19 May 2012

TANZANIA / SOIL CARBON MONITORING

Deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries account for nearly 20 percent of green house gas emissions worldwide, which is why estimating and reducing these emissions has become a key goal for the international community as the Rio+20 conference on sustainable development in June draws closer. FAO

Posted at: May 19, 2012 12:01 am

Duration: 04:13

Available in: SD, HD

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Full script

STORY: TANZANIA / SOIL CARBON MONITORING
TRT: 4.13
SOURCE: FAO
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / SWAHILI / NATS

DAELINE: 25, 31 March 2012, NORTHERN TANZANIA

SHOTLIST:

1. Wide shot, NAFORMA field team trekking up hillside to locate sampling plot close to village of Menegeni Kitasha (close to Moshi and Mount Kilimanjaro), Northern Tanzania
2. Med shot, hammering depth measurement stick flush with soil wall before taking soil sample
3. Wide shot, Mount Kilimanjaro
4. Various shots, field team measuring trees
5. Various shots, recording site measurements
6. Med shot, two field workers with FAO Forestry Officer Anssi Pekkarinen discussing recording of site measurements
7. Various shots, field worker measuring tree canopy cover using densiometer and tree height using hypsometer.
8. Pan left, tree tops from below
9. Various shots, soil
10. Various shots, degraded land being used for grazing on road between Dar Es Salaam and Moshi
11. Close up, wood being covered and burned to make charcoal
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Anssi Pekkarinen, Forestry officer, FAO:
"Soil stores two to three times as much as living plants, so it its really important.  And the problem is that we don't know yet how this carbon stored in the soil can be released to the atmosphere if the land use for example changes from forestry to agriculture. And this is one of the questions that the NAFORMA soil survey tries to address."
13. Various shots, field team looking at field map on bonnet of car before setting off 
14. Close up, field team using circular tube to collect soil samples
15. Various shots, lab technicians in Soil laboratory at Sokoine University of Agriculture in Morogoro assessing organic carbon content of soil
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Consolatha J. N. Mhaiki, Dept. of Soil Science, Sokoine University of Agriculture:
"Now we know we have some areas which are highly fertile, and those need to have some ways of conserving it so that we can maintain the carbon stocks in those areas."
17. Pan right, forest
18. Med shot, Farmer Remmy Severini cutting down bananas on his farmland in village of Shimbwe Juu
18. Close up, coffee plants on Mr. Severini's land
19. Med shot, Remmy Severini trimming coffee plants on his land
20. Close up, coffee plant 
21. Various shots, nearby forest 
22. Wide shot, degraded land being used for grazing on road between Dar Es Salaam and Moshi
23. Wide shot, wood being covered and burned to make charcoal
24. Med shot, man with bicycle laden with wood - filmed at botanical garden on road from Dar Es Salaam to Moshi where there are both indigenous and foreign species
25. Wide shot, market on outskirts of Moshi with view of Kilimanjaro in background
26. Various shots, market activity
27. Tilt down, from tree tops to forest and man with bicycle
28. SOUNDBITE (English) Nurdin Chamuya, Project Coordinator NAFORMA, Tanzanian Forestry Service:
"The main aim of the REDD initiative is to try capturing the excessive carbon within the atmosphere to the forest. We will come out with the change of how much carbon has been added from the atmosphere to our forest stores and how much should we then be paid for that storage.  You see REDD will pay for the additional carbon."
28. Various shots, market in Moshi.
29. Wide shot, children playing in the yard of a homestead in village of Menegeni Kitasha (close to Moshi and Mount Kilimanjaro)
30. SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Wilbur Nyasi Masawe, Village leader, Menegeni Kitasha village:
"When I was young, it used to rain a lot here which made the climate very conducive to agriculture and crops matured quickly. But now, the rains are completely unpredictable so when you plant, the crop sometimes withers."
31. Various shots, lab technicians in Soil laboratory at Sokoine University of Agriculture in Morogoro testing soil samples for particle density."
32. Various shots, technician color coding soil samples
33. Various shots, botanical garden on road from Dar Es Salaam to Moshi where there are both indigenous and foreign species

STORYLINE:

These field workers have come to take tree measurements and soil samples from this site close to Mount Kilimanjaro in Northern Tanzania.

They are part of Tanzania's national forestry assessment project or NAFORMA, run by the Tanzanian government and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, and funded by Tanzania and Finland.

The team is collecting information on the number, size and quality of trees as well as assessing the forests so-called carbon pools.  One of which is soil.

Forest soils are a massive carbon stock.  Activities such as deforestation release carbon from the soil, significantly increasing the concentration of green house gases in the atmosphere.

SOUNDBITE (English) Anssi Pekkarinen, Forestry officer, FAO:
"Soil stores two to three times as much as living plants, so it its really important.  And the problem is that we don't know yet how this carbon stored in the soil can be released to the atmosphere if the land use for example changes from forestry to agriculture.   And this is one of the questions that the NAFORMA soil survey tries to address."

NAFORMA field teams are collecting data from 3400 sites around the country, including collecting soil samples from more than a quarter of these.

Each sample is then brought to this laboratory where it is analysed to establish its carbon content.

SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Consolatha J. N. Mhaiki, Dept. of Soil Science, Sokoine University of Agriculture:
"Now we know we have some areas which are highly fertile, and those need to have some ways of conserving it so that we can maintain the carbon stocks in those areas."

Areas such as these on the slopes of Kilimanjaro where farmers have been developing their own form of climate smart agro-forestry over centuries.

The principal crops are coffee and bananas grown under a canopy of trees. While farming is intensive, the farmers conserve water and recycle all organic matter to ensure their methods are sustainable.

However, these farms are threatened due to falling coffee prices.

It's hoped NAFORMA data will bring better policy making that will support sustainable agro-forestry systems like these, by demonstrating their many environmental benefits – including the uptake and storage of large amounts of carbon.

If Tanzania can successfully sustain and even increase its carbon stocks it stands to gain from the United Nations initiative to reduce carbon emissions through deforestation and degradation - also known as REDD - which aims to reward developing countries who can demonstrate a reduction in their carbon emissions.

SOUNDBITE (English) Nurdin Chamuya, Project Coordinator NAFORMA, Tanzanian Forestry Service:
"The main aim of the REDD initiative is to try capturing the excessive carbon within the atmosphere to the forest. We will come out with the change of how much carbon has been added from the atmosphere to our forest stores and how much should we then be paid for that storage.  You see REDD will pay for the additional carbon."

Benefitting both the international community and Tanzanians themselves by mitigating climate change.

SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Wilbur Nyasi Masawe, Village leader, Menegeni Kitasha village:
"When I was young, it used to rain a lot here which made the climate very conducive to agriculture and crops matured quickly. But now, the rains are completely unpredictable so when you plant, the crop sometimes withers."

The soil survey being carried out here is one of the most extensive efforts in tropical forests to produce more information on the role of soils in climate change.

If that can be understood, it will provide not only Tanzania but also other tropical nations with the information they need to sustainably manage their forest resources, allowing them to provide for their growing populations and reduce their carbon emissions.