RESOLUTIONS OF MAMA MISITU CAMPAIGN NATIONAL DIALOGUE WITH MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT FROM SOUTHERN ZONE OF THE PARLIAMENTARY OF UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA

26th April 2016, Dodoma-Tanzania

Attendees

-Member of the parliament – from Southern Zone

-CSO representatives (Tanzania Natural Resources Forum-TNRF, Mama Misitu Campaign-MMC, Mpingo Conservation and development Initiative-MCDI, Tanzania Forest Conservation Group - TFCG, Mtandao wa Jamii wa Usimamizi Misitu Tanzania – MJUMITA, Policy Forum)

  1. Educate more MPs on sustainable forest governance and its benefits and challenges so as to increase collective awareness in advising the government on how to address these issues.
  2. CSOs and government work together to educate individual MPs and parliamentary committees so as to increase the ability of MPs to understand the sector and be part of the solution to the problem
  3. Improve the pathways of communication by providing news briefs and visuals that are sufficient to improve the quality of debate on improved forest governance
  4. Draw attention to private [individuals’ and groups’] views on ongoing harms and opportunities. This may happen through forest stakeholders’ efforts to educate and inform.
  1. Highlight and contribute to the conversation on the benefits of and challenges facing forests during the submission of the budget for the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism (MNRT).
  2. CSOs evaluate the budget of the MNRT in order to discover the challenges that must be addressed by the government. This will help MPs be up to date during the comment period.
  1. Help expand the implementation of Joint Forest Management (JFM) by persuading the government to increase investment/budget allocation for district level governments.
  2. MPs persuade the government to allocate funds for the sake of implementing development plans for forests on the district level
  3. MPs persuade local government authorities at the district level to set aside internal revenue to promote the implementation of programs for JFM
  4. MPs invest funds from individual MP Funds in the implementation of JFM.
  1. Tanzania Forest Services Agency (TFS) seeks innovative means to address challenges of unsustainable forest harvesting. The use of force and fines has not helped to resolve the current challenges.
  1. Review the responsibilities of TFS and PO-RALG in order to reduce overlapping roles. This is also part of resolving the conflict between District Forest Officers and District Forest Service Managers, and examining and providing recommendations on the possibility of providing a forum for resolving such conflicts in the future.