Agri-Business
Sunday, June 29, 2014
Belgian offers Kilombero help
The valley, if well preserved, can support several projects beneficial to hundreds of thousands of people.
ULANGA, Tanzania - The Belgium government is helping to protect catchment areas in a bid to ensure that Kilombero Valley remains the major source of water, nutrients and energy for Tanzania.
Speaking to East African Business Week exclusively last week, the Belgium Ambassador to Tanzania, Koenraad Adam said “Kilombero Valley, its land, its water, its people play an exceptionally important role for this region and for the country as a whole. Kilombero river catchment is the most productive and sensitive sub-catchment of the larger Rufiji river catchment, which in turn is the largest river catchment in the region.
He said the rational and equitable management of the Valley and its resources is therefore a requirement to enable the local citizens to develop and support their families in the long term; and to enable the country to grow wealthier and stronger.
“This region has many opportunities to develop agriculture, forestry and wildlife related industries. Fisheries from the Valley feed a very large number of people well beyond the boundaries of these two Districts of Ulanga and Kilombero,” the envoy said.
Due to good policies and laws Tanzania has enshrined , his government will collaborate with Tanzania through the Kilombero and Lower Rufiji Wetlands Ecosystem Management Project (KILORWEMP ) project to support efforts of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism and of the local government authorities and the local people in that direction.
Speaking to East African Business Week, the Ulanga District Commissioner, Francis Miti said his authority is looking for the possibility of supporting community with Wetland friendly Investments to enable them reduce dependency on natural resources.
The project is being funded by the government of the kingdom of Beligium through the Beligian Technical Cooperation Tanzania (BTC)-a Belgian Development Agency and is being implemented in three districts of Ulanga, Kilombero and Rufiji.
Miti said it was the right time for the communities in his district to start income generating activities through natural resources by using customary land certificates issued to them.
He said majority of the community in the project area are very poor with high level dependency on natural resource base as a source of income for day to day livelihood.
According to the KILORWEMP fact sheet, the Kilombero Valley in Morogoro Region is the largest low-altitude freshwater wetland in East Africa and is designated as a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention, due to its ecological and biodiversity values.
It is part of the basin of the Rufiji River, which is a source of water and a base of agriculture production of national importance.
The valley is home to more than 200,000 people, mostly dependent on the abundant natural resources for their livelihoods; wildlife, forest, fisheries, grazing land and water.
Natural resources in the basin and in particular in the Kilombero and lower Rufiji floodplain are under growing pressure, due to population growth, agriculture intensification, uncoordinated and fragmented land use changes, demand for pastures, and social and environmental change playing out at national and international levels.
By Leonard Magomba, Sunday, June 29th, 2014