Communities get used smart phones to monitor Justdiggit regreening project in Tanzania
Justdiggit handed out 240 used smart phones to the facilitators of their regreening project in the Kongwa district, Tanzania. The smart phones enable the facilitators not only to communicate better but also to monitor the progress of the project by taking pictures of trees.
The phones have been installed with a special app to collect the monitoring data.
Tree restoration and rainwater catchment are two important elements of the Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration method.
Restoring degraded landscapes
Together with the LEAD Foundation, Justdiggit conducts a 180.000 hectare regreening project in Tanzania involving some 300 communities to restore trees, improve soil conditions and re-introducing rainwater harvesting practices.
To re-green the landscape and improve the productivity of the land, the project uses the specially developed Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) method, called Kisiki Hal in Swahili.
Real time progress
Njamasi Chiwanga, partner LEAD Foundation: ‘The smartphones, while simplifying communication among our team of hundreds of community facilitators, will also be used in our monitoring and evaluation track whereby we’ll be able to monitor real time progress and photos of trees in the villages using the Kobotool app.’
The smart phones originally come from the Dutch Railway Company NS and are now given a second life in Tanzania.
Once vegetation regrows, erosion stops and a local water cycle of rain fall and evaporation will return.
About Justdiggit
Dutch-based foundation Justdiggit runs several large regreening projects in Africa based on their system approach, called the Hydrologic Corridor.
By restoring degraded landscapes, using rainwater harvesting, soil improvements and re-greening techniques, the vegetation will regrow. As a consequence the water cycle will be restored. This is the key to sustainable re-greening and contributing to regional cooling and more equally distributed rain.
By conducting several large scale projects in Africa the foundation aims to able to change the regional climate by capturing CO2, reducing local temperature and creating local rains.
This news item was originally published on the website of Justdiggit.
Read also on this website
● Justdiggit reports on using satellite images for re-greening project in Tanzania, 28 November 2017
● Justdiggit about to start re-greening desert areas in Mtanana, Tanzania, 14 April 2017
● COP22: African agriculture gains momentum to produce more food with less water, 16 November 2016
● Expertise: Water and agrifood
● Country: Tanzania
More information
Justdiggit
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
+31 20 737 23 66
www.justdiggit.org
Documentary on the Kisika Hai tree restoration project by LEAD foundation and Justdiggit in Tanzania.
Explanation of Justdggit´s idea of the Hydrologic corridor to cool down the planet.