Notes from the Field: Community Forests International’s work

Rural Zanzibar’s climate change lessons for the world

By Monica Allaby

Earlier this month, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its latest report on climate change and UN Secretary General António Guterres called it a “code red for humanity . ”

What gives our team at Community Forests International hope is that we all know the causes of this crisis — and we also know the solutions . Too often, complex global challenges lack this same level of clarity . More important though, the small island communities we have the privilege of working alongside are adapting and responding to this crisis despite challenges that most of us in Canada can’t even really imagine . We have witnessed these efforts first-hand through our work in Zanzibar, Tanzania, over the past decade .

In 2006, Mbarouk Mussa Omar — a community leader and climate activist on Pemba Island, Zanzibar — befriended Jeff Schnurr, a young Canadian tree-planter who was travelling in the region . Mussa Omar had a vision to bring back Pemba Island’s lost forests, and Schnurr was inspired to help him any way he could . Local community groups quickly stepped up to get involved and establish tree nurseries, and when the next tree-planting season arrived in Canada, a growing team of young Canadians helped to raise money to support their efforts in tree planting camps across the country . Community Forests International and our local partner organization, Community Forests Pemba, emerged from these simple acts of solidarity .

Our work was built on mutual respect, trust and friendship, which remain the foundation of the partnership to this day . Our two organizations work closely together on community-led projects that range from agroforestry and tree-planting, to ethical trade and women’s economic empowerment . While Community Forests Pemba oversees programs and a team of expert field staff, Community Forests International helps secure the resources that allow their work to grow . To date, we have directly helped upwards of 58,000 people in more than 50 communities .

The success of our work in Zanzibar inspired Community Forests International to establish an office and introduce programming in Eastern Canada in 2010 . While the regions we work in are home to unique ecosystems, cultures and challenges, we have learned that the most successful solutions to the climate crisis benefit ecosystems and the people directly connected to them . Applying lessons from Zanzibar back here at home has enabled Community Forests International to build one of Canada’s first forest carbon projects, and to create new ways of working with forests to generate community and climate benefits .

Today, the Community Forest network is growing . We recently expanded to Mozambique and continue to scale up our climate action activities across Zanzibar, with a second local office and doubling of our team size there . Working alongside colleagues at Community Forests Pemba, our efforts have now directly benefited 7 per cent of the island’s population and increased income for more than 80 per cent of the people we support .

In early 2020, as the profound challenges of a global pandemic and accelerating climate change combined in challenging ways, with political turmoil in Tanzania and Zanzibar, we were reminded that building food and income security for greater climate resilience also helps build community strength and resilience against any crisis that may arise . Inspired by the results of our most successful climateadaptation efforts, the European Union awarded our organization a new four-year contract to deliver our greatest programs to more people and communities in the region .

This initiative is now allowing Community Forests Pemba to team up with new partners, such as the Tanzania Media Women’s Association and the People’s Development Forum to expand our climatesmart agriculture and forestry projects, while empowering women and youth to earn a living as they strengthen the health of their environment .

The innovations that our work has generated are increasingly needed around the world today . Our partners in Zanzibar have taught us that sustainable change is community-led change, and that fostering strong relationships between people and forests is critical to ensuring a climatesecure future . The IPCC made it clear that we need to act fast . Communities in Zanzibar have proven it’s possible to work with nature — even on small islands, in one of the most climate-vulnerable regions of the world .

Monica Allaby is the communications adviser for Community Forests International, which is headquartered in Sackville, N .B .

Mbarouk Mussa Omar, executive director of Community Forests Pemba, visits a community-ownedand-operated tree nursery.