Environment in Tanzania Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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After gaining independence in 1964, Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged into the United Republic of Tanzania. The next three decades were characterized by one-party rule, which ended in 1995 with democratic elections. Zanzibar has retained a semi-autonomous status that has contributed to hotly contested elections and charges of voting irregularities. With a per capita income of only $700, Tanzania is the seventh poorest country in the world. Some 36 percent of the population live in abject poverty. Only four percent of the land area is arable, yet 80 percent of Tanzanians are engaged in the agricultural sector, which provides around half of the Gross Domestic Product and 85 percent of all exports. The United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Reports rank Tanzania 164 of 232 countries on overall quality-of-life issues.

Industries are generally involved with processing agricultural productions or in producing light consumer goods. Natural resources include: Hydropower, tin, phosphates, iron ore, coal, diamonds, gemstones, gold, natural gas, and nickel; Tanzania has recently begun exploiting these resources. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are working with the government to reduce poverty and rehabilitate the economic infrastructure.

Bordering the Indian Ocean, Tanzania has a coastline of 1,424 kilometers and inland water resources of 59,050 square kilometers. The total area of 945,987 square kilometers includes the islands of Mafia, Pemba, and Zanzibar. Tanzania shares land borders with Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zambia. The coastal plains of Tanzania give way to a central plateau and to northern and southern highlands. While the coast enjoys a tropical climate, the highlands are temperate. Tanzania is subject to drought, and flooding may occur on the central plateau during the rainy season. Elevations range from sea level to 5,895 meters at Mount Kilimanjaro along the Kenyan border. Kilimanjaro, which is Tanzania’s most distinctive geographic feature, is the highest point in all of Africa. The world-renowned mountain is bordered by Lake Victoria, the second largest freshwater lake in the world, Lake Tanganyika, the second deepest lake in the world, and Lake Nyasa.

Like many of Africa’s poorest countries, Tanzania’s population of 37,445,392 is vulnerable to a number of environmental health hazards. With an adult prevalence rate of 8.8 percent, the HIV/AIDS epidemic has claimed 160,000 lives since 2003. Another 1.6 million people are living with the disease. While 73 percent of the population have access to safe drinking water, only 46 percent have access to improved sanitation. Therefore, Tanzanians are at very high risk for contracting food and waterborne diseases that include bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever and the water contact disease schistosomiasis. In some areas, the population is at high risk for contracting vectorborne diseases such as malaria, Rift Valley fever, and plague. Consequently, Tanzanians have a lower-than-normal life expectancy (45.64 years) and growth rate (1.83 percent), and higher-than-normal infant mortality (96.48 deaths per 1,000 live births) and death (16.39 deaths/1,000 population) rates. The fertility rate of five children each places women at great risk and taxes strained resources.

Tanzania is experiencing extensive soil degradation and desertification as a consequences of human mismanagement and natural disasters. Around 44 percent of the land is forested, but deforestation is occurring at a rate of 0.2 percent per year. The destruction of coral reefs is jeopardizing marine life. Marginal agriculture has been seriously threatened by prolonged droughts. Illegal hunting and trade, particularly the ivory trade, is posing major threats to Tanzanian wild life.

Because Mount Kilimanjaro is the highest freestanding mountain in the world, it has provided valuable information on climate change created by greenhouse gases and global warming. Scientists have observed a visible depletion of the snow in recent years. This factor is affecting the tourist industry and decreasing Tanzania’s supply of fresh water. There is some indication that the situation on Kilimanjaro has also reduced fish supplies in Lake Tanganyika. A 2006 study by scientists at Yale University ranked Tanzania 83 of 132 countries on environmental performance, well above the relevant income and geographic groups. Only the low score in environmental health prevented Tanzania from a higher ranking.

Approximately 30 percent of the land has been claimed by the government to protect Tanzania’s rich biodiversity. Protected lands include nature reserves, wilderness areas, national parks, species management areas, and wetlands. Wildlife has been seriously threatened, however, partially by rural Tanzanians who hunt wildlife for food because they cannot afford domestic meat. Bush meat provides around a fourth of all meat consumption for this segment of the population. Of 316 identified mammal species, 42 are endangered, as are 33 of 229 bird species.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Tanzania became involved in ecotourism as a means of preserving vulnerable ecosystems while helping villages meet their economic needs. Until that time, many villagers had seen wildlife only as hunting prey or pests that destroyed crops. In the 1980s, the Campfire programs were initiated in Africa, and villagers were given an economic stake in protecting the wildlife that attracted tourists to their areas by providing services and sharing in profits. Tanzania’s Wildlife Division developed programs using ecotourism as an alternative to hunting, which wrecked the environment and destroyed wildlife populations. Some of the proceeds from the Campfire projects are used to supply water and sanitation systems to villages and to support the national park system. Critics claim, however, that resources are being directed toward the state treasury and away from conservation as originally planned.

In 1983, Tanzania passed the National Environment Council Act that created the National Environment Management Council, which advises the government on all environmental issues and formulates and recommends policy and standards. The Ministry for Tourism, Natural Resources, and Environment is the statutory body charged with implementing and enforcing environmental laws based on the framework provided by the National Conservation Strategy for Sustainable Development and the National Environmental Policy, which comprise national policy on land use, natural resources and conservation, pollution, and environmental management. Tanzania participates in the following international agreements on the environment: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, and Wetlands.

Bibliography:

Central Intelligence Agency, “Tanzania,” World Factbook, www.cia.gov;
Timothy Doyle, Environmental Movements in Minority and Majority Worlds: A Global Perspective (Rutgers University Press, 2005);
Kevin Hillstrom and Laurie Collier Hillstrom, Africa and the Middle East: A Continental Overview of Environmental Issues (ABC-CLIO, 2003);
Valentine Udoh James, Africa’s Ecology: Sustaining the Biological and Environmental Diversity of a Continent (McFarland, 1993);
United Nations Development Programme, “Human Development Report: Tanzania,” hdr.undp.org;
World Bank, “Tanzania,” worldbank.org.