The TNRF Secretariat has developed an information pack on the Wildlife Sector as a resource for policy makers and the general public wanting access to independent information on on the topic. These briefs provide information, data, and analysis about the trends of Tanzania’s wildlife populations, causes of those trends, and various links between national economic growth, poverty reduction, and wildlife management. The aim is for the information in these briefs to encourage more informed public debate about the policies and practices governing wildlife management in Tanzania.

As the world faces an energy crisis due to limited oil reserves and a problem of climate change due to greenhouse emissions, increasingly, biofuels (fuel consisting of, or derived from biomass) are seen as the panaecea to these two predicaments by providing an alternative to fossil fuels. Countries of the developed North and the corporate world has been at the forefront of pushing for this alternative which is seen as a win-win solution (i.e. energy security is enhanced whilst the environment is protected).

The Policy Forum has said that the concept of Constituency Development Fund (CDF) which is intended to empower people at the grassroot level financially is a high risk for the government to undertake at the moment.

Members of various non-governmental organisations raised the concern in Dodoma yesterday during a debate that discussed the establishment of the fund.

Policy Forum (PF) was invited to attend a workshop on the promotion of transparency and accountability of revenue from the extractive industries (energy and minerals) hosted by the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA), the National Democratic Institute (NDI), and Revenue Watch (RW).We have reproduced hereunder what we observed and noted.Please treat these remarks with due caution, as they are merely indicative (and not authoritative) of what transpired.n

EALA WORKSHOP:Promoting Transparency & Accountability of Revenue from Extractive Industries

Over the past decade, civil society organizations (CSOs) in more than 60 countries have initiated activities to analyze their governments’ budgets.Initially, CSOs specialized in budget analysis and advocacy to influence national budget policy.However, as a broader range of CSOs undertake budget work, the scope of this work has expanded to include activities throughout the budget process, including budget implementation and assessing the impact of expenditures.