DAR ES SALAAM, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- Tanzanian authorities and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Monday announced joint efforts aimed at ending environmental degradation caused by human economic activities in the country.
Charles Tulahi, FAO programs officer in Tanzania, said the joint efforts included provision of alternative ways that will avoid degrading the environment.
Tulahi told a meeting that brought together experts to discuss on implementation of the joint program in Morogoro region that the program will discourage people from engaging in economic activities that impact negatively on the environment, including charcoal making, tree felling for firewood, unplanned agriculture, fishing and livestock keeping.
He said the program will be financed by the Global Environment Fund (GEF) and supervised by FAO in collaboration with Tanzania's Vice-President's Office, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism and the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries.
Tulahi said the GEF has accepted to allocate funds to save natural forests including Miombo woodlands that were currently under immense pressure in Tanzania to the extent of facing extinction.
The FAO official said GEF realized that environmental degradation has started having negative effects on natural forests in different parts of the country, particularly after the Miombo forests started disappearing due to increased human activities.
Zawadi Mbwambo, Tanzania Forest Services Agency Acting Executive Director, said the destruction of the Miombo forests was threatening to turn the country into a desert if urgent steps by stakeholders to control the situation were not taken.
Mbwambo gave an example of Shinyanga, Mwanza and Geita regions, where Miombo forests have disappeared a great deal, causing a reduction in the amount of rain in the Lake Zone regions.
Mbwambo called for more efforts to protect the trees in other regions, saying the agency has conducted an evaluation in forest areas and discovered that there were 48 million hectares of Miombo trees that needed protection.
