CAUSES OF CONFLICTS IN AFRICA

CONFLICTS EXERCISE
INTRODUCTION
Recent years have seen many regions of Africa involved in war and internal or external conflict, from the seven or so countries directly involved in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to the Sierra Leone crisis and the war in Ethiopia/Eritrea and the various other civil wars. Other countries which have been through different conflicts include Kosovo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Oil, Sierra Leone, Conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea, Rwanda.
There have been over 9.5 million refugees and hundreds and thousands of people have been slaughtered. If this scale of destruction and fighting was in Europe, then people would be calling it World War III with the entire world rushing to report, provide aid, mediate and otherwise try to diffuse the situation.
THEORETICAL LITERATURE REVIEW
Definitions of conflicts
Conflict is a situation of confrontation or lack of consensus between two or more parties within an organisation or society. For example there can be a confrontation between members of a family, between two ethnic groups, between leaders or members of an organisation such as political parties, religious groups, and tribes.

Example: The recent conflict between ethnic groups in Mara Region resulted in destruction of property such as houses and cattle. The Conflict in the National Convention for Constitutional Reform (NCCR-Mageuzi) in 1996 resulted in the rupture of the leadership and eventually of the party itself. Another example is The city of Dar es Salaam is growing very fast through the annual migration of youths from the rural areas into the city. Such fast growth puts excessive stress on the city's existing resources such that the city officials find it difficult to properly manage it. In consequence conflicts of every social dimension take place around the city every day: violence, theft, and soon.

Conflicts do not take place in vacuum. They occur in institutions or/and the organizations of those institutions. Of the known cases of conflict in Tanzania, a number have taken place in specific institutions. These institutions have included: Between and Within Political Parties, Between and within Civil Society Organisations, Between the State and Civil Society Organisations, Between Men and Women (Gender Based Conflicts) Due to unequal distribution of opportunities between men and women based on archaic traditions and culture. Conflicts also happens between Youths and Seniors (Generational Conflict) Due to unequal distribution of opportunities between the young and the old, and also it can occur between Muslims and Christians and within the two religions (Religion Based Conflicts) or between Pastoralists and Farmers (Resource Based Conflicts)

Conflict in Africa
There have recently been numerous civil wars and conflicts in Africa which include Angola, which has seen an estimated 500,000 people killed since 1989 and an estimated 3 million refugees. It is also being torn apart due to resources such as diamonds and offshore oil, with various factions fighting for these prizes, supported by multinational corporations and other governments. Other countries include Algeria, Burundi, Congo, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Eritrea/Ethiopia, Liberia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan Uganda, Zimbabwe.
Root Causes of Problems
Political corruption, lack of respect for rule of law, human rights violations are all common reasons heard for some of the causes of Africa’s problems. Although, not the only reasons, some often overlooked root causes also include the following:
The Legacy of European Colonialism
European colonialism had a devastating impact on Africa. The artificial boundaries created by colonial rulers as they ruled and finally left Africa had the effect of bringing together many different ethnic people within a nation that did not reflect, nor have (in such a short period of time) the ability to accommodate or provide for, the cultural and ethnic diversity. The freedom from imperial powers was, and is still, not a smooth transition. The natural struggle to rebuild is proving difficult.
Artificial Borders Created by Imperial Europe
In the 1870s European nations were bickering over themselves about the spoils of Africa. In order to prevent further conflict between them, they convened at the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 to lay down the rules on how they would partition up Africa between themselves. Between 1870 and World War I alone, the European scramble for Africa resulted in the adding of around one-fifth of the land area of the globe to its overseas colonial possessions. A say from Tutu said that “When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said, “Let us pray.” We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land” (Bishop Desmond Tutu)
Colonial administrations started to take hold. In some areas, Europeans were encouraged to settle, thus creating dominant minority societies. France even planned to incorporate Algeria into the French state; such was the dominance and confidence of colonial rulers at the time. In other cases, the classic “divide and conquer” techniques had to be used to get local people to help administer colonial administrations. Some were only too willing to help for their own ends.
In most areas colonial administrations did not have the manpower or resources to fully administer the territory and had to rely on local power structures to help them. Various factions and groups within the societies exploited this European requirement for their own purposes, attempting to gain a position of power within their own communities by cooperating with Europeans. One aspect of this struggle included what Terrence Ranger has termed the “invention of tradition.” In order to legitimize their own claims to power in the eyes of the colonial administrators, and their own people, people would essentially manufacture “traditional” claims to power, or ceremonies. As a result many societies were thrown into disarray by the new order.
Colonialism, in the traditional sense, ended as European countries started fighting over themselves over the world (the World Wars) and in effect, weakened them in the process (allowing the United States and Soviet Union to eventually gain in immense power. They would spend another 50 years continuing that fight). Colonized people, the world over, saw their chance to break free as they realized that Europe was not invincible or as civilized as they claimed. Britain could no longer hold on to India, for example. In Africa, a sense of local patriotism or nationalism took deeper root among African intellectuals and politicians. Some of the inspiration for this movement came from the First World War in which European countries had relied on colonial troops for their own defence. Many in Africa realized their own strength with regard to the colonizer for the first time. At the same time, some of the mystique of the “invincible” European was shattered by the barbarities of the war. However, in most areas European control remained relatively strong during this period (History of Africa, Wikipedia)
These were the dangerous sands upon which the colonialists imposed a new political geography. However once in motion, the process was enthusiastically reinforced by the Africans themselves. Tribes became the object of passionate African imagination. Some chroniclers have endowed their tribes with a retrospective primordial essence. Rather like Yeats did with the similarly disenfranchised Irish.
The British ruled through these local hierarchies, a process which unconsciously promoted the most malleable, collaborative or corrupt local chiefs and where none existed, as we've seen, they simply created one, enabling ambitious individuals and groups to achieve positions of status, dominance, and wealth that might otherwise have been unattainable.
To counter this tribalism some African leaders proclaimed the single party state to be the only means to control the excessive, ethnically based competition for the global goods of modernity — education, health, and the eradication of poverty. Competitive democracy they said would only lead to penury. Yet one-party rule unrestrained by the moral check of shared community had the same result. Of the 107 African leaders overthrown between 1960 and 2003 two-thirds were murdered, jailed or slung into exile. Up until 1979 59 African leaders were toppled or assassinated. Only three retired peacefully and not one was voted out of office. No incumbent African leader ever lost an election until 1982.( Bob Geldof, 2004)
Unequal International Trade; Comparative Disadvantage
Colonialism had thus transformed an entire continent. Vast plantations and cash crop-based or other extractive economies were set up throughout. Even as colonial administrators parted, they left behind supportive elites that, in effect, continued the siphoning of Africa’s wealth. Thus has colonialism had a major impact on the economics of the region today. Various commentators, mostly from the third world observer that colonialism in the traditional sense may have ended, but the end results are much the same.
The causes of violent conflicts in Africa are many and varied in both their nature and destructive consequences. While some may trace their sources into history, some are the consequences of the legacy of colonialism and the exigencies of the cold war. Others emanate from bad governance, ethnicity, ecological disasters and greed among others. Since ethnic conflicts abound, and are escalating in contemporary Africa, many have simply traced the root cause of armed conflicts to the multi-ethnic composition of African states. The common notion is that the multi-ethnic African state is inherently conflictual and therefore conflict is an intrinsic phenomenon of the multi-ethnic state.

