Tanzania Forest Conservation Group

The Tanzania Forest Conservation Group (TFCG), partner of the World Land Trust, protects and restores Tanzania’s threatened coastal forests while supporting community-led conservation. Its focus is on the Rondo Plateau, where it aims to secure a wildlife corridor between the Rondo Forest Reserve and Nyerere National Park. TFCG combines forest protection with strengthening land tenure and improving livelihoods for local communities. 

The Rondo Plateau is an area of exceptional biodiversity, home to endangered and endemic species such as the Rondo dwarf galago, the Rondo limbless skink, over 60 single-site endemic plants, and migrating African elephants. Yet the coastal forests of Tanzania face some of the country’s highest rates of deforestation and degradation, largely from local farming of crops like cashew nuts and sesame, which is driven by poverty and lack of alternative incomes.  

ERF’s grant is supporting four new Village Land Forest Reserves (covering 12,500 hectares) and the complete legal gazettement for ten more created during phase one (covering 20,733 hectares). The funding is also supporting land-use planning, formalisation of customary land rights, and the development of alternative incomes such as sustainable timber harvesting, honey production, and village savings and loan associations. These measures will secure critical forest connectivity while delivering tangible benefits to local communities.