Tanzania Climate Change

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TANZANIA
CLIMATE CHANGE

Global climate action is critical to sustainable development. The United States for International Development (USAID) works with our partners to accelerate equitable, resilient, and ambitious actions to address the climate crisis. In Tanzania, USAID prioritizes climate change programming across its portfolio. The governments of the United States and Tanzania address the drivers of climate change through mitigation and using adaptation to protect people and ecosystems from climate change impacts. From deforestation mitigation to food and water security, to livelihood adaptation strategies, USAID works with government and local partners to include development goals with climate smart actions.

Ongoing Activities

USAID’s Natural Resource Management portfolio integrates climate mitigation and adaptation activities as part of their execution of biodiversity protection conservation goals. Climate change threatens biodiversity through the accelerated loss and fragmentation of habitat and ecosystems. The protection of biodiversity necessarily increases resilience of ecosystems to climate change impacts in the following ways:

• Land-use planning helps reduce deforestation. This reduces land-based carbon emissions, and conserves upstream forested watersheds and the water they provide. Land-use planning also preserves biodiversity which is key to adaptation and community resilience. Local land-use planning is supported across the USAID natural resource management portfolio in the Kigoma, Rukwa, Singida, Tabora, and Mbeya regions via the Landscape Conservation in Western Tanzania (LCWT) activity, Southern Highlands, and Ruaha-Katavi Protection Program (SHARPP), and the Usimamizi Endelevu wa Maliasili (“Resilient Natural Resources Governance”) activity.

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• The USAID Tuhifadhu Maliasili activity strengthens the connectivity of key biodiversity wildlife areas and increases their resilience to climate change impacts. Focal biodiversity corridors include: Kwakunchinja Wildlife Corridor, the Tarangire-Simanjiro Plains Corridor, the Kigosi Moyowosi –Uvinza Corridor, the Nyerere Selous Udzungwa Corridor, the Amani - Nilo Forest Corridor, and the Marine Pemba Channel Conservation Area (PECCA).

In Tanzania, USAID also implements agriculture and water sector activities, leading unique approaches to addressing the government of Tanzania’s concern for adapting to increasing drought conditions and safeguarding agriculture and community water supply. For example:

• USAID integrates water resources with watershed and river management. The mission supports mapping and identifies areas vulnerable to the effects of climate change. This is in alignment with government of Tanzania priorities to secure water for agriculture, hydropower generation, maintaining ecosystems, and domestic uses.

• In Tanzania, USAID agriculture activities integrate climate smart agriculture technologies to increase profits and yields and to safeguard development gains against climate shocks or stresses. This increase in food security can also help meet nutrition outcomes and objectives. USAID agriculture activities work with farmers in the select Southern Agriculture Growth Corridor of Tanzania region to expand the use of efficient agricultural practices for increasing crop yield. Work also helps communities be more resilient to the impacts of climate change.

• USAID’s climate smart agriculture activities are expanding to reach more smallholder farmers in the full range of activities needed for horticultural. Climate smart agriculture support includes low-cost drip irrigation, encouraging adoption of drought-tolerant seed, intercropping, crop rotations and using nutrient and water resource management practices. USAID’s Mboga na Matunda horticulture activity uses a market systems approach to promote application of improved business and good agricultural practices by farmers and other value chain actors. Through the Mboga na Matunda activity, around over 874,000 smallholder farmers and individuals in the private sector applied improved business, marketing, or agricultural practices. Additionally, beneficiary farmers to date, cultivated nearly 715,000 hectares under improved practices and utilized technologies to promote production with reduced environmental climate risk. These technologies include the use of proper land preparation methods and crop management practices, using efficient irrigation methods, using improved and hybrid seed, incorporating integrated pest management, and applying post-harvest handling practices.