Restoration approaches:
- Farmland agroforestry
Goals:
The goals of this project are to provide households and communities with:
- Decreased reliance on forest resources
- Increased food security and nutrition
- Increased economic resilience
- Increased hectares in sustainable production
Discover more on WeForest’s website
Why is intervention needed?
In the Mara Region of Tanzania, the untenable extraction of resources from forests has negatively impacted water, soil and climate, causing local smallholder farmers to struggle with infertile soil, low water tables and erratic rainfall.
What will the project do?
Through agroforestry systems on their farms, the farmers and institutional beneficiaries are able to grow their own fodder, fuelwood, fiber, fruit and timber, and so no longer need to depend on local forest stands for consumption or income generation. This farm landscape restoration ultimately means forests have the opportunity to regenerate and are conserved for the long-term. In addition, the woody perennials planted improve soil fertility and water recharge, increasing crop yields and pastureland fodder for livestock. Fruit and timber trees provide food, fuelwood and shade.
Who benefits?
Beneficiaries of this project include smallholder farmers and institutions such as schools and churches. Agroforestry improves and conserves all natural resources - water, soil, biodiversity - on their land so that they are able to continuously grow and sell their own food and woody products instead of extracting and clearing local forests.