COMPANIES involved in carbon trading in the country need to be transparent and involve the community in project areas so that citizens are aware of the business, a senior official has appealed.

Dr Elikana John, the Tanzania Forest Service (TFS) agency chief forester expressed this need at a meeting organized by the Terraformation Co. to explore ways of obtaining funds for the management of land and forests through carbon trading.  

He urged the companies to fulfill commitments entered into concerning carbon trading, to bring the benefits of preserving biodiversity to society, highlighting to the company’s officials that the government has set a goal of restoring 5.2m hectares.
At the meeting coordinated by TFS and the environment division in the Vice President’s Office (VPO) has drawn up rules and guidelines for carbon trading on a societal benefit perspective.

To achieve this objective, the country needs investment and funding for these projects from various stakeholders and global agencies, he stated, asserting that expertise to prepare projects is needed along with research on forest areas, to bring positive results.

Other reports show that Tanzanian officials participated in a side event devoted to mountains conservation as an item to be included as the global agenda preparing meetings of the parties to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change whose 29th conference was lately held in the Azerbaijan capital of Baku.

The conference ended in overtime on Sunday with only modest climate finance goals, with observers declaring that it failed to deliver on an expected announcement of a new commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

They said that the conference displayed unusually high tensions among nations, spurred in part by statements from the host, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev that fossil fuels power were a natural gift that countries must use for their prosperity.
The Tanzanian delegation attended the meeting organized by delegations from Kyrgyzstan Andorra and Bhutan along with a Nepalese conservation agency, the KIRDARC Union. 

The top forester said that countries making contributions to the meeting largely acknowledged the importance of mountain ecosystems and how they are affected by climate change.

The effects include the loss of snow, biodiversity, the occurrence of landslides and the drying up of water sources, he stated, where the delegates heard a presentation on how Tanzania is taking steps to ensure sustainable ecology and environment of mountain ranges, highlighting a number of policies, laws and institutional systems meant to enable care of the ecology and environment of mountains.

At the same time Tanzania was reported to be joining more than 50 countries at the conference agreeing to mitigate impacts of climate change by promoting sustainable tourism.

Ernest Mwamaja, the Tanzania Tourism Board (TTB) marketing director, made this remark on the sidelines of the 29th conference of the parties to the UN framework convention concluded at the weekend.

He said that up to 8.8 percent of global environmental damage is caused by air transportation, directly tied with tourism activities, thus steps envisaged by the group will help reduce the challenges.

Proceedings at COP29 included the tourism sector unlike in previous years, he said, affirming that this will bring benefits to Tanzania as discussions are held to find answers to environmental impacts.