Background
The project “Advancing REDD in the Kolo Hills Forests” (ARKFor) was implemented  in  2010-14  by  the African wldlife foundation (AWF) and its partners CAMCO, Selian agricultural research institute (SARI) and Kondoa District council (KDC) in 21 villages surrounding the government owned Kolo Hills forests.
The  evaluation  uses  the  standard  OECD/DAC evaluation  criteria  of  relevance,  effectiveness,  efficiency, impact  and  sustainability.  In  addition,  the  evaluation  team  used  four  crosscutting  result  areas  of  REDD+ readiness,  policy  testing,  REDD+  results  and  broad  stakeholder  involvement  to  review  project  outcomes which were also defined in the terms of reference to be the key evaluation considerations. The review is based on the desk review of relevant documents and visits to KDC , project villages and project partners in the city of Arusha, in northern Tanzania, in February 2015.

Recommendations to AWF and partners:

AWF  should document and  disseminate  their  experiences on outsourcing  of  the  carbon project contract.
The data collected during the forest assessment should be used more efficiently, recorded tree heights should be included in biomass estimation calculations.
The  monitoring  of  project  results  should  be  improved  and  when necessary,  project strategies and activities should be changed according to the analysis of data. A follow up socio-economic survey is required in order to determine if the economic impacts of sustainable agriculture are statistically significant.
Sustainable  agriculture  development  should  specifically  target  poorer  households by identifying varieties of  crops and  agricultural  practices that  can  improve  food security  in resource-poor households.
Pro-poor  and  gender  targeting  needs more  strategic  planning that can  be undertaken once  socio-economic  impacts are properly  analyzed,  including  the  analysis of the  benefit sharing mechanism.
AWF  should  develop  efficient  fuelwood  strategies  in  a  participatory  way,  to  encourage wider adoption of new technologies among community members – this includes charcoal and brick making, as well as woodstoves.
The  scope  for  collaborating  with  TANAPA  to  monitor  flows  in  the  Tarangire  River,  for which  the  Kolo  Hills  are  a  major  source,  should  be  explored. Consequently, AWF should develop  revenue  generating and  PES strategies  from Tarangire  River conservation  in partnership with TANAPA.
Following the model of Carbon Tanzania, which is selling forest carbon from communities in   northern   Tanzania, AWF should develop   a   strategy whereby tourism  companies operating  around  the  Kolo  Hills  and  in  Tarangire  National  Park  are  approached  to  enter into Corporate Social Responsibility agreements to fund project activities.

Recommendations to NCMC, TFS and REDD+ practitioners:

Land-use  planning  is  an  essential activity  for  REDD+, especially  in  areas  with  little  forest cover and  growing  population. Spatial  data  sets  such  as  LULC  maps as  well  as remote sensing and GIS data can be used to conduct a spatially sensitive participatory process with communities.
The  data  collected  during  forest  assessments  should  be  used  more  efficiently,  especially the   harmonisation   of   data   collection   and   analysis   protocols   with   NAFORMA   is recommended. In particular, NAFORMA tree species lists and codes should be applied as it would increase the comparability of carbon data from the other REDD+ projects and with the NAFORMA dataset.
Wherever  possible, TFS should support the  VFS with  funds and  should  consider  further developing JFM agreements that allow for sales of environmental services such as carbon.
TFS should put greater effort nationally into supporting forest law enforcement since this will make illegal forest products reflect their true costs and hence make forest products from PFM and REDD+ more competitive in the market place.

Recommendation to policy makers supporting the National REDD+ process:

Addressing the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation from multi-sectoral angles (energy,  agriculture,  enterprise  development)  is  necessary for effective  climate change activities.  REDD+  has  to  get  out of the “forestry  box” and  engage  multiple  stakeholders across several sectors.