Amani Nature Reserve
Dar e Salaam. Gold mining activities in the Amani Nature Forest Reserve (ANFR) is threatening the extinction of its natural resources and water sources.
ANFR, a designated Environment and Forest Reserve located in the Usambara catchment forests, supplies water to more than 200,000 people living in the Tanga region.
According to the Tanzania Forest Services Agency (TFS) chief conservator Mr Fikiri Maiba over 20 hectares of natural forest cover has been destroyed by artisanal miners in recent years.
The tour organized by Journalist Environmental Association of Tanzania (JET) under the project USAID Tuhifadhi Maliasili focused to learn how communities, experts and stakeholders living in adjacent corridors are actively involved in conservation efforts and challenges in the area.
“Youth are mostly actively contributing and involved in gold mining activities, most being young men aged 15 and above. We have formed a task force that conducts a frequent patrol to protect the reserve,” he said.
Mr Maiba stressed that gold mining activities have continued to be a problem in the reserve thus TFS will continue to fight against the culprits and arrest them where necessary.
The collaborative efforts with the communities surrounding the nature reserve has reduced destruction of land to half hectare.
Antackahe village chairman Mr Hamza Maghembe said that most villages are actively taking part in conserving the nature reserve and Derema Protected Nature Corridor reserve.
“We don’t dig for gold ourselves, the issue is an isolated case among the young people from Sakale area. It has been a long belief since colonial days, that the Amani Forest had a reserve.”
Earlier reports stress that, Small-scale artisanal miners have invaded the forests, causing severe environmental destruction by felling valuable old indigenous trees to dig up gold.
The precious mineral was first discovered in the East Usambara Mountains along a stream running adjacent to one of the forest reserves. Soon after this, more deposits were discovered upstream at Sakale, a village just outside the Amani Nature Reserve.
As a result, there has been an influx of thousands of people from different parts of Tanzania and beyond to the East Usambara mountains in Tanga in search for this precious mineral.
It is estimated that the population in Sakale village has grown from a few hundred to more than 40,000 currently.
Similar population increases have been recorded in Western Usambara, in Lushoto district.
No comments :
Post a Comment