Opening Speech

Delivered by Dr. Julius Ningu (Director of Environment, Vice President’s Office) during the 2nd National CBNRM Forum held on 27th May 2015 at the National College of Tourism (Bustani campus), Shaaban Robert Street, Dar es Salaam.

Your Excellency, government representatives;

Representatives of Development Partners and Embassies;

Representatives of various CBNRM Projects;

Distinguished Participants;

Ladies and Gentlemen!

·  It is my pleasure to stand here today and officiate opening of this 2nd National CBNRM forum whose theme and objectives are important for natural resource-based socio-economic development.

·  I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to this particular stakeholders’ forum, which aim at unlocking, potential within the CBNRM approach in forestry, wildlife and fisheries.

·  I am informed that subsequent fora will be more inclusive to accommodate other forms of CBNRMs like Rangeland management.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

·  On behalf of the Vice President’s Office - Division of Environment, I sincerely commend the Tanzania Natural Resource Forum (TNRF) and its supporters WWF and the Ministry for Foreign Affair of Finland for organizing this important event and bring together multi-stakeholders into a common platform to discuss, share experience and find innovative ideas and new ways that would further empower communities in managing natural resources within their vicinity.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

·  I am excited to see representatives of various institutions and private sectors willing to participate in this kind of dialogue.

·  I am informed that during this meeting you will have several presentations but more important panel discussion and group work session to discussion targeted actions to improve CBNRM models.

·  I hope you will all participate effectively.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

·  The government of Tanzania and other many countries in Africa inherited the colonial approach to management of natural resources.

·  The colonial approach prevented and excluded communities from various forms of benefit sharing and management role.

·  In additional to other reasons, the fact that the Central Government alone could not manage all resources adequately necessitated policy and legislative reforms to allow for participation of local communities in management of land and forest resource.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

·  In Tanzania, CBNRM models such as the Community Conservation and Outreach services (CCS) under TANAPA; Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) approach under the Wildlife Division (WD); the participatory forest management (PFM) approaches; fisheries co-management approaches such as Beach Management Units (BMUs); water user associations (WUAs) in the water sector including wetlands; communal rangeland and village land management through village land use plans has rapidly expanded in numbers and geographic coverage over the last 20 years.

·  Such approaches are backed up with both policy and legislative provisions.

·  Public, private and civil society stakeholders are actively working in close collaboration with local communities in CBNRM implementation in various parts of the country covering all the relevant natural resources subsectors.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

·  As you discuss today, I would like you to answer the key question: Is the CBNRM approach really operational in Tanzania? If so, why is it not working as expected?

·  Do we see other models/approaches that can further empower communities and fully unlock natural resource potentials?

Ladies and gentlemen,

·  I hope this forum will not only end by discussing issues but will put into practice good experience emerging from various projects.

·  Forums of this nature are a rare opportunity where people ‘think beyond the box’ and suggest best ways in which international best models can be domesticated and promoted at the national level.

Dear participants, ladies and Gentlemen,

·  Finally, I wish you a very successful discussion. Having said that I now declare this 2nd National CBNRM Forum officially opened!

Thanks you very much for your attention.

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