newjerseynewsroom.com

BY DENIS GATHANJU

IPS/IFEJ

MOSHI, TANZANIA — With the snow-capped peak of Mount Kilimanjaro providing a backdrop under simmering tropical sunshine, a group of women in Mijongweni village break into song.

The song, in Swahili, praises the benefits of protecting the environment and living in harmony with nature for the survival of generations; values vital to the survival of one of the rarest hardwood trees in the world, the African blackwood.

Known to locals as mpingo, the African blackwood (dalbergia melanoxylon) is a tree that has been exploited to extinction in southern Ethiopia and Kenya and is currently only found in Tanzania and northern Mozambique. Tanzania boasts large tracts of natural forest and woodlands

While few people would recognise the tree, many across the world have heard its melodious tunes: the tree is a prized commodity for makers of musical instruments like flutes, clarinets and oboes, so much so that it is today the most expensive hardwood tree in the world, currently fetching up to 25,000 dollars per cubic metre.

Mpingo conservation

Though the blackwood tree is not endangered, it is being harvested unsustainably. It is currently listed under Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species as a threatened species, which could become extinct within a generation or two if nothing is done to save it.

"That is why I sprung to action to palliate the threat," says Sebastian Chuwa, a Tanzanian botanist based in the northern Tanzanian town of Moshi and the founder and national patron of the Mali Hai Clubs of Tanzania. Mali Hai, Swahili for "living resources", is a community-based organisation that sensitizes communities on environmental conservation through tree planting.

"The mpingo tree is threatened because it is a slow-growing tree that takes between 50 to 70 years to mature and is being depleted at alarming rates," he adds.

Though Tanzania's ministry of natural resources and tourism has slapped an export ban on mpingo, it continues to be harvested indiscriminately, especially in the southern parts of Tanzania that were, until recently, inaccessible. It is estimated that fewer than three million African blackwood trees remain, with most of the remaining stands in Tanzania and northern Mozambique.

"I started collecting its seeds and initiated an African blackwood tree planting program here in Moshi," notes Chuwa.

James Harris, a Texan wood turner, and his wife Bette Stockbauer, who creates collectible wood art from many tree species, including the African blackwood, helped raise funds for the project in the US after watching a telecast on Chuwa's work. The duo helped found the African Blackwood Conservation Project, enabling Chuwa to establish a major blackwood tree nursery.

"The mpingo," says Chuwa, "is a hardy tree that survives on very little water. It has tiny leaves that help against loss of too much water. Once the root system has been established, the tree requires little or no rainfall at all to mature.

"It can be planted in farms because it does not compete for resources with corn, coffee or bananas and acts as a nitrogen-fixing agent in the soil. The mpingo is also considered a good luck tree by the Chagga people who live on the slopes of the Mt. Kilimanjaro."

When he first set up the tree nursery in Mijongweni, Chuwa was able to plant 50,000 mpingo tree seedlings with the help of a local women's group. Faraja is the Swahili word for hope, and the Faraja Women's Group hopes to establish a green canopy of the African blackwood in their village and its neighbours.

According to Yusta Tarimu, the leader of the group, its ten members managed to plant 35,000 blackwood tree seedlings last year and hope to plant 100,000 this year through community mobilisation in nearby villages.