Strategic Environmental Assessment in
Land Use Planning: Lesson from Tanzania
Growth, Conservation and Responsibility
27th Annual General Meeting
IAIA’07 3- 9 June 2007
Alexander Chambi, Raphael Mwalyosi
CEARM
Dar es Salaam – Tanzania
Paper outline
 General introduction to Land Use Planning


Definition
Influence
 Land Use Planning in Tanzania


Historical perspective
Land use practice
 SEA and Para-SEA in Tanzania

Practice, Expertise, Institutions & Legislation
 Conclusion and Recommendations
Land use planning
 Programme of state intervention in land use
and environmental change


Mediate conflict of interest over how land should be
used and developed
Coordinate individual activities on land
 Land use programme is realized through

Planning system constituted by



Institutional arrangement
Instruments and
Tools
Land use planning
 Influenced by: 


Land policy
Interest extant in a locality
Land administrators
Land Use Planning in Tanzania
A historical perspective
 1961 – 1964 Establishment of village settlement scheme in
districts with low population densities

Marked the begging of centralized physical planning in
Tanzania
 1970 – 1974 Establishment of Regional administrations
responsible for planning and implementation of
development project
 1976 Rural Integrated development Plans in all Regions


Regional water master plan
Tanzania Forest Action Plan
 1978 Preparation of zonal physical plan
 Followed by other plans that linked spatial planning and
poverty reduction plans
Land Use Planning in Tanzania
 The government attempted to regulate and
organize which land for which purpose by:  Enacting the National Land Use Planning
Commission Act of 1984
 The act created the National Land Use
Planning Commission (NLUPC)
 Main functions


Prepare regional physical land use plan
Formulate land use policies and legislation
Constrains and effects
 Constrains of land use planning in Tanzania


Low capacity in terms of manpower and financial
support
Traditional practice in land use

Culture, experience, customs, beliefs, traditional laws and
local knowledge
 Effects of land use planning in Tanzania

Conflict among resource uses e.g. Land use in
Usangu basin
Land Use in Usangu Basin
 Usangu Basin is economically important in Tanzania


It is important regulator for the hydroelectric schemes
downstream of Mtera and Kidatu
Irrigation scheme





about 208,000ha irrigable
Support over 30,000 farming household
Key for the Ruaha National Park
Livestock within the basin and along Great Ruaha River
Source of firewood, timber and other related construction
materials
Land Use in Usangu basin
 Competition between resource users resulted in over
utilization of resources due to



Poor coordination
Lack of monitoring
Lack of participation of key stakeholders
 Effect


From 1994, drying of Great Ruaha River during dry season
The zero flows implied no water from Usangu basin to Ruaha
National Park and to Mtera hydropower
Effort to Restore
 2006 Relocating livestock, livestock
keepers and villages from wetland within
basin
 2006/2007 Gazette of Usangu Game
Reserve and attach in Ruaha National
Park making Ruaha National Park the
biggest national park in Tanzania
Results
 Positively:  Increased water flow in Great Ruaha River
 Raised water level of Mtera dam to over maximum
capacity of 698.50 m.a.s.l for hydropower generation
within 2 months
 Improved industrial development
 Improved wildlife in Ruaha National Park
 Negatively:  Reduced agricultural land
Effect - based planning and SEA
 The appraisal process for policy and plan
formulation do not by itself provide for full
assessment of their overall impact on
sustainability
 Restoration of the basin overlooks issues such
as drought and evaporation effect
 Cost Benefit Analysis on land use changes in
Usangu basin for growth and conservation
 SEA in LUP for Growth, Conservation and
Responsibility? Case study below illustrate
SEA in Land Use Planning in
Tanzania – Case Studies
 SEA for Roads Improvements in Tanzania national
Parks 2001





The planning involved: Assessment of impacts, threats and constrains of current and
future land use
Projection/prediction of future potentials and opportunities
Strategies for impact mitigation and opportunity enhancement
Involvement of all key stakeholders including surrounding local
communities
Case study cont…
 Benefits




increased number of visitors interring national parks from
576,000 in 2003 to 582,807 in 2004. In 2005 Tanzania visited
by 624,020
increased Tanzania’s economy from tourist sector from
US$ 731.00Mil in 2003 to 746.1Mil in 2004 while in 2005
Tanzania earned US$1,083.50Mil
Improved conservation in national parks
Every National Park has detained GMP
 Another good example of SEA applied to University of
Dar es Salaam Physical Master Plan and Land Use
Policy
Effectiveness of strategic planning
 Most of strategic plans up to 1990s incorporate
sustainability and SEA principles
 Shortcomings



Top-down participatory and exclude key stakeholders
Most plans depends on donors supports for both planning and
implementation casting doubt on sustainability
Lack of cross-sector policies to avoid contradictions and
sector conflicts and overlap
 2004 SEA mandatory requirement for PPPs under the
EMA No.20 of 2004
Effectiveness of strategic planning
cont…
1. Part VII section104 of EMA require SEA for public
policies, Programmes, development plans and
regulations
2. EMA Implementation Support Programme of 2007
addresses steps in implementation of four major
mandates of EMA





Policy and planning
EIA and SEA
Reporting/Monitoring/enforcement
Awareness/information/research
SEA Regulations under preparation to enable sectors
and coordinating ministries conduct their policies,
programmes and plans.
Potentials for Implementing SEA
 Experiences in planning process since 1960s
 Existence of potential organizations with potential
expertise relevant to SEA
 presence of educational organizations
 Existence of SEA and SEA type projects prior to EMA
 Enforcement of the Environmental Management Act
No. 20 of 2004
Potentials for implementing SEA
 Institutional framework in place: Thus
 Division of Environment at Vice President Office

Implementation of Policy and Legislation
 National Environmental Management Council


Enforcement and compliance
Technical arbitration of SEA and research
 District, Ward and Village environmental Management
committee and officers,
Conclusion
 There is need for SEA be integrated into land use
planning in Tanzania



Evidence of the presence of strong tradition of spatial planning
Presence of expertise in relevance institutions such as
University College of Lands and Architectural Studies and
National Land Use Planning Commission
A functional institution framework in place
Recommendations
 Tanzania need to adopt a ‘bottom-up’ approach to SEA
 Existing planning policy documents should be
reviewed/audited to integrate SEA/sustainability
principles
 SEA should inform land use planners, decision-makers
and affected public on the sustainability of strategic
decisions, facilitate the search for the best alternative
and ensure a democratic decision-making process.
Recommendations
 Four levels and type of SEA are recommended
for Tanzania:




Policy-based SEA:
Sector-based SEA:
Plan/Programme-based SEA
Geographic area-based SEA
Recommendations
 SEA is fairly new in Tanzania and hence
capacity building in form of training and skills
enhancement is needed to enable sector and
coordinating ministries to conduct SEA of their
policy, planning and legislation.