A group of conservationists established Tanzania Landscapes Restoration Organization (TaLRO) in 2019 to
fully participate and guide efforts to restore and manage degraded forest landscapes in Tanzania
(Reg # 00NGO/R/0811). Founders of TaLRO are aware and understand the impacts of on-going deforestation
and degradation of landscapes globally. Species and various ecosystem services are rapidly disappearing
due to deforestation and landscapes degradation. As a result, communities and ecological systems
are increasingly becoming less resilient to impacts of climatic and non-climatic shocks.
Tanzania is not immune from the impacts of on-going deforestation and degradation.
The Government of Tanzania released the Third State of the Environment Report in 2019
pointing out clearly that Tanzania is losing about 373,000 hectares annually.
To reverse the trend, TaLRO founders believe that concerted efforts and guided actions are required at different
levels to restore degraded forest landscape and regain their ecological functionalities, including valuable ecosystem services.
TaLRO restoration initiatives aim to support the Government of Tanzania to achieve its commitment to bring 5.2 million hectares of
deforested and degraded land into restoration by 2030. The TaLRO initiatives also support the African Forest Landscape Restoration
Initiative (AFR100) to bring 100 million hectares of deforested and degraded land into restoration across Africa by 2030.
At the global level, TaLRO restoration initiatives aim to contribute to the Bonn challenge;
a global commitment to restore 150 million hectares of the world's deforested and degraded land into
restoration by 2020 and 350 million hectares of deforested and degraded land into restoration by 2030.
TaLRO restoration activities contribute to other initiatives such as the Pan African Action Agenda on Ecosystem Restoration
for Increased Resilience, African Resilient Landscapes Initiative (ARLI), the African Union Agenda of 2063,
the Sustainable Development Goals, among others. TaLRO works with a large group of volunteers from various academic institutions
in Tanzania such as University of Dar es Salaam (Botany and Zoology Department), Sokoine University of Agriculture,
College of African Wildlife Management – Mweka, among other institutions.
To achieve its activities, TaLRO works with various partners to:
Mobilize and empower community groups, with more focus on women and the youth, to be able to establish and manage various income-generating activities and in turn support landscapes restoration initiatives (community-conservation enterprises).
Engage community groups to actively engage in reforestation activities in degraded landscapes.
Build capacity of communities to have skills to restore and manage catchment areas to sustain valuable ecosystem services and livelihood.
Promote best practices for sustainable utilization of natural resources so as to benefit the current and future generations.
Create general awareness about biodiversity conservation to the local communities and other actors at different levels using indicator species of birds, mammals, plants, reptiles, amphibians, and marine species.
Support local communities to actively engage in initiatives related to climate change mitigation and adaptation with a particular focus on ecosystem-based adaptation.
Some of our activities include:
Offering technical support in baseline surveys before and after restoration activities in various landscapes in Tanzania.
Establishing and managing native and fruit tree nurseries and distributing trees to interested organizations and community members.
Restoring, monitoring, and managing restored forest landscapes in protected and non-protected areas, including in government institutions.
Building the capacity of community groups to establish and manage nature-based enterprises and other income-generating activities (carbon projects, ecotourism, wild farms, wild ranches, butterfly farms, aquaculture, poultry, horticulture, etc.).
Supporting community groups to establish and manage community-saving and loan associations (e.g., Village Saving and Loan Associations, Community Conservation Banks, Community Revolving Funds, etc.) – financial inclusion to communities around biodiversity-rich areas.
Organizing and facilitating nature-based field tours to learn conservation activities and biodiversity benefits in various landscapes.
Creating awareness of the importance of biodiversity and nature-based services in various landscapes in Tanzania.
Organizing and facilitating public-private partnership dialogues on matters related to overall biodiversity conservation, nature-based enterprises, and climate change.
