New Approaches to Upscale Resilience and Ecosystem-based Adaptation in Tanzania
Project Information
The project is aiming at increased resilience of communities especially most-marginalized people through improving ecosystem services in drought prone areas of Tanzania in five Districts including Simanjiro, Kiteto, Chemba, Same and Mufindi.
The project will address social vulnerabilities such as food insecurity, access to resources, water use conflict, human-wildlife conflict, pastoralist migration and land-use conflicts to support restoration of ecosystem services and contribute to improvement of the legal and development policy framework in Tanzania as it addresses a core issue that affects restoration of ecosystem services. The project is designed to address the barriers of upscaling EbA solutions and will work to strengthen the policy component of these initiatives by removing the barriers for up-scaling Ecosystem-based Adaptation and restoration of ecosystem services.
Therefore, this project will support strengthening ecosystems that deliver critical services to communities to enhance community resilience. CARE Nederland through CARE Tanzania will involve a wide range of stakeholders in research, advocacy and policymaking processes around EbA-related fields such as agriculture, livestock, natural resources management and tourism and communities in targeted districts to achieve project results.
Project Status
The New Approaches to Upscale Resilience and Ecosystem-Based Adaptation (NATURE) Project was successfully in Tanzania operating in 5 pilot districts namely Same, Mufindi, Simanjiro, Kiteto, and Chemba in June 2023. The selected districts are facing with social vulnerabilities including food insecurity, limited access to resources, water use conflict, land use conflicts, human wildlife conflict, pastoralist migration, that alter restoration of ecosystem and its services, the districts are prone to drought which exacerbated high degradation rates of the natural habitat and ecosystems. The NATURE project made significant progress in reducing these vulnerabilities and contributed to reducing the barriers for implementation of Ecosystem-Based Adaptation (EbA) initiatives, this has been achieved through creating awareness on the EbA intervention and its role in building community resilience and restoration of the degraded ecosystem.
The project has successfully conducted a series of training sessions focused on gender-responsive ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) for both district and national natural resource professionals, as well as project beneficiaries. Participants included local authorities from the Same, Simanjiro, Kiteto, Chemba, and Mufindi districts, along with representatives from various government institutions and ministries, such as Natural Resources, Tourism, Land, Water, Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries, and Environment. In total, 49 government officials (21 males and 18 females) were trained in various EbA modules, including an analysis of climate vulnerability and risks affecting ecosystems and livelihoods, aimed at identifying potential EbA options.
Additionally, the project established and trained 203 village Ecosystem-Based Adaptation champions (107 females and 96 males) across six villages in the Kiteto and Chemba districts of Central and Northern Tanzania. These champions play a crucial role in raising awareness among village government leaders to support the integration of ecosystem-based adaptation actions into local adaptation plans.
By the end of December 2024, the NATURE Project enhanced awareness and build capacity on EbA for a total of 941 individuals (445 females and 496 males). This diverse group includes policymakers (Ward Councillors), planners (District level), natural resource professionals (both district and national), and small-scale farmers and pastoralists within the targeted districts.
Furthermore, the project has documented the benefits and conducted a cost analysis of EbA approaches to facilitate community adaptation to climate change. The findings have been disseminated through articles published in local newspapers and online platforms, reaching a wide audience: 5,989,567 online subscribers, 403,904 individuals through printed copies, and 11,758 people via the project website nationwide.
Thanks to the various capacity-building initiatives conducted by the NATURE Project and the development of district restoration plans, significant progress has been made in ecosystem restoration across the pilot districts.
Mufindi District: In the 2023/2024 budget, Mufindi District planted 21,686,258 trees and has allocated financial support in 2024/2025 for the planting of 25,000,000 trees. The district has also supported 697 beekeepers (602 males and 95 females) by facilitating the installation of 7,698 beehives. For the upcoming 2024/2025 period, Mufindi plans to engage 760 beekeepers (680 males and 80 females) and install 8,800 additional beehives. Additionally, 612 small-scale farmers (202 males and 410 females) have been supported in sustainable conservation farming.
Chemba District: Between 2023 and 2024, Chemba District successfully planted 1,304,250 trees and provided support to 326 individuals (98 females and 228 males).
Kiteto District: From 2023 to 2024, Kiteto District planted 1,776,787 trees and supported 451 beekeepers (341 males and 110 females) by installing 8,026 beehives. The district also assisted 245 small-scale farmers (109 males and 136 females) in sustainable conservation farming.
Same District: In the same period, Same District planted 1,177,769 trees and supported 45 beekeeper groups, resulting in the installation of 71,221 beehives. Additionally, the district provided support to 38,052 small-scale farmers (11,416 females and 26,636 males) engaged in conservation farming.
Simanjiro District: From 2023 to 2025, Simanjiro District planted 1,140,851 trees, supported 1,651 beekeepers (127 males and 1,504 females), and installed 2,002 beehives. The district also assisted 152 small-scale farmers (56 males and 96 females) in sustainable conservation farming.
All trees were strategically planted in water sources, farms, forest reserves, human settlements, and public institutions, contributing to the overall restoration of ecosystems in these districts.
The assessment of the level of integration of ecosystem-based climate change adaptations and gender-related issues into existing legal frameworks in the sectors of water, natural resources , wildlife, disaster management, agriculture, livestock, land, and environment, finding were shared during the National stakeholder dialogue workshop composed stakeholders from government institutions and sector ministries (Water, forest, Natura resources, Tourism, Land, Agriculture, Local Government, Disaster management, included SWISCONTACT, WWF Tanzania, Climate Action Network, Tanzania forest Conservation Group, Land Right Research Institute and academia institutions (Sokoine university of Agriculture, University of Dodoma and Mzumbe University and representative from the community discussed and provided input on integrating gender-responsive ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) into local and national policies and development frameworks.
The project has managed to complete the gender-sensitive analysis, which identified gender gaps, power relations, and dynamics in ecosystem-based services and budgeting at the district and national levels and was presented to core ministries to be integrated into the EbA policies and development frameworks.
The project is using the a virtual platform, CARE Tanzania website where a project page has been established and websites from local newspaper to create awareness and training on EbA principles and approaches to the wider stakeholders including the government and to ensure the information on ecosystem-based adaptation is easily available for learning and upscaling to stakeholders.
