Thematic Atlas of Nature’s Benefits in Dar es Salaam

Knowledge creation and awareness raising, Strategy, plan or policy development, Improved governance of green or blue areas

The intervention, consisting of the creation of the atlas, aims to attain the following objectives: 1. To provide a set of key policy recommendations related to the enhancement of green spaces by strengthening the municipality's capacity to integrate biodiversity and solutions based on nature into Dar es Salaam's planning instruments. 2. To incorporate a number of solutions based on nature, solutions meant to provide relief to air pollution, high temperatures, urban heat island effect, floods, and rapid urbanisation. These solutions can be: planting trees, implementing green roofs, establishing biodiversity corridors, agroforestry (to respond to a demand by the city council to show in maps which urban ecosystems provide which benefits to the region). 3. To deliver a suite of powerful arguments and spatial orientation for taking better care of the region’s rapidly decreasing natural habitats. 4. To help support the communal quality of life among the residents of Dar es Salaam. (1,2,3,4). 5. Addressing seven ‘themes’ in The Atlas that represent an urban challenge: main changes in DSM’s greenspaces, DSM ecosystems secure thousands of livelihoods, water as a human right, public health, green space is essential for healthy communities, urban infrastructure and urban biodiversity. 6. Suggesting solutions to protect 121 endemic vertebrates and 1,500 endemic plant species, all located in the Eastern Arc Mountains and the East African Coastal Forests – both of which are partly located within or in proximity to DSM City. 7. Proposing solutions to several problems such as rainwater management, water contamination and air pollution. (1,2,3,4)

The Atlas has been developed in the context of two projects: INTERACT-Bio and UNA Rivers – both led by ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability. The Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Germany, was responsible for its scientific coordination. In 2017 a stakeholders' workshop was held in Dar es Salaam and based on it the project team developed the idea of a Thematic Atlas of several of DSM’s pressing problems and the role greenspace management can play in them. Different partners were invited in the development phase: the city council, researchers from Ardhi University, NGOs and initiatives in the field (e.g. BORDA, Ramani Huria) agreed to contribute with data, knowledge and expert judgement. Between February and June 2018, the thematic maps for the atlas were developed in an iterative way: Based on the first stakeholder workshop, a list of potential themes for the atlas was developed, and scientific literature was consulted in order to gain a first understanding of the problems and potential greenspace-related remedies. The findings were presented together with a draft outline and first illustrations. Feedback was elicited and helped in the further search for highly dispersed (spatial) data required for the atlas. After 9 months, a draft atlas was discussed in a validation workshop and further meetings in June 2018. The final revision and official endorsement of the publication took a further four months. (3)

• Local government/Municipality
• Citizens or community groups
• Food producers and cultivators (i.e. farmers, gardeners)