James Mwakisyala

DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA - Tanzania is suffering from high global prices of forest products because of increased deforestation.

A research released by the World Trade Organization (WTO) last week said high timber prices and deforestation intricately linked. It was noted that high demand resulted in temptation to supply timber to reap from high price benefits leading to rapid deforestation.

 "This implies that trade can potentially increase or decrease deforestation depending on the effects on local prices and other characteristics of the country," Juan Robalino and Luis Diego Herrera from the Environment for Development Initiative in Latin America, noted at a meeting in Geneva.
 
Tanzania has suffered from deforestation particularly in and around Mt Kilimanjaro, Arusha and Manyara regions of northern Tanzania, as well as indiscriminate felling of natural hard woods in southern Tanzania. The Department of Forestry has in recent years been at the centre of scandalous illegal exports of timber worth millions of dollars to the Far East.

Felling of trees to burn charcoal has also added to the deforestation because some of the charcoal is smuggled to the Gulf states where it is said to fetch good prices.

To date Tanzania has initiated afforestation campaigns to curb the negative effects from deforestation. One of the most recent programmes has been to plant millions of seedlings on and around Mt Kilimanjaro which has suffered from the global warming effects, forest fires and illegal logging of the mountain's forest cover.

The mountain's permanent snow cap, renowned as the roof of Africa - at 19,341 (5,895 metres) feet above sea level, has witnessed receding ice and consequently less water in the streams that originate on the mountain. The streams have traditionally been utilized for irrigating farms on the slopes of the mountain causing untold hardships to the local people.