Nature Tanzania and SUA Strengthen Partnership for Mazumbai Forest Conservation

On 17 February 2026, the Nature Tanzania team held a high-level meeting with the Office of the Principal at the College of Forestry, Wildlife and Tourism, Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), to introduce the People Partner with Nature – from Local to Global Action (Phase IV) programme (PPN IV), which will be implemented in the Mazumbai Forest Reserve.

As the owner and custodian of the reserve, SUA is the primary partner for this initiative.

About PPN IV

PPN IV is a regional conservation initiative in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda that aims to address forest degradation in East Africa by linking national Participatory Forest Management (PFM) policies to local action. The programme fosters knowledge sharing across regional clusters, focusing on community-led conservation, biodiversity monitoring, species protection, climate resilience, sustainable livelihoods and policy advocacy, and targets 150 local conservation groups in the Mazumbai Forest Reserve.

The inception meeting

The PPN IV inception meeting was held at the College of Forestry, Wildlife and Tourism in Morogoro. Mr Emmanuel Mgimwa and Mr John Salehe represented Nature Tanzania: Mr Mgimwa delivered the programme presentation, and Mr Salehe provided technical input, particularly on the importance of joint work planning and of formalising the collaboration through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

On behalf of the Principal, Prof. Agnes A. Sirima, the meeting was chaired by the Acting Principal, Dr Greyson Nyamoga, who thanked the donors and reaffirmed the College’s support for the PPN IV programme. He highlighted that the College already has qualified experts in species monitoring, data analysis, forest trend verification, and training local conservation groups in policy, advocacy and forest governance. Other participants from SUA included Japhet Mwambusi, Dr Namaka Mwambusi, Barnabas Malila and Beevans Biseko.