Consultancy Services For Natural Resources (Biodiversity Assets) Assessment In Five WMAS In Ruvuma Landscape-Job Vacancy July 2014

 

Request For Consultancy Services For Natural Resources (Biodiversity Assets) Assessment In Five WMAS In Ruvuma Landscape

1. Background Information


The Government of Tanzania (GOT) recognizes that economic development is highly dependent on, and closely related to, the state of the environment and biodiversity. This realization was translated into policy and legal formulation which led to the introduction of the Wildlife Policy of Tanzania (WPT) that was passed in 1998 (and revised in 2007) as one of the policy changes fostering greater local community participation, ownership and benefit sharing. Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) establishment and management also has a legal back up of Wildlife Conservation Act of 2010 and WMA Regulations of 2012. 
The Wildlife Policy of Tanzania (as revised in 2007) states one of its main aims in the conservation of wildlife resources is ensuring that local communities living in

rural areas adjacent to protected  areas are able to obtain direct benefits from wildlife and to empower them with management responsibility for the wildlife and other resources  on their lands.

The Wildlife Policy therefore advocates granting user rights for wildlife to local communities so that they can obtain such direct benefits, make management decisions and to develop an enabling institutional arrangement for investment in wildlife-based land uses and conservation of the resource. The key aspect of these community-based reforms is the formation of Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs). 
These WMAs are defined by the Wildlife Policy as “areas set aside by the villagers for the purpose of biological natural resources conservation.” The Policy states that these WMAs will be a new category of protected area and will be managed by the local communities for their own benefit.

The Ruvuma Landscape Programme is a WWF Coast East Africa Initiative (CEAI) aiming at promoting the integration of socio-ecological connectivity and resilience, stressing linkage of livelihoods and conservation of biodiversity in the Ruvuma Landscape.

The Greater Ruvuma Landscape is an extensive trans-frontier area of approximately 278,950 Sq Km, flanking the Ruvuma River, spanning Tanzania’s southern regions (Coast, Lindi, Mtwara, Morogoro and Ruvuma), to Mozambique’s northern provinces of Niassa and Cabo Delgado, forming the largest wilderness area of unfragmented Miombo woodland, coastal forests and associated ecosystems remaining in Africa. 

Within the Tanzania component of the Landscape are five WMAs, namely Mbarang’andu, Kimbanda, Kisungule (all in Namtumbo District), Nalika and Chingoli (both in Tunduru District). The respective areas of the WMAs are: 2,471 km2, 2,150 km2, 1,345 km2, 1,391 km2 and 938.1 km2. The WMAs have Authorized Association (AA) status which potentially allows them to enter into business agreements with private investors. 
The essence of the designation is to allow local communities to derive direct tangible benefits from the sustainable use and management of wildlife and other natural resources within the WMAs. The main such business opportunities relate to consumptive and non-consumptive tourism. Wildlife tourism is an important industry that contributes substantially to local and national economies based on improved tourism products.

Management of natural resources requires information about the different types and distribution of natural resources and biodiversity. All management strategies for the landscape must be able to respond to changes with appropriate management strategies that are backed by evidence from scientific research. The five WMAs named above, located within the Landscape, are in the formative phases and require information about natural resources and inventory of key species and ecological processes as well as distribution of flagship species within their boundaries. 

Located in such a diverse landscape it is necessary to undertake detailed ecological assessment and valuation of natural resources as the first step in determining each WMA’s economic potential. It is hard to design and propose hunting quotas and the tourism products without reliable information on the numbers, population dynamics and distribution of animals within and between seasons. 
Similarly information on major flora, the habitats and distribution within the WMAs is critical not only for preparing anti-poaching patrols and protection of critical habitats but also essential to the distribution of tourism opportunities within the WMAs. 
In the absence of detailed natural resources inventory, major wildlife species estimated populations as well as ecological phenomenon unique to the five WMAs and those that could be packaged into marketable tourism products it is difficult for governments, local communities and the AAs to realize the real economic value of the different conservation assets and which could be promoted and marketed to source markets and different consumers. 
It is therefore imperative that detailed assessment of the varieties of available flora and fauna as well as important ecological processes be undertaken as a first step towards the identification of consumptive and non-consumptive tourism products and to determine their potential to attract consumers.

2.  Terms of Reference (TOR)

WWF-Tanzania Country Office (TCO) intends to engage the services of a team of Consultants or a Consulting Firm with the relevant skills and expertise in natural resources and wildlife management to undertake the consultancy. The main objective of the consultancy is to conduct a comprehensive biodiversity and natural resources assessment and economic valuation of the five WMAs within the Ruvuma Landscape namely: Mbarang’andu, Kimbanda, Kisungule, Nalika and Chingoli. 

The assessment and economic evaluation will provide a basis for local communities to understand the economic values of the natural resources within their WMAs for informed decision making with respect to the different investment opportunities. WWF would use the results to establish resource base information necessary to start preparing electronic and print media for promotion and marketing with the aim to attract private sector investment within the next five years.  
Among other uses the biodiversity assessment is expected to provide understanding of the most important and/or abundant species, the key and flagship plants and animals as well as birds and other vertebrates and invertebrates within each WMA that could be packaged into saleable tourism products.

The Consultant shall be responsible for preparing a Biodiversity Assessment and Economic Valuation Report that captures the status of key wildlife species, flora, birdlife, fisheries, natural resources, biodiversity, and ecological processes in the five WMAs and recommend specific strategies for marketing as a means for communities to derive benefits from the management of natural resources within the WMAs and determine the type of utilization that is most appropriate for the wildlife resources within the respective WMAs through conducting the following, but not limited to: total numbers of wildlife species, size and structure of the population, distribution and movements, and classification and ordination of vegetation.

3. Expected Deliverables


The Consultant shall:-
  • Submit Inception Report describing team composition and qualifications, methodology of undertaking the assignment, work plan and proposed content of the report. The inception report shall be submitted to WWF-TCO within one week after signing of the contract
  • Progress Report, to be submitted not later than 45 days after signing the contract, with a short description of progress (technical) including, but not limited to, problems encountered and planned activities for the remaining period
  • Natural Resources and Environmental Valuation Report, to be submitted along with the draft final report
  • Draft Final Report, to be submitted not later than 2½ months after the commencement of the consultancy
  • Final Report, to be submitted within two weeks after receiving comments on the draft final report
4. Time frame

The assignment must be completed within 4 months after commencement

Interested parties can access a detailed terms of Reference from the organization website http://wwf.panda.org/who_we_are/wwf_offices/eastern_southern_africa/ along with additional information about WWF’s programmatic work in the region. All technical and financial proposals should be submitted to info@wwftz.org not later than 5.00pm, July 14, 2014, East African Time



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