Addressing Land Degradation in Tanzania: Contemporary Issues Related to Policies and Strategies

Abstract

Several attempts have been made since the early years of independence of Tanzania to address land degradation. Policies and strategies were formulated that emphasized on the importance of land conservation in achieving economic growth. However, the context in which the earlier strategies were designed and implemented led to further land degradation. Failure of these interventions was partly because policies which backed them remained sectoral and most of them adopted the top-down approach with very little involvement of communities. The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) of 1992 in Rio de Janeiro created a new chapter in the country by insisting on the importance of sustainable development. The new policies and strategies were formulated with intentions to correct the past mistakes. This paper has assessed the extent to which Tanzania’s post-UNCED policies and strategies address the recent challenges of climate change on land degradation as reported by the IPCC in 2007. It involved review of selected policies, strategies and related literature on land degradation and climate change. The National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty (NSGRP) and two other sectoral strategies were reviewed in addition to the environmental, agricultural and water policies. The study finds that significant short and long-term measures to combat the negative effects of land use practices on the land resource are addressed. However, constant review of the policies and strategies is required to ensure that emerging challenges are addressed as part of the overall efforts to combat impacts of global climate change.

Keywords: land degradation, Tanzania, policies, strategies, climate change

JEL Classification: Q24, Q28, R38