The underlying causative factors include ethnic dominance and ethnic diversity, and the legacy of European colonialism, especially the artificial boundaries, and the colonial administrative policy of divide and rule which in most cases favoured a particular ethnic group among the others and making it a virtual ally in the colonial governance. Linked to the colonial legacy is the consequences of the cold war on the continent of Africa. The extension of this ideological war onto the continent where various regimes, irrespective of their status (democratic or dictatorship and in some cases, rebels) were supported and in some cases armed in an effort to propagate the ideologies of the supporting partner, contributed to the many immediate post independence conflicts. Another legacy of the cold war has been the proliferation of smaller arms in the region – rearming of the continent, which has helped fuel many conflicts after the end of the cold war.

Politics and poverty
Politics and poverty have also emerged as major causes of civil war in Africa. The unequal international trade,corporate interests, bad governance, and the immense burden of debt have crippled the development potentials and trapped the continent under poverty and conflicts. Though the relationship between poverty, economic hardship and conflicts might not be direct, it is anticipated that where abject poverty and deprivation are the norm among the population, especially among the youth, the opportunity cost of rebel labour seems low, making the likelihood of joining rebel organizations high.

Globalization
Globalization has also been linked to the conflict situation in Africa given the rapid and the radical changes as well as the unequal competition associated with it. The process of globalization breeds violence and conflict when it produces inequality, poverty, environmental destruction and unprecedented concentration of economic power for a few while the majority are marginalized and excluded’. .
IMF/World Bank
International trade and economic arrangements have done little to benefit the African people and has further exacerbated the problem. IMF/World Bank policies like structural Adjustment have aggressively opened up African nations with disastrous effects, including the requirements to cut back on health, education (and AIDS is a huge problem), public services and so on, while growing food and extracting resources for export primarily, etc, thus continuing the colonial era arrangement. The resulting increased poverty of Sub-Saharan Africa and the immense burden of debt have further crippled Africa’s ability to develop.

Cold War by Proxy; Supporting and Arming Dictatorships in Africa
Throughout the Cold War, major powers such as the U.S.A, the Soviet Union and others supported various regimes and dictatorships. Some possibly promising leaders in the early days of the independence movements throughout the Third World were overthrown. There was disregard from the major powers as to how this would affect the people of these countries. ($1.5 billion worth of weapons to Africa has come from the U.S. alone, according