Habitat rehabilitation and rural employment
Carbon sequestration is the term used to describe the process of removing carbon from the atmosphere into biomass through photosynthesis. In many tree planting projects around the world the ‘success’ is judged on the number of trees planted without the consideration of survival rates. Losses of tree seedlings can be considerable if factors such as cattle, fire, erosion, and drought are not considered. Carbon Tanzania employs local villages to manage, plant, and attend to all tree seedlings over five years, therefore ensuring a much greater survival record. Not only does this provide additional income to local communities, it gives the trees a real world value ensuring a grass roots understanding of long term investment in the environment.
An important consideration is tree species and location, in northern Tanzania montane (mountain) forest edge is some of the most diverse habitat yet the least protected. For example, areas along forest edges provide habitat for the seasonal and altitudinal migration of many of our montane forest bird species. During studies carried out on Monduli mountain in December 1999, over half of all bird species recorded (25 out of 45) occurred with the forest edge scrub and emerging Croton macrostachyus and Acacia lahai woodland (Baker, 2000).
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