Contracting for Village Provision of Ecological Services Examples and Lessons from Northern Tanzania

PES Agreements in Tanzania are Well-Established  Village-operator tourism concession agreements in place in northern Tanzania since early 1990’s  Provide a service (access to land, resource use restrictions) in exchange for payments  Extensive lessons to be learned regarding local governance, contract structure, negotiating process and capacity, etc

Tourism Revenue from 7 villages in Loliondo Division

Key Lessons Learned,  Villages and private ‘buyers’ of tourism services (access to land and wildlife, exclusive use etc) can develop stable, long-term, mutually-beneficial business relationships  Village capacity to negotiate increases over time  Village governance a key variable which can lend stability to these ‘PES’ agreement or undermine communal livelihood gains

Building from Existing Models: the Terrat ‘Easement’  Key wildlife habitat not suitable for tourism  Tourism companies contract with village for protection of wildlife habitat

Keys to Successful Implementation of PES Scheme in Terrat Village, 2004-present  PES ‘on the margin’; integrating ecological service provision with existing livelihood activities (dry season livestock grazing reserve) in easement area keeps opportunity costs minimal and makes PES highly cost- effective  Easement covers 9300 ha at ~$8,000 total costs per year; $.86/ha/annum;  Multiple local cash and non-cash benefits (employment, village payment, land tenure security)  Enabling environment due to precedent of village- tourism agreements in neighboring areas and reliance on existing village-level governance institutions

Lessons for Community- based Carbon Forestry Projects  Village Council/Village Assembly provides an enabling contracting structure  For communal benefits to be effective realized there is a strong need to promote transparent local governance by ensuring all negotiations and payments are communicated and approved by V. Assembly  Marginal analysis of opportunity costs and potential for integrating land/resource use in a given area will be key in terms of costs-benefits for both buyers and sellers