Photo: The New Forest Company team with community members and Tanzania Wildlife Authority staff during a field walk considering current land use and ecosystem conditions.

 

Steph and I recently spent time with The New Forests Company team in Tanzania undertaking a Feasibility Study and developing an Environmental Social Action Plan for a new joint venture.

During this field work I realized what we, Forestry Solutions Africa, are passionate about and what our Vision, Mission and Values actually mean to us.

When I look at our Vision, it is about locally home-grown solutions to address the needs of Africa.  It is about helping communities like those in the Kilombero District of Tanzania and dedicated and responsible companies,  like The New Forest Company, to develop solutions that enable communities to maximize the productivity of land while working with an organization that is able to fund development and conservation on their lands. It is about these communities and commercial partners working together in a partnership to address socio-economic conditions that benefit the people of their country while also providing essential strategic forest product and ecosystem services.

There is a frequent need to seriously consider what is really the best thing to do for this community and organization, in this landscape, in this country, in the market while still bringing an international best practice lens to the project.  However, it is not about blindly attempting to introduce foreign concepts and desires into communities that have significantly differing needs to what the world may think their needs are.  Our work is about considering first, sustainable solutions for the local communities and ecosystems, then how can this be developed into a project to meet international best practices.

Spending time with The New Forest Company staff in some extremely rural areas, staying in villages, cooking on an open fire, I realized that we have become really good friends beyond being in a working relationship.  I realized that I had been working with these friends, and the company they work for, for over 15 years. While it remains necessary to retain a professional work relationship for what we have been contracted to do, this does not stop us from being good friends, we share the same passions and desires to see solutions for Africa. We can have a serious work relationship while still sharing some fun times and laughs, getting stuck in the mud, sitting around a fire trying our first Tanzania delicacy, stopping off in the morning to buy rice cakes from the ladies cooking along the road.  This is what our Mission means by providing long-term solutions in a implementation driven way.

If you just look at our faces you can see the pleasure and enjoyment of implementing our Values of having a positive attitude and doing work that fulfils us – even in the evening rain and mist with our vehicle stuck in the mud many kilometers from anywhere that could be called home for the night, we are just ordinary people having fun doing what we do best.

 

Photo: Steph, Anton Greeff and I catch a ride on the Tanzania Wildlife authority vehicle as the driver of our vehicle digs himself out of the mud on the main Mafinga – Makungu road.

 

We may start as strangers, but by finding effective solutions for our clients and maintaining a positive attitude, we become lifelong friends. This reflects Africa’s spirit—we want strangers to become friends and enjoy what this continent has to offer.