National Climate Change Communication Strategy 2012-2017.

This National Climate Change Communication Strategy is a nationwide sectoral document aiming at (i) enhancing climate change awareness in the society; (ii) facilitating effective communication on climate change information at all levels to enhance management of climate change impacts and explore associated opportunities; (iii) providing a framework for generating and delivering key climate change messages to targeted audiences within the context of the national communication channels and procedure. It focuses on six thematic areas namely (1) general knowledge on climate change; (2) adaptation; (3) mitigation; (4) climate change research; (5) gender; and (6) financing. To achieve the stated overall objective, the following are the specific objectives of the Strategy (i) raise the level of awareness of the community on the opportunities and threats brought by climate change; (ii) enhance the capacity of the community for designing and taking appropriate measures on climate change adaptation; (iii) enable the community to benefit in climate change mitigation in the context of sustainable development; (iv) enable the community share best practices and lessons learned from adaptation and mitigation to climate change; (v) coordinate the various information flows and information networks amongst the various stakeholders; (vi) forge well informed partnerships and networks amongst the private sector, academia, research institutions, government organs and other actors within and outside the country; (vii) equip Tanzanians and other climate change actors and decision-makers with timely and relevant information they can use in making informed decisions and choice. The envisaged communication channels include electronic media (television; radio); print media (newspapers, brochures, leaflets, newsletter, billboard, journals, banners, fact sheets); social media (e-mail, Facebook, twitters, my space; blogs); websites; meetings; drama, cinema, and dances; speech; community outreach; and telephone.
To help eliminate hunger and malnutrition, the communication on adaptation measures will mainly regard (i) best agricultural practices (farming systems, storage, and processing); (ii) change in food consumption behavior.
To make agriculture, forestry, more productive and sustainable, the communication on adaptation measures will regard the following (1) Agriculture: (i) impacts of climate change on agricultural and livestock production; (ii) drought tolerant and early maturing crop varieties; (iii) crop diversification; (iv) efficient irrigation technologies; (v) crop and livestock insurance; (vi) early warning systems for the entire sector; (vii) traditional/indigenous knowledge; (viii) sustainable livestock keeping; (ix) sustainable pasture and range management systems; (x) land use planning; (xi) diseases tolerant livestock breeds. (2) Forestry: (i) impacts of climate change on forestry; (ii) establishment of seed bank of endangered tree species; (iii) conservation of forest biodiversity and control of invasive species; (iv) establishment of woodlots; (v) community-based forest management best practices; (vi) afforestation and reforestation; (vii) Sustainable forest consumption. (3) Fisheries: (i) impacts of climate change on fisheries; (ii) sustainable fishing practices.
Regarding rural poverty, the communication on adaptation measures will regard mainly alternative/diversified means of livelihoods for fisheries communities, as well as for forestry communities, coastal communities, and tourism dependent communities.
To increase the resilience of livelihoods to disasters, the communication on adaptation measures will regard the following (i) protection and conservation of aquatic ecosystems; (ii) impacts of climate change on coastal and marine environment, adoption of sustainable coastal land use planning together with coastal and beach erosion control systems; (iii) impacts of climate change on human health and infrastructure and human settlements; (iv) impacts of climate change on wildlife and measures to protect and conserve wildlife habitats; (v) impact of climate change on land use; (vi) adoption of mitigation measures in the following sectors: energy, industry, transport, mining, waste management, livestock, forestry, and agriculture; (vii) environmentally friendly and adaptation technologies in fish catch, processing and storage; (viii) alternative sources and technologies to enhance freshwater availability; (ix) protection and conservation of wildlife habitats and implementation of appropriate methods for conservation of climate change threatened species.
As for Governance, the implementation of the Strategy requires the commitment and involvement of different organizations and individuals at all levels. The Vice President’s Office has the overall mandate for overseeing the implementation of the Strategy and will, consistent with the Government communication procedure and the requirements under the UNFCCC, be responsible for the communication of climate change information at the international level.