Sakare Forest and Bagamoyo

After I got back from the internet cafe on Thursday, I was informed that I couldn't go to the Amani nature preserve. They originally quoted an entry fee of 3000/= per person, which is what Dhahia, the woman in charge of conference logistics, budgeted for. That day they had informed her that that was the price for Tanzanians and all foreigners had to pay a fee of USD $30 (about 35,000/=). Anja and I had to go with the other group to Sakare Forest Reserve instead.

It turned out to be a wonderful experience, so I don't regret the transfer. The drive there was lovely: we passed by farmland most of the way and drove up into the mountains along narrow roads clinging to the sides of steep slopes. I suppose at one point the mountains were entirely covered with lush forest, but now it's been cut back into small isolated pockets. Everything else is planted in neat fields of peas, potatoes, and maize, with some of the plots reaching all the way to the peaks of the mountains. As the road wound higher up the mountains, we started to pass through tea plantations. We stopped to ask a group of women, who were plucking tea, about the plantations. It turns out the tea bushes were planted in the late 1920s, and the plantations have gone through the gamut of ownership: from private German owners to state socialism and now back to private ownership. One of the women said her family started working on the plantations back in the thirties when her grandfather moved there looking for work.



We came to an intersection with a group of men standing around. These were our guides up to the forest reserve. They rode on motorcycles and we followed them up a steep, deeply rutted road through a gate and passed several groups of guards. The gate and the guards are there to protect the forest, not from villagers looking to cut it down for fire wood, but from the owners of a near by tea plantation. The forest is currently being contested by a tea plantation which claims to have bought the land from the government. The villagers claim that the forest is rightly theirs, especially since they replanted most of trees lost to fire and deforestation. Tea requires a lot of wood to create smoke during the drying process and the plantation owners decided they wanted to cut their costs and not pay for the wood. The villagers, who are among Tanzania's poorest populations, see the wood as a valuable source of income. CARE and several partnering organizations have been involved with the community for several years now, teaching about the importance of conservation and biodiversity.

We've also taught the villagers about the many wonderful uses of the media, including how to air your problems out on a national level. The villagers made a documentary that was shown on a national news channel and have written many articles for newspapers and journals. Their plight finally caught the attention of the Prime Minister, who visited and came down on the side of the villagers. They are now awaiting a decision from the courts. Unless their is a massive case of corruption (not out of the question) the ruling should be in favor of the villagers, especially since the tea plantation's ownership papers are forged.

We went on a short hike around the forest to see their watershed conservation efforts. Then we went down to the eucalyptus farm that the villagers have planted. Eucalyptus grows very quickly and, when cut down properly, each stump sends out 10-12 shoots that can also be harvested in 5 years' time. The trees are poor for watershed conservation (what the CARE staff are really concerned about) but great for fire wood production (what the villagers care about). Finally, we went down to the nursery, where the villagers are growing local flora to replant the natural forest. During this part, one of the villagers found a chameleon among the plants:


On Saturday, we tried to leave for Dar around 8am. The land rover started making funny noises, so we dropped it off at a mechanic's and took a cab back to the hotel. It turned out to a be a problem with the air conditioning, but it still took several hours to find the right part and install it. We didn't get on the road until 10:30am. It took us 4 hours to get to the city and another hour to sit through traffic. Anja came home with me and we met up with Lise and Line at my house. Around 5pm we finally departed for Bagamoyo. The ride was very easy, though we were crammed into the dalla-dalla for most of the trip.

Our hotel was really nice. Our rooms were small huts only 30 feet from the ocean! We had a nice dinner and spent an hour or so sitting on the beach chatting with each other. I woke up the next morning to the sound of the waves on the beach. It was wonderful! We got a late start on the day, after playing around for a bit on the sand. We hired a guide to take us to the Kaole ruins, which were about 5km from the city proper. We walked the way there while it wasn't so hot and took a taxi back to Bagamoyo when we were done. The ruins are from the mosque of Kaole and several well preserved graves. The graves must have once been rather spectacular sites, but now were worn down and weathered looking. We spent the afternoon in town and took a dalla-dalla back to Dar around 4pm. It was a short trip, but a lot of fun. I wish I'd known it was so easy to get to Bagamoyo. I would have done it sooner!