COP12, Tanzania
Land rights, Environmental conservation and coastal management stakeholders have stressed the need to strengthen land governance systems at the village level to ensure that communities involved in mangrove conservation benefit from their efforts.
The call was made during a mangrove-focused side event organized by Landesa Tanzania in collaboration with Action for Ocean, to discuss RIGHTS TO STEWARD: MANGROVE Who protects? Who decides? Who benefits? Where stakeholders discussed how communities can benefit from efforts to protect and restore mangroves. They also highlighted concerns that challenges related to land ownership, land use and governance could undermine conservation efforts.
Presenting at the side event, Masalu Luhula, a senior land tenure specialist from Landesa, warned that the lack of village land-use plans remains a major barrier to secure land tenure in Tanzania. He noted that government records indicate that fewer than 25% of villages have village land-use plans, making it difficult to guarantee secure tenure and effective land management.
Luhula also pointed to gaps in the legal framework governing access to marine resources and mangrove management. “You speak about mangrove and then you read the Forest Act, it is just mentioned by one word, mangrove inclusive,” he said, arguing that strategies and plans without strong legal backing risk becoming ineffective.
He called for the harmonisation of laws and stronger coordination among institutions responsible for forests, marine parks and mangrove areas, while urging the creation of safe spaces where government and non-state actors can jointly address these gaps. He also stressed that mangrove conservation must be linked to the livelihoods of communities that have protected and depended on these forests for generations.
As carbon trading becomes an increasingly important issue, Luhula said communities and other stakeholders must be meaningfully involved through the principle of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC).
“Mangrove is both for nature and people, and people includes the community,” he said.
Masalu Luhula, a senior land tenure specialist from Landesa presenting at the side event,
The question of who benefits from mangrove conservation was also central to the discussion, with Khadija Mrisho challenging stakeholders to consider how communities can gain from the efforts they invest in protecting mangrove ecosystems.
“Who benefits from mangroves? And when communities put in their efforts to conserve them, how will they benefit from those efforts?” Mrisho asked.
The discussion also highlighted concerns over the increasing acquisition of large areas of coastal land, including land speculation, which stakeholders said could create challenges for land management and undermine the authority of village governments.
Stakeholders further questioned accountability in village land-use planning, noting that in some areas it can be difficult to access documents showing the land-use plans being implemented by village authorities.
“It is rare to come to a village and ask the village authorities to show you a report of the land-use plan they are working with. No one keeps a copy,” said Luhula of Landesa.
The discussions at the side event also responded to a call made during the opening of COP12 by Hamad Masauni, Minister of State in the Vice President’s Office for Union Affairs and Environment. Masauni urged parties to the Nairobi Convention to ensure that draft decisions on environmental management and natural resources are focused, clear and capable of being implemented at national and regional levels.
“Ensure that all plans focus on key issues and can be implemented. Every proposed action should have clear objectives and strong agreements guiding actual implementation, as well as a basis for tracking progress,” Masauni said.
The discussions suggested that the challenge is not only about laws, but also about governance systems that are expected to ensure that those laws and plans are implemented at the community level.
“The missing link within community institutions is the governance element. So when laws are discussed and developed in these rooms, they cannot be implemented within broken governance structures,” said Javis from Action for Ocean.
Stakeholders therefore recommended that, rather than focusing only on amending documents and legislation, efforts should also target strengthening community governance systems so that they can effectively manage and implement laws, land-use plans and conservation strategies.
“We are not just fixing the papers; we are fixing the entire governance framework. So you fix the community system and then you bring their laws,” Javis Bashabula from Action for Ocean said.
Closing the side event, Godfrey Massay, Director of Landesa Tanzania, said all stakeholders need to work together, stressing that the government has a key responsibility to lead efforts to engage stakeholders and affected communities, particularly in addressing existing challenges related to mangrove management in Tanzania.
Godfrey Massay, Director of Landesa Tanzania
Stakeholders warned that decisions that cannot be translated into practical action at national and regional levels may fail to deliver the intended impact. They therefore emphasised the importance of linking policies, laws, community governance and the implementation of conservation plans to ensure that mangrove protection delivers benefits for both nature and the communities that depend on it.
