Carbon Tanzania hands over Sh4.7 billion to local community

The Minister of State in the Vice President’s Office (Union and Environment), Mr Selemani Jafo (centre), in a group photo with Manyara Regional Commissioner Queen Sendiga(fourth right), Carbon Tanzania Finance Director Alphael Jackson (fourth left), Kiteto District Commissioner Mbaraka Batenga (second left), Mbulu District Commissioner Kheri James (third left) , and other leaders from Manyara Region after receiving a cheque for Sh 4.7 billion from Carbon Tanzania.
What you need to know:
- The funds are income from the Yaeda-Eyasi Landscapes and Makame Savannah projects in Manyara region
In a bid to bring about positive changes to its citizens and avail them financially, the Government has been forging relentless synergies with a number of local and global institutions.
The synergies have greatly helped the citizens to seize income-generating potentials from various activities carried out by these institutions.
Carbon Tanzania has been one of the organisations that collaborate closely with the Government through the implementation of its projects.
Carbon Tanzania is a local company that collaborates closely with the Government to create economic value in natural resources for rural communities through sustainable management of forests and biodiversity.
Through its projects, Carbon Tanzania generates forest-based carbon credits that enable Tanzania’s local resource owners to earn revenues from the protection of their natural resources.
These carbon credits allow businesses to invest in a nature-based solution that serves the climate, local communities and wildlife.
Carbon Tanzania contracts with local communities to ensure the latter become effective stewards of the forests through community-created land use plans.
The organisation provides the link to the global financial system to enable local communities to earn revenues from the protection of their forests and wildlife.
Through the implementation of its Yaeda-Eyasi Landscapes project and Makame Savannah projects, on November 14, 2023, Carbon Tanzania presented a cheque for Sh 4.7 billion generated from the projects’ implementation over the past year.
The cheque was handed over by the Finance Director of Carbon Tanzania Alphael Jackson to the Minister of State in the Vice President’s Office (Union, and Environment), Mr Selemani Jafo, who presented it to Manyara Regional Commissioner Queen Sendiga, who received it on behalf of the administrations and residents of Mbulu and Kiteto districts.
The handover ceremony was held at White Rose grounds in Babati district, Manyara Region.
The event was also attended by various leaders, including Kiteto District Commissioner Mbaraka Batenga, Mbulu District Commissioner Kheri James, as well as other government officials and citizens.
Carbon Tanzania Co-Founder and CEO Marc Baker says the company has been engaging in business with communities surrounding forest areas.
“We collaborate with the local community and the Government in our main activities, so through the revenue generated by our projects’ activities, we have been allocating funds and handing them over to the Government to facilitate the implementation of various social activities,” says Baker.
He says the Sh4.7 billion funds were part of the earnings from the implementation of the Yaeda-Eyasi Landscapes project and the Makame Savannah projects in Manyara Region for a period of one year (2022/2023).
“In this business, village governments through their citizens have been able to improve health services, education, water and infrastructure, which is our key goal, and through collaborating with the Government, we impact the lives of the local community,” says Mr Baker.
At the highest level, carbon finance is more about involving communities in the global financial system and allowing very remote communities to have access to such a system.

The Minister of State in the Vice President’s Office (Union and Environment), Mr Selemani Jafo, Manyara Regional Commissioner Queen Sendiga, and other leaders from Manyara Region, in a group photo with representatives of the Maassi community from Makame.
“Our projects recognize the crucial role of local communities and depend on their active involvement. Through inclusive decision-making, local communities determine the allocation portion of our gross revenue, supporting initiatives like building schools or healthcare facilities,” says Mr Baker.
Yaeda-Eyasi Landscapes project
The project was established in 2012 with the first carbon revenue earned in 2013. The project focuses on protecting the forested ancestral homeland of the Hadza hunter-gatherers and Datooga pastoralists by establishing their ownership of the natural resources in their territory and legal enforcement against encroachment.
The Yaeda-Eyasi Landscape Project expanded in 2021 to include 12 villages in total. Due to this and an increase in carbon revenue, the communities of the Yaeda-Eyasi Landscape project were able to employ additional staff to ensure they can effectively protect their threatened forests.
In 2021, an additional 115 Village Game Scouts were recruited across the nine villages, along with two financial officers and one additional community coordinator.
These newly created roles ensure that the community-owned forests are well protected and that every member of the community will share in the benefits.
Makame Savannah project
This project started in 2016 with the first carbon revenue earned in 2020. The project focuses on conserving critical habitat for protected wildlife by engaging with the Maasai to set up community land use plans that keep their cattle, themselves, and the ecosystem healthy.
The communities of the Makame Savannah project focused on improving access to education throughout 2022. A girls’ dormitory was built for 70 school-aged girls, without which they would not have been allowed to attend school due to traditional taboos around girls sharing sleeping facilities with boys.
To further improve access to education across all age groups, the community used carbon revenue to pay for the fees of more than 100 students at various universities across the country.
Carbon Tanzania’s work directly protects wildlife-rich forest habitats in connected landscapes where communities could not historically financially realise the value of their natural assets.
Carbon Tanzania’s current business model delivers revenues for nature conservation to local communities from the voluntary carbon market.