The latest news reports declare that Tanzania will be protecting their forest in East Africa. The forest is supposed to be under threat from activities that are illegal. Such activities include cutting trees for charcoal and animal poaching. The Magombera Forest would have been disappeared by 2018 if they hadn’t taken any action to protect it. Successfully, a program was constructed with the help of the local villages to demonstrate the importance of wildlife to the people of the region. These program was known as the Udzungwa Forest Project and the Tanzania Forest Conservation Group. The Udzungwa Forest Project and the Tanzania Forest Conservation Group evidently reached their target in 2018 to save the wildlife and the forest.
Tanzania’s government is going to create a 6463-acre Nature Reserve for Magombera to protect the plants and the animals of the forest. This of course will be done with the financial and scientific support of several conservation groups. The project began 15 years ago. The project leader Dr. Andy says that the protection of these lands was followed by more than 40 years of research. He further added, that when he began to work in the forest, it was only biologically important but it rang with the sound of axes and machetes. The project leader further revealed that they had worked over the years to find alternative sources for wood. They have even reduced the frequencies of wild fires. This has led to immense growth of small trees.
The value of conservation of the forest had begun in the 1970s but it received international attention only when a chameleon species was spotted in the forest, escaping the jaws of a snake. The forests has been very popular in the discovery of many new species of monkeys, trees and chameleons. However, this was an incentive for the increased interest in donations and protection of the forest. The forest is a home for many magnificent species such as the Magombera Chameleon, the red colobus monkey, Udzungwa dwarf galago, African elephants and hippopotamus. Apart from the animals, this is also a place for the local communities for rice and sugar farming. If the forest will not be protected than it will not be able to aid the agricultural region by providing environmental services. This would lead to floods and soil erosion.
Therefore, with the help of additional funds from the Rainforest Trust and the Udzungwa Forest Project, a conservation management plan is being implemented. It is also initiating ways through which tourists can visit the forest and bring additional aid. The Executive Director of TFCG recently said that the tourist fees will go to the local communities as well as to the government managing authority.
These are very good news for the locals as well as the wildlife of the Tanzania Forests. The illegal activities have stopped and the conservation plans are being implemented to create a better and safer environment for plants and animals.