Norway’s REDD success narrative is fake: The case of the Kondoa Irangi REDD+ Project in Tanzania

The Kondoa Irangi REDD+ Project covers an area of 56,291 hectares in Kondoa district in north-central Tanzania. The project was carried out from 2010 to 2014 by the African Wildlife Foundation, with support from the Tanzanian Government and the Royal Norwegian Embassy.

The REDD project aimed to implement a strict conservation regime in forests of the Kondoa-Irangi Hills. The project’s objective was to prepare for carbon trading. In 2015, Plan Vivo approved the project’s project idea note.

In a brochure about the project on its website, the African Wildlife Foundation states, “REDD+ provides an opportunity to help protect this ecologically significant forest, mitigate carbon and improve the lives of forest dependent communities in a remote landscape.” AWF claims that, “Efforts have resulted in big successes for the region.”

But a recent paper published in the Journal of Eastern African Studies challenges these claims of success. The paper is written by Hanne Svarstad and Tor A. Benjaminsen, and is titled, “Nothing succeeds like success narratives: a case of conservation and development in the time of REDD”..

Read the full article on REDD-Monitor here 

Source: REDD-Monitor

Region: Africa

Country: Tanzania