Managing Land Use, Protecting Land and Mitigating Land Degradation: Tanzania Case Study

Abstract

For the United Republic of Tanzania, efforts to combat desertification and land degradation generally, are part and parcel of the national efforts to address poverty and ensure sustainable development. More concerted efforts to ensure sustainable land management and combat desertification came after the Rio Conference in 1992. Since then, major milestones include: the 1994 National Environment Action Plan (NEAP) prepared to carry out a national analysis and provide a framework to incorporate environmental considerations into government decision-making processes; the 1997 National Environmental Policy (NEP) formulated to define national goals and strategic objectives in environment; the National Action Programme (NAP) to combat desertification prepared in 1999 under the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD); and the 2002 Institutional Framework for Environmental Management (ILFEMP) in Tanzania. The National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty (NSGRP) of 2005 provides a close relationship between reduction of poverty and the sustainability of the productive sectors, particularly agriculture that counts for 45% of the GDP and about 60% of the export earnings as well as livelihood to over 80% of the population. The NSGRP also views energy as critical for the attainment of the NSGRP and MDG targets. Hydropower, which depends on the functioning and wellbeing of the major water catchments and ecosystems including the dry land ecosystems, is the major source of energy in Tanzania accounting for over 70% of the total national energy sources.

In Tanzania, the impacts of global warming are already vivid. Measurements from 21 meteorological stations have shown a steady increase in temperature for the past 30 years. Because of this temperature increase/global warming, adverse impacts are now felt in almost all sectors of the economy. Severe and recurrent droughts in the past few years have triggered the recent devastating power crisis. The drop in water levels of Lake Victoria, Lake Tanganyika, Lake Manyara and Lake Jipe in recent years, and the dramatic recession of 7 km of Lake Rukwa in about 50 years, are a manifestation of climate change. Eighty per cent of the glacier on Mount Kilimanjaro has been lost since 1912. It is projected that the entire glacier will be gone by 2025. The intrusion of sea water into fresh water wells along the coast of Bagamoyo and the inundation of Maziwe Island in Pangani is yet another evidence of the sea level rise.

Climate change coupled with unsustainable land management and destruction of the water catchments has aggravated the energy crisis and environmental degradation, particularly in the central semi arid areas and the dry sub-humid areas in the southern highlands. In order to address these challenges, the United Republic of Tanzania has recently enacted a National Environmental Management Act (EMA 2004) as a framework environmental law to provide a coherent environmental management approach including sustainable land management and the management of water catchment areas. More importantly in March 2006, the Government adopted a National Strategy for Sustainable Land Management and protection of water catchment areas. This is a comprehensive five year programme, intending to address twelve identified challenges, with an estimated budget of about US$ 30 million. For the first year, the government has already committed about US$ 9 million. The exemplary commitment of the government to address sustainable land management through this strategy, has already resulted in tangible outputs. Almost all pastoralists who had invaded the important catchment areas of Usangu (one of the largest catchment areas for hydro power production in the country) in the southern Highlands, have been relocated, and important catchment areas have been declared national reserves, putting them under legal protection from any more encroachments. Each District council has been requested to plant and care for 1.5 million trees annually. Under the strategy, each village has to have a title deed, with land set aside for livestock keeping and for crop production. Other measures, include the promotion of renewable energy as well as alternative sources of energy, particularly in the dryland areas, as a way of addressing the chronic problem of deforestation for energy needs.