© carbon tanzania 2024
Image credits: Carbon Tanzania/Roshni Lodhia/Paul Joyson-Hicks/Revalue.
Reflecting on impact starts with listening. Kisaro Thomas Lombutwa, the Makame Savannah Project Manager, shares how his community helped test REFLECT – a new approach to understanding the lived experience of conservation.
In Makame and for the Maasai, land isn’t just where we live – it’s our life. For years, carbon revenue has helped us protect it. At Carbon Tanzania, we work in partnership with the Makame Wildlife Management Area (WMA) and Honeyguide to support community-led forest conservation. Together, we’ve helped reduce deforestation and secured vital funds for community projects.
But protecting the land is only part of the story. In my role as Makame Savannah Project Manager, I’ve seen how important it is to understand how people experience the project: what they value, what they question, and how they want it to grow. If this work is to last, local people must both benefit from it, and shape it.
That’s why it was great to be part of a new approach to social impact evaluation called REFLECT, which we field tested in Makame last year. It helped us see how well the community understands the project and how they feel about it: what it’s delivered, what it means for their lives, and where we need to make changes.
I’ve been working in the Makame WMA since 2021 and joined Carbon Tanzania in early 2024. I’ve seen firsthand how carbon revenue helps protect our forests and funds a variety of community projects. I’ve been part of village meetings, helped shape decisions, and have a good understanding of the project’s impact. But REFLECT showed me that there’s always more to learn.
It began with conversations. Community members were randomly selected to take part, so we heard many different voices. We held small group discussions, village meetings, and one-on-one interviews. The interviews were led by our Carbon Champions – local community members who are trained to support the project. Their role was to visit every household, listen carefully, and gather people’s suggestions and views. They worked closely with the social scientists from ConnectGo, who helped guide the overall process and make sure we truly heard what people had to say.
The results gave us strong data and real stories.
We found that 88% of people believe carbon revenue is helping everyone, and as expected, 94% said education is their top priority, with 84% saying the funds have helped their children go to school. But we also saw that not everyone clearly understands how the carbon project works, especially the concept of carbon credits, and some people were confusing carbon funds with other Makame WMA income sources. So, it was clear that there was more work to do.
In response, we increased the number of Carbon Champions from 10 to 15, so that each of our five villages would have better access to someone who could explain the project clearly. Carbon Champions are trained community members who help others understand carbon credits and the way the project works, including how decisions are made, as well as sharing updates.
We also made the carbon funding more transparent. Instead of combining all sources of income together, we set up a separate account just for carbon income. This helps the community see exactly where the money is coming from and how it’s being used.
To share our findings and methods with the participating communities, we’ve also created a film demonstrating what was done and the results found.
It’s clear to me that REFLECT will help us build more trust and make sure people feel true ownership of the project.
One of the most powerful aspects of the REFLECT approach is that it doesn’t just gather information, it gives that information back to us. When you take someone’s picture and show it to them, they can really see themselves. That’s what REFLECT does for us – it shows us who we are.
It also reminds me that really listening and reflecting is one of the most important things we can do as community leaders.
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© carbon tanzania 2024
Image credits: Carbon Tanzania/Roshni Lodhia/Paul Joyson-Hicks/Revalue.
Director of Operations
David is a dedicated conservationist with both an excellent academic record and extensive field experience in designing and implementing practical conservation and agricultural project work. At Carbon Tanzania, he oversees the highly technical aspects of project operations, while also using his interpersonal and language skills to communicate the many and complex details of our projects to our partner communities and field collaborators.
Director of Finance
Alpha is a Certified Public Accountant with a degree in accountancy and finance. Alpha is responsible for overseeing all the finance and accounting systems both within the company and across our projects. Alpha’s work with the communities also ensures that they are able to plan the financial management and implement best practices in the allocation of the revenues from their successful natural resource protection activities.
Co-founder
Marc oversees project operations, often in the field as well as from the Arusha base, and leads the search to find and develop new areas where our approach can deliver lasting results. As a co-founder of Carbon Tanzania, maintaining a connection with the landscapes in which Carbon Tanzania works is critical to Marc.
Co-founder
After an established career as one of East Africa’s leading professional outdoor, trekking and wildlife guides, Jo co-founded Carbon Tanzania. Jo’s focus is to ensure business sustainability through financial management and sales, and to ensure that the company has the financial capacity to scale when opportunities arise.