall acceptance of the marine park. Traditional access and user rights are marred by MPA operations putting at stake livelihood security of the communities therein. Alternative strategies have not yet been given due thrust and local communities remain insecure in accessing political assets such as cooperatives, community credit schemes and financial assets such as government and/or commercial banking sponsored schemes and loans. Local communities are already carrying the costs of denied access to livelihood sources, but the marine park is not quick enough to translate the accrued value and benefit of the improved resource base in enhancing local communities’ livelihood and welfare. Reducing pressure on marine resources through sound management interventions will have to be accompanied by mitigating measures to safeguard household food security, such as compensation, and developing alternative sources of income. There is still considerable polarization between conservation and socio-economic welfare of the people. MPAs sould focus on combining resource management with livelihood opportunities that provide economic benefits in the short-run to address economic disruptions emanating from disrupted access to the once common resources.
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    Living on mangroves: A Look at the Ruvu Estuary Mangrove Forest, Tanzania
    (World Wildlife Fund, 2007-04) Mangora, Mwita M.
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    Local Adaptation Investment Planning in Zanzibar A Baseline Review of Policy and Institutional Framework
    (2015-02) Mangora, Mwita M.; Shalli, Mwanahija. S.; Kaur, Nanki; Jumah, Soud M.; Mwita, Fauzia; Bakar, Salim
    Zanzibar is comprised of the islands of Unguja and Pemba surrounded by numerous other islets along the East African coast. Due to their geographical position and limited land area, Zanzibar is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Sea level change, extreme events and sea water intrusion into underground aquifers are important threats. Sea level rise for instance, is anticipated to lead to coastal inundation in some places, reducing the already limited land area, accelerating beach erosion, and degrading coastal resources like mangroves and coral reefs which support and sustain fisheries and the tourism industry. Low adaptive capacity that emanate from the government’s low economic capacity to respond to the impacts is not only a threat to the projected achievement of sustainable development and poverty reduction but also has the potential to reverse the modest social and economic development gains that Zanzibar has achieved so far. This scooping report presents a baseline analysis of the policy, organizational and institutional framework of Zanzibar in support of adaptation and resilience to climate change with a particular focus on planning, decision-making, budgeting and M&E procedures and processes for local level interventions where the impacts are most felt.
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    Nutrient Enrichment and Saline Conditions Decreases Growth and Photosynthesis of the Mangrove Heritiera littoralis Dryand
    (Scientific Research, 2016) Mangora, Mwita M.
    Inundation associated with flooding and sea level rise is predicted to have major impacts on survival, growth and productivity of mangroves. A manipulative mesocosm experiment was conducted to assess whether nutrient enrichment enhances growth and photosynthesis of waterlogged and salinity stressed seedlings of the mangrove Heritiera littoralis Dryand. Seedlings were fertilized with a three-component granular farm NPK (Nitrogen-Phosphorous-Potassium, 20:20:20) at varied loads under waterlogging with four levels of salinity. Growth was assessed through biomass accumulation, and photosynthesis through photosynthetic quantum yield and leaf Chl content. When seedlings were exposed to both nutrient enrichment and increased salinity, a significant shift of biomass to roots was observed. Seedlings had low value of Chl a/b ratio and photosynthetic distraction resulting in mortality was high in the highest salinity and nutrient levels. These results are useful in explaining failure of regeneration in natural stands of riverine and freshwater bound mangroves following unprecedented flooding events that accrue land based nutrient loads into estuaries and deltas.
