Environmental and Climate Change Policy Brief Tanzania

Tanzania is richly endowed with natural resources and a large majority of the population derive their livelihoods from agriculture, including livestock and fisheries. Together with higher agricultural productivity and development of agricultural value chains, non-renewable natural resources, such as minerals and gas can, if properly managed, contribute to economic development and poverty reduction. In addition sustainable management of Tanzania’s wildlife is key for the development of a thriving tourism industry. The key environmental problem in Tanzania is the degradation of natural resources such as land, forests, water and biodiversity. Increasingly, however, other problems such as waste, water scarcity and air pollution are growing in importance. Climate change adds to existing stresses and is expected to reduce agricultural productivity both as a result of changes in precipitation patterns but also due to higher temperatures. For instance coffee yields will fall significantly due to higher temperatures and more conflicts over land can be expected with greater frequency of extreme weather events. It is the poor who are particularly vulnerable to climate change, environmental degradation and pollution. They disproportionally face problems of access to assets on which they depend, this can relate to land and water of good quality and quantity but also fisheries and grazing lands. Poor farmers are also more exposed to pollution from polluted water, indoor air pollution, waste, agro chemicals and outdoor air pollution. Environment and climate has been relatively well integrated in previous National Development plans and the first five year development plan. That is environment is not only seen as a separate area but is to some extent part of sector strategies at the national level. Also key investment areas like the development corridor SAGCOT has strong preparatory work for environmental sustainability and national legal and policy frameworks are largely sufficient. Implementation is the main challenge. Implementation capacity hinges on issues like administrative capacity, societal awareness, political will and financial resources. There are problems with coordination within government with insufficient attention to the means of implementation and responsibilities for various ministries, weak monitoring and inadequate use of decision making tools like environmental impact assessments etc. The capacity of local government (human and financial) to carry out their task is very limited which hinders implementation of existing laws. As Swedish development cooperation strategy in Tanzania is now at midterm. Sweden is involved in areas that are of great importance for positive environment and climate outcomes for vulnerable groups in Tanzania; agricultural development, energy transition and democracy and human rights. Continued work in these areas is important. In these areas and beyond the following aspects s