Natural Forest Resources and Agroforestry Centre (NAFRAC),

NAFRAC started as HASHI project in 1986 as an environmental conservation project following the decision that was reached during national meeting on environment, which was held in 1984 at Shinyanga. The leaders met to discuss how to combat land degradation that was threatening half of Tanzania including Shinyanga region. The meeting directed the ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism to take measures to halt reverse the desertification process beginning with Shinyanga.

The organisation adopted the participatory extension approach, which involved the local people in planning project activities. The people of this region accepted the participatory approaches hence introduced their indigenous system of forest management known as Ngitili. Ngitili is an indigenous natural resource management system through which dry fodder is conserved as standing hay. This traditional system was developed in response to acute shortage of fodder caused by long and frequent droughts and shortage of grazing land.  

The organisation has a broad success in reversing the degradation in the dry lands of Shinyanga region in Tanzania through this traditional form of enclosure. Through this organisation effort 70 percent of the people have been able to re-establish their traditional Ngitili system. It is estimated between 350,000 to 500,000 ha in Shinyanga are managed as Ngitili. This is a significant achievement in the region whose vegetation cover was formerly deckling fast. People's effort during the past two decades has reversed the desertification trend in Shinyanga region.