Fire occurs in most parts of the Miombo woodlands and is used for a variety of purposes, including hunting and farming. However, fires can have significant negative ecological and socio-economic impacts such as a reduced water supply; decline in biodiversity and agriculture production; increased pollution of water sources; and reduced carbon sequestration. Despite years of regulation and attempts to control, there are no apparent solutions to the fire problem in most districts of Tanzania. In fact, fire incidence is believed to be increasing. National forest laws preventing fires exist but tend not to be respected in the rural areas where local by laws are more important. A sustainable management of the Miombo is therefore critical, both for local, national and global interests.
The Miombo woodland’s major handicap in forest fire management is the lack of forest fire records, which normally highlight the cause, location, time and date of a fire as well as the financial losses incurred. There is also lack of detailed local fire knowledge and practices. Existence of such data can provide a foundation for the design and prioritization of future wildfire management activities in Tanzania.
An understanding of fire regimes, effects on vegetation under different management scenarios and the overall socio-economic situations can help develop fire management strategies. These strategies will serve as a tool for carbon storage and sequestration in the Miombo ecosystem. The envisaged strategy will enhance in the establishment of an effective and functional National Fire Policy in Tanzania.
One mechanism proposed to mitigate these emissions is Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) in developing countries while REDD+ is the original concept of REDD, plus sustainable management of forests and the conservation and enhancement of forest carbon stocks.
This project will support REDD+ in Tanzania by:
• Developing a Fire Management Strategy as a tool for sustainable forest management and climate change mitigation for the Miombo woodlands;
• Articulating fire monitoring protocols which could be used by different actors;
• Increasing awareness and understanding issues, challenges and opportunity to Climate change and REDD in particular;
• Determining the capacity of carbon storage and sequestration in vegetation under different fire management scenarios and burning regimes;
• Identifying the reasons for fire occurrence and its effects on miombo woodlands and grasslands;
• Enhancing capacity building of different actors on how to better manage forests fires and networking.

- Output of the Norwegian funded Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Mitigation (CCIAM) Programme in Tanzania.