Tanzania hunter-gatherers win Equator Prize for carbon-offset project

A community of hunter-gatherers in Tanzania are the winners of the 2019 Equator Prize for developing a carbon-offset project that enabled them to restore 90 percent of their land that had been overrun by livestock and farmers.

The Hadza indigenous ethnic group l in the north-central part of the country received the award on Tuesday at the UN headquarters in New York.

The community had no concept of ``owning'' land in the modern sense, hence it had little legal defense against encroachment by migrant farmers or cattle herders who decimated the wildlife-rich savannah woodland.

Nevertheless, they adapted a legal tool to assert their community's title to 57,000 acres of their territory by entering commercial agreements to earn money from it.

In partnership with Carbon Tanzania, a social enterprise working to reframe how people earn value from natural environments, the Hadza community launched the Yaeda Valley Project to trade carbon offsets from woods and forests, covering their territory. So far, the program has earned the community more than $300,000.

While receiving the award, Ezekiel Phillipo, a representative of the Hadza community, expressed gratitude that they were able to earn a living through protecting the forests and wild animals.

"We Hadza community, always protect our environment because that is how we survive, so even if this carbon offset programme was not existing, we would still be doing that," he said.

Phillipo added, "Through the carbon revenues, we are able to do many things that we could not afford, like sending our children to university, paying hospital bills, and paying salaries to game scouts to patrol our forests."