CARE-WWF Alliance

In partnership with local governments in Tanzania, the CARE-WWF Alliance is strengthening a community-run wildlife management area and supporting participatory forest management. Near one of Africa’s largest and most threatened reserves, the Selous, Nachingwea’s miombo forest is part of a critical woodland network that supports some of the continent’s largest elephant populations. It is also home to people who depend on the forest and its resources for food, shelter, and income. That’s why the Alliance has supported village natural resource committees to develop plans for sustainable timber harvesting and trained members to implement it. Income from sustainable harvesting are then split between natural resource management and community-prioritized development initiatives.

The Alliance has four goals in Tanzania: (1) community-based conservation organizations demonstrate more equitable access to and sustainable management of miombo forest; (2) poor women smallholder farmers adopt climate-smart agriculture practices on their farms; (3) rural poor engage in diversified, sustainable livelihood activities; and (4) majority of citizens, especially women, demonstrate greater ability to hold duty bearers accountable for decisions that affect ecosystems.

Teeming with life, the Primeiras e Segundas archipelago in the north of Mozambique is at the center of one of Africa’s most biodiverse ecosystems. Yet climate change and over-exploitation of fish and mangroves are putting extreme pressure on the coastal region and its people. To help local communities address these challenges and conserve their extensive mangroves, coral reefs and seagrass beds, the CARE-WWF Alliance began working in 2008 with local men and women, farmers, fishers, community leaders and policymakers.

In Mozambique, after years of advocacy by the Alliance, the government declared Primeiras e Segundas a protected area in 2012. Informed by the Alliance’s work there, the government developed a management plan that zoned both fully protected marine and terrestrial reserves as well as community conservation and sustainable use areas to maximize the protected area’s ability to deliver both conservation and development objectives. In that region, 65 community-based natural resource management committees are empowering their communities to adopt sustainable natural resource management and fishing practices.

In Nepal, CARE and WWF work with local partners in the Hariyo Ban program to conserve forest and tigers and accelerate ecological and community resilience to climate change by empowering vulnerable women and communities, improving natural resource management, and reducing threats to biodiversity.

The Hariyo Ban Program is named after the famous Nepali saying ‘Hariyo Ban Nepal ko Dhan’ (Healthy green forests are the wealth of Nepal). The first phase of the Hariyo Ban Program ended on 31 December 2016 and the second phase will run until 2021. The second phase will build on the foundation of Phase I, applying lessons learned and scaling up promising approaches.

The program aims to reduce the adverse impacts of climate change and threats to biodiversity in Nepal. It emphasizes the links between people and forests and is designed to benefit nature and people in Nepal. At the heart of Hariyo Ban lie two interwoven components – biodiversity conservation and climate change adaptation including market based livelihoods. These are supported by governance, and gender and social inclusion as cross-cutting themes.