Fred Jailos
Project Manager
Laying the groundwork in 2020, Fred began a series of visits to the project area to introduce the idea of a reforestation project to the villages and conduct baseline socio-economic and land ownership surveys. Fred is responsible for managing the team, overall operations and community relations.
In 2010, Fred started his career as Health, Safety and Environmental Officer at KPL, a large commercial farm, and soon after helped establish the KPL smallholder program, running a team that trained over 7,000 farmers in improved rice agronomy. Fred has also worked as a project coordinator for a USAID maize project and managed artisanal salt producers on Pemba, Zanzibar. BA, Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Dar Es Salaam, 2010.
Geophrey Cheny Charles
FIELD MANAGER OPERATIONS
Geophrey manages mapping of farmers’ land leased to the project, all data collected from field activities, and scheduling field operations with field supervisors and bi-weekly payments to over 1000 field workers
Before joining UCL in 2021, Geophrey contracted to public and private institutions as a field monitoring and evaluation officer. BA, Political Science & Public Administration, Dodoma University, 2015.
Neo Mpoki
FIELD MANAGER CONSTRUCTION
Joining in July 2021 at the start of the project, Neo has managed the carving and levelling of 18 nurseries set in the remote mountainsides, construction of planting camps for nursery staff and seasonal workers, bridges across rivers in the planting area, and staff cottages and buildings at the UCL office.
Mpoki served two years with Tanzania’s National Service (JKT), supervising construction projects, including the State House in Dodoma. He has a BS, Physics, University of Dodoma, 2016.
Pastory Njelekela
NURSERIES MANAGER
Pastory joined the project in July 2022 to assume overall responsibility of the growing number of tree nurseries (18 rising to 30). He is responsible for making sure each nursery has the required number of healthy altitude-appropriate local tree species ready to plant at the start of each season, as well as collecting comprehensive data on each nursery.
Previously he was Project Manager for a Finnish funded smallholder tree grower’s project. BS, Forestry Science, Sokoine University of Agriculture, 2016.
Debora Audax
WOMEN & YOUTH ORGANIZER
Debora joined the project in July 2022 to implement a strategy of empowering women and youth in the nearby villages. She is also responsible for annual village socio-economic surveys to measure the improvement of livelihoods and annual staff surveys within the company to assure a safe working environment.
Previously, she has worked with the Agricultural Non-State Actors Forum. BA, Geography & Environmental Studies, University of Dar es Salaam, 2016
Alpha Mhepela
DEPUTY NURSERY MANAGER
Alpha joined the team in May 2023 to assist Pastory as the new nurseries grew more distant. Alpha had worked at the Njombe Town Council’s Natural Resources Division in the protection of natural resources and beekeeping.
He’s the founder of Wildlfire & Restoration Organization, a community based organization, that focuses on minimizing wildfire and restoring burnt forest patches. BS, Forestry Sciences, Sokoine University of Agriculture, 2021
Maria Laurian Pambalu
ADMINISTRATIVE & ACCOUNTING OFFICER
Maria is responsible for thousands of cash transactions each month and posting all account entries.
She joined in 2023 after being discovered working for us as a nursery attendant. BA, Accounting and Transport Finance, National Institute of Transport, 2023.
Aloyce Mwakisoma
Traditional Botanist
Aloyce joined us in July 2021 at the start of the project. In charge of scouting forest patches for the locations of seeds and wildlings for the nurseries, and for setting and retrieving digital camera traps for the biodiversity monitoring program, Aloyce has a deep knowledge of Udzungwa flora and fauna.
He knows the local Kihehe names for over 500 plant species, some of which have not yet been described by science. Aloyce’s family, who come from the corridor area, were traditional hunters whose ecological expertise evolved from generations of experience.
Andrea Bianchi
Project Botanist & Biodiversity Monitoring
Andrea started when the project kicked off in June 2021. A month before he had been working at MUSE, the natural history museum in Trento, Italy, managing two tropical greenhouses where he propagated over 250 plants and trees from the Udzungwa Mountains. Andrea did his MSc thesis research in the adjacent Udzungwa Scarp Forest Reserve.
He’s responsible for sourcing and propagating as many Udzungwa forest species as possible, nursery oversight, our seed bank, and our camera trapping and biodiversity monitoring program. Since starting, he has discovered 2 tree species and 2 plants new to science in the project area. MSc, Natural Science, Universita degil studi di Pavia, 2020
DIRECTORS
Carter Coleman
CHAIRMAn & founder
In 1991 Carter kick-started a dormant Tanzania Forest Conservation Group (est. 1985), launching its first village project, and helped it grow over the past 30+ years into a leading African community conservation NGO working in over 260 villages and protecting over 3,470 km2 of forests. In 2005, Carter founded Agrica Limited, which developed a greenfield $45-million-infrastructure, 3,500-ha irrigated staple crop farm, the largest in East Africa, in Tanzania. KPL, a state-of-the art commercial farm at the end of a long dirt road, also trained over 7,400 neighboring farmer families in improved rice agronomy.
A former journalist, Carter reported for Time and the Financial Times in Africa and has written two novels. Since 2001, he has been the president of the African Rainforest Conservancy, a USA fundraising charity. BA, Vanderbilt University, 1983.
Fred Jailos
MANAGING DIRECTOR
As we begin our fourth year, Fred seen here explaining the project to the Iringa Region Secretariat, was promoted to Managing Director. While continuing as Project Manager, he will be the focal point for discussions with central government authorities.
Theron Morgan-Brown
DIRECTOR OF SCIENCE
Theron has been helping rural communities in Africa realize economic benefits from sustainable-use and conservation since 2001. He is a highly skilled tropical forest scientist, remote sensor and expert in carbon project monitoring, reporting, and verification. He authored Tanzania’s first REDD+ project validated and verified under VCS in 2014 and has provided technical support to other REDD+ projects in Zambia and Liberia.
Theron wrote the methodological sections of the Udzungwa Corridor Reforestation project document and guided it through validation. Theron holds a PhD in Interdisciplinary Ecology from the University of Florida, 2014.
Charles Meshack
director
For nearly 15 years, Charles has been a civil society leader in Tanzania at the forefront of national forest conservation initiatives, including participatory forest management, Tanzania’s first REDD+ project, and advocacy for improved forest governance. After joining as a field officer in 1996, in 2005 he became the Executive Director of the Tanzania Forest Conservation Group, the country’s most prominent national environmental org.
Meshack has led the establishment of sustainable charcoal value chains that incentivise rural communities to reduce deforestation by generating income from natural woodlands, and raised the call at home and abroad for equitable and effective forest management. BSc, Forestry, University of Sokoine Morogoro, Tanzania, 1995; MSc, Ecology and Environmental Management, University of York, 2003.
SHAREHOLDERS
UCL
Registered with the Tanzania Investment Centre, Udzungwa Corridor Limited (est. 2021) is majority owned by the Tanzania Forest Conservation Group with Reterra Limited as a minority shareholder.
TFCG
SHAREHOLDER
The Tanzania Forest Conservation Group, established 1985, a pioneer in Community Based Forest Management, has helped over 260 communities in the creation and protection of 115 Village Land Forest Reserves over 2,552 km2. From SACCOS to primary schools, the TFCG works in an array of community development activities, including planting of over 16.7 million agroforestry trees.
RETERRA
SHAREHOLDER
Reterra Ltd was established in London, UK in 2021 to develop and finance reforestation and REDD+ projects in East Africa. Reterra conceived and financed the Udzungwa project, set up the company and operations, and provides ongoing oversight and technical support.