A quick update from one of our partners in the North - the Simanjiro Grazing Easement program wrote in to tell us of their achievements and plans for this year.
"As we move into the decade of 2020, there is a sense of culmination of many hours, days, and years of work in the general Simanjiro area. For the two villages of Terat and Sukuro, the grazing easement areas have now been given extra protection through the establishment of grazing CCRO’s. (Certificate of Customary Right of Occupancy.) In Terat village, this process was completed and there are 3 separate CCRO’s in place – one is a slightly scaled down version of the original grazing easement designated as dry season grazing, the second covers a big portion of the black cotton soils, and the third is a new area to the east with good grazing land. The total hectares under these CCRO’s is 15,540 hectares. This is a good size area, and all of these have been demarcated with metal pipes set in cement. Edges where the pressures are high have more pipe posts to keep the boundary as visible as possible. The new chairman seems committed to keeping all intact. For Sukuro village, the grazing CCRO’s have been identified, surveyed and demarcated and the official handing over ceremony is set for Feb 7th, 2020. These CCRO’s follow the original two areas – the short grass plains “Ewass” bordering Terat and Emboreet and the more southwest ridge system called Alangaroji after the beautiful tree Erythrina bertii. The total area is 21,280 hectares or 212 sq kms. The encroachment in both areas has now been dealt with and in some cases, bomas have been moved out of the areas. And on top of this all, 5 other important villages which border Sukuro and Terat, have also created grazing CCRO’s – which will be officially handed over to the villages on Feb 7th, 2020. This is a great achievement and is creating more areas that keep the habitat open for wildlife as well. We need to raise a toast to ourselves for providing the financial support, to the team from Ujamaa Community Resource Trust for the long hours of facilitation, and of course to the community leaders and representatives for putting this all in place".