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Since 1997 Tanzania has undertaken a process to identify and declare a network of Nature Forest Reserves (NFRs) with high biodiversity values, from within its existing portfolio of national Forest Reserves, with 16 new NFRs declared since 2015. The current network of 22 gazetted NFRs covered 948,871 hectares in 2023. NFRs now cover a range of Tanzanian habitat types, including all main forest types-wet, seasonal, and dry-as well as wetlands and grasslands. NFRs contain at least 178 of Tanzania's 242 endemic vertebrate species, of which at least 50% are threatened with extinction, and 553 Tanzanian endemic plant taxa (species, subspecies, and varieties), of which at least 50% are threatened. NFRs also support 41 single-site endemic vertebrate species and 76 single-site endemic plant taxa. Time series analysis of management effectiveness tracking tool (METT) data shows that NFR management effectiveness is increasing, especially where donor funds have been available. Improved management and investment have resulted in measurable reductions of some critical threats in NFRs. Still, ongoing challenges remain to fully contain issues of illegal logging, charcoal production, firewood, pole-cutting, illegal hunting and snaring of birds and mammals, fire, wildlife trade, and the unpredictable impacts of climate change. Increased tourism, diversified revenue generation and investment schemes, involving communities in management, and stepping up control measures for remaining threats are all required to create a network of economically self-sustaining NFRs able to conserve critical biodiversity values.

Dar es Salaam seaport serving the Tanzania hinterland and other seven landlocked countries in East and Central Africa, The rapid economic growth of the hinterlands resulted to the increasing demand for overseas products from their country’s residents, this create congestion at Dar es Salaam seaport. Due to this, the connection for the movement of commodities from seaport to its hinterland has noticeably very slow. A qualitative research methodology technique is used in this article to explore the status, challenges and strategies of Dar es Salaam seaport-hinterland connectivity. The findings reveal that even though Dar es Salaam seaport is linked to the hinterland through both railway and road transport, but is hugely dependent on road transport. Regular tariffs increase for imports, insufficient number of trains and wagons connecting Dar es Salaam seaport, poor qualities of roads and railway infrastructures, congestion at the roads and the absence of new freight station are the main existing challenges in which significantly affect the smoothness of Dar es Salaam seaport-hinterland connectivity. Furthermore, the article proposes various enhancing strategies to combat named challenges. These strategies will be crucial to the government in decision making on how to develop and advancing Dar es Salaam seaport-hinterland connectivity.

In this work, localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) sensing as applicable in the detection of Trenbolone acetate dopant is demonstrated. We show that the LSPR of the Trenbolone acetate/silver nanoparticle (Tren Ac/AgNPs) complex is sensitive to changes in the adsorbent concentration. The results show an average redshift of + 18 nm in the LSPR peak with variations in intensity and broadening behavior of the LSPR band of the Tren Ac/AgNPs complex. AgNPs were synthesized using laser ablation in liquid (LAL) technique with water as the solvent. UV-Vis spectroscopy was used for absorbance measurements and particle size and morphology were monitored using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The aggregation behavior of the Tren Ac/AgNPs complex was monitored using energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). Molecular Electrostatic Potential (MEP) and the HOMO-LUMO orbitals of the optimized Trenbolone acetate structure were obtained using Density Function Theory (DFT). The molecule was optimized at the B3LYP level of theory using the 6-311 basis set carried out using the Gaussian 09 software package. The results showed that O 2- is Trenbolone acetate's active site that would interact with Ag + to form a complex that would influence the plasmon behavior. The results presented in this work demonstrate the feasibility of LSPR for anabolic androgenic steroid detection., (© 2024. The Author(s).)