In their April 17, 2018 presentation titled, , Marc Baker, Carbon Tanzania, and Edward Loure, Ujamaa Community Resource Team, examined how securing land rights and integrating REDD can help communities benefit from their natural resources for future generations.

The talk also focused on a newly emerging project in the Makame Wildlife Management Area, an Acacia-Commiphore Dryland Forest that includes land from five villages and provides crucial habitat for the bordering Tarangire National Park wildlife most of the year.

Featured Speakers

Marc Baker

As a founding partner of Carbon Tanzania, Marc’s approach has always been to create effective, long-term conservation solutions for Tanzania’s most important landscapes. It must be ensured that the people who live and are dependent on these landscapes are able to derive the economic benefits they so desperately need.

At Carbon Tanzania he is focused on ensuring that the links between the global effort to mitigate climate change and the diverse needs of successful forest conservation are prioritized. This requires him to create strategic partnerships with a growing network of organizations working in land management, research and forest economics. As the founder and director of project operations, Marc monitors ongoing projects and focuses on project development ensuring that Carbon Tanzania is able to take its unique conservation model to scale.

Edward Loure

Edward is a Tanzanian activist, community leader and member of the Maasai tribe. His personal experiences, cultural background, and education—with degrees in management and administration—put him in a unique position to lead Ujamaa Community Resource Team, a local organization that has championed community land rights and sustainable development in northern Tanzania for the past 20 years. Loure was one of the first people to join UCRT, and together with his colleagues—hunter-gatherers and fellow pastoralists—began driving efforts to protect his people and traditions.

Edward and the UCRT team found an opportunity in one particular aspect of Maasai governance: its strong communal culture. It became the basis for Certificates of Customary Right of Occupancy (CCRO), a creative approach to applying the Tanzanian Village Land Act. Instead of the conventional model of giving land titles to individuals, CCROs allow entire communities to secure indivisible rights over their customary lands and manage those territories through bylaws and management plans. By formalizing communities’ land holdings and providing legal documentation, CCROs would help them protect their land rights and ensure the environmental stewardship of their territory for future generations.

Edward was awarded the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize Recipient for Africa in 2016.

Event Resources

Click here to view the presentation slides.

This event was hosted by The Africa Biodiversity Collaborative Group as a part of its Washington DC speaker series, which aims to foster information exchange and lessons sharing among cross-sector practitioners. To participate as a featured speaker, please contact Evelyn Namvua at enamvua@abcg.org and view the Guidelines to Speakers here.

Cover Photo – Photo credit: Marc Baker