Human activities accelerate the loss of environmental flow of many rivers and bring water shortages, resulting in water use conflicts. In Africa, such conflicts have contributed to water resource governance challenges. However, little is known on the role of the sub catchment water associations in managing water use conflicts in some river basins of Tanzania. Given this need, our objectives were to: (1) explore the causes of water use conflicts in the prone areas of the sub catchments; and (2) understand the role of sub catchment water associations in the management of such conflicts. We addressed these objectives using physical observations, unstructured interviews, in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and questionnaires administered to 100 households in the 4 villages within Mambi and Mpolo sub catchments of the Great Ruaha River in southern highlands, Tanzania. The findings showed that (46%) of conflicts in the upstream areas were caused by water theft, water scarcity (38%) and use of water without water right (12%). Excessive use of water by upstream users (46%), big number of livestock (38%) and illegal water connections (12%) were the main sources of conflicts in the downstream areas. We found that sub catchment water associations have been using meetings (55%), bylaws (12%), dialogue (12%) and combination of meetings and bylaws and dialogue (21%) to manage water use conflicts. Payment for Environmental Services has been recommended to reduce water use conflicts in the area.
Incentive conservation policies are acknowledged to reduce the degradation of natural resources for improved ecosystem services worldwide. However, there have been few studies conducted on the contribution of development programs using such policies in wetlands of local importance. This paper examined the implementation effects of an incentive-based Wetlands Friendly Investments (WFI) strategy in the Ndembera Valley, Tanzania. Data were collected using a survey of 208 households and in-depth interviews, supplemented by Landsat 8 imagery and topographical maps. ERDAS Imagine 15 was used to process land cover changes and water flow using the TREND software. The results indicated: (i) all major wetlands areas had declined; (ii) the differences in land cover (t ¼ À.418, df ¼ 8, p ¼ .687) and water flow (t ¼ À.418, df ¼ 8, p ¼ .9) before and after introduction of the strategy were not significant; (iii) weak correlation was observed between rainfall and water flow (r ¼ .37); and (iv) land conversion was the main driver for the decline in cover. These findings represent a failure of the WFI incentives to improve the ecological effects of wetland cover and water flow. This suggests that application of the strategy alone was not sufficient for substantial improvement of the desired short-term cover and flow effect. Integrating land use and livelihood into incentive policies can improve WFI incentive implementation practices for sustainable land conservation in the study area. The multi-method approach used minimized human behavior-response limitations, therefore it can be replicated elsewhere.
The approaches to natural resources management have evolved. Disparities in their adoption are likely to produce a long-lasting negative impact on the resources and the livelihood security of the community depending on them. The use of geoinformation by the local community is a critical measure to the sustainability of its resources. Nonetheless, the application of geoinformation technologies to the community-based natural resources for the tourism industry is highly unknown. This chapter reviewed the application of geoinformation technology to the management of community-based natural resources in the Pangani District of Northern Tanzania. It considers how geoinformation technology is used in the management of tourism activities for community development. Specifically, the chapter discusses community developments resulting from that as well as challenges associated with the use of geographical information systems and remote sensing technologies. The chapter concludes with key recommendations for improving those challenges.
Natural capital investment strategies are a highly important tool in the sustainability of ecosystem services-including water and improved community livelihoods worldwide. However, their implications on the quality of water are hardly known in many societies of Tanzania. This paper reports the effect of one of such strategy, called Wetland Friendly Investment (WFI), on the quality of water on small parts of Ndembera sub-catchment of Tanzania, where (WFI) has been implemented for more than a decade. Samples of water were collected from the seven locations in the dry and wet seasons using 1,500 ml plastic tubes. Bottles with samples were labeled, stored in the cooling box and transported to the laboratory for analysis. All parameters were measured using standardized methods. To determine the effect of the strategy, we compared the measured mean difference values of the physicochemical properties of water before and after the introduction of the strategy using a two-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The results showed that there was a statistically significant difference in Total Suspended Solids (TSS) before (p = 0.0066) and after (p = 0.0324) the intervention. Msugulika stream and the upstream of Ndembera River had the highest value for Ammonia-Nitrogen, with means of 0.3 and 0.23 mg/l in the dry and wet seasons, respectively. The use of agrochemicals was mentioned as one of the contributing factors in the poor quality of water and this could not significantly be reduced by the introduction of the WFI strategy alone. Therefore, more robust actions are required in addressing the issue of the quality of water in the sub-catchment.
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