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    Photosynthetic Responses to Submergence in Mangrove Seedlings
    (CSIRO, 2014-03-27) Mangora, Mwita M.; Mtolera, Matern S. P.; Björk, Mats
    Flooding and salinity fluctuations are common in mangrove systems. Sometimes these events are long-lasting, persisting several months. With an increased frequency of heavy rainfalls and terrestrial run-off, subsequent floods have been associated with massive mangrove mortality and failure to regenerate in the region. Owing to climate change, these events are expected to be more common in the future. We investigated how three weeks of submergence in water of different salinities affected the photosynthetic rates in seedlings of three common mangroves: Bruguiera gymnorrhiza (L.) Lamk.; Avicennia marina (Forssk.) Vierh.; and Heritiera littoralis Dryand. We found that photosynthesis and survival rates declined with increasing salinity and submergence time for all species. Prolonged submergence caused a significant decline in photosynthetic rates (as electron transport rate – ETR) for B. gymnorrhiza (P = 0.021) and H. littoralis (P = 0.002), whereas significant effects of both salinity (P = 0.003) and submergence (P = 0.023) were observed between species. Maximum diurnal values of ETR declined in the order of A. marina > B. gymnorrhiza > H. littoralis. After submergence, survived seedlings were tended normally, watered twice a day with freshwater. Three seedlings of B. gymnorrhiza from freshwater and 33% seawater treatments and of A. marina from freshwater treatment displayed signs of recovery for the first 3–5 days, but after that they died. We conclude that submergence time and water salinity will affect the performance of mangrove areas, such that areas experiencing prolonged submergence with flooding dominated by saline water might be most severely impacted.
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    Poverty and institutional management stand-off: a restoration and conservation dilemma for mangrove forests of Tanzania
    (Springer, 2011-12) Mangora, Mwita M.
    Mangrove forests of Tanzania are reserved by law, but the capacity to effectively enforce this institution has remained far from reach and mangrove forests continue to be exploited as cheap sources of wood and forest land for other uses. Often, the rural poor who depend on mangroves for their subsistence are pointed out by the state institutions as culprits of the degradation. Promisingly though, this paradigm is being offset by the emerging positive view about human proclivity for caring and nurturing common resources. Traditional and community based forest management practices are emerging as appropriate alternatives to state control and institutional arrangement for ensuring sustainable management of forest resources. Nonetheless, community based management has not yet been robustly implemented for mangrove forests in Tanzania. Retrospectively, this paper argues that nationalization of mangrove forests has not been successful in reversing mangrove degradation. The experiences have instead been the frictions between people and the state, as desperate rural poor continue to plunder on and make a living at the expense of mangrove forests. The paper exemplify how policy failure, weak or dysfunctional state institutions in Tanzania compounded by little participatory awareness and self commitment are ruining the restoration and conservation initiatives.
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    Project Evaluation Report for the Environment, Development, Governance and Education (EDGE) Project Along the Songas Pipeline
    (Tanzania Forest Conservation Group (TFCG), 2012-05) Mangora, Mwita M.; Shalli, Mwanahija. S.
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    Review of Literature for a Climate Vulnerability Assessment in the RUMAKI Seascape, Tanzania
    (2015-04) Tumbo, Madaka; Mangora, Mwita M.; Pauline, Noah M.; Kuguru, Baraka
    WWF’s Coastal East Africa Initiative (CEAI) is an umbrella programme that provides regional strategic support to the work of WWF country offices in Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique. The CEAI was launched in 2010 and has a technical team based in Dar es Salaam. Priority areas of work include: v Natural resources governance in nine priorities landscapes & seascapes (see Fig.1.1 below) v Governance of Western Indian Ocean tuna fisheries v Fisheries certification, especially shrimp fisheries in Mozambique v Africa-China natural resources trade, especially timber v Climate change adaptation Within the CEAI, the climate change adaptation programme was initiated early in 2011 and aims to ensure that WWF’s conservation programme in coastal Eastern Africa recognizes and addresses the impacts of global climate change on priority ecosystems, and on communities that depend on them. In particular, during the period 2012 – 2015 the CEAI is supporting five priority landscapes to undertake climate change vulnerability assessments and to develop and implement climate change adaptation strategies, where possible integrated into existing or new natural resources management strategies and plans.
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    Sacred Mangrove Forests: Who Bears the Pride?
    (Springer, 2014) Mangora, Mwita M.; Shalli, Mwanahija. S.
    While mangroves have since been regarded as natural wastelands, the need for their conservation is strongly felt today as their invaluable services and functions are being unveiled primarily due to increasing demand for their products and the forest land. Appraising various models of management institutions to enhance conservation and sustainability of these valuable resources has thus been advocated over the recent past. Social taboos exist in most cultures, and they demonstrate forms of informal institutions, where traditional norms, rather than state institutions (laws, regulations), determine human behavior toward exploitation of natural resources. Despite the ill-recognition of these traditional management practices by the state organs, traditional communities have for centuries maintained these practices to ensure the survival of the forests on grounds of spiritual and ecological values. In this chapter we reviewed the state of knowledge of the functional conservation values of sacred mangrove forests in Tanzania and how they are being conceived as models for the promotion of community based conservation (CBC). The discussion is based on the perspectives of forest dependency, traditional access and use rights, traditional ecological knowledge, socio-ecological integration of culture and forest, and the traditional power relations. We argue that traditional people, who have maintained strong ties to their cultural norms and kept the sacred groves outshining the contemporary models of conservation, should bear the pride and honor in the renaissance of conservation tenets.
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    Shifting Cultivation, Wood Use and Deforestation Attributes of Tobacco Farming in Urambo District, Tanzania.
    (2012-03-20) Mangora, Mwita M.
    Tobacco farming in Tanzania relies heavily on shifting cultivation and abundant supply of fuel wood to cure the crop. Vast deforestation of miombo woodlands has also been an attribute in tobacco growing areas. This study report on an assessment survey carried out to characterize these three attributes of tobacco farming in Urambo district, Tanzania. Focus group discussions and questionnaires were used to gather information from a selection of households in four tobacco growing villages. Seventy five percent of the farming households were regular tobacco growers. On average, a farmer cultivated 1.3 ha of tobacco each growing season. Over 61,000 ha of land are cleared annually for tobacco growing in the district. A conservative average crop harvest stood at 1,000 kg (cured) per ha which consume 23 m3 of wood for curing. Shifting cultivation, with fallow periods reduced to only 4 years, is no longer sustainable in Urambo district. The high demands of wood for the tobacco industry can as well no longer be sustained under the implicated pace of woodland deforestation. For small scale tobacco farming households, these are inevitable consequences of use for livelihood and survival.
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    Socio-Economic Profiles of Communities Adjacent to Tanga Marine Reserve Systems, Tanzania: Key Ingredients to General Management Planning
    (2012-02-20) Mangora, Mwita M.; Shalli, Mwanahija. S.
    The aim of the present study was to appraise socio-economic profiles and dependence on coastal and marine resources of communities adjacent to the newly established Tanga Marine Reserve systems (TMRs) as a key element that will inform development of a General Management Plan (GMP) for the reserves. Establishment of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) have been sought as viable measures to prevent coastal and marine resources degradation whilst ensuring viable livelihoods options for local communities. A total of 140 household interviews and seven semi-structured key informant in-depth interviews were administered in seven representative villages. Fishing (inclusive of fish vending) and agriculture were common occupations, which quite often overlapped. The limitations to community development were rooted in lack of modern equipment and technological advancement for fisheries and agriculture. These emanated from limited access to capital and markets. Illiteracy was also implicated in the deterioration of livelihoods in most households. Household expenditure to income ratio indicated that, household budgets are vulnerable to deficits and that rival and recurrent expense items like food drew the majority of household income. Enhancement and diversification of livelihoods occupations is one of viable management strategies to be incorporated into the GMP for TMRs because predominant fishers may gradually shift to off-fishing occupations. A robust transition is therefore pertinent. Some of the eminent examples for consideration as alternative sources of income are suggested.
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    Tobacco Farming: An Environmental Threat in the Urambo District of Tanzania
    (World Wildlife Fund, 2002) Mangora, Mwita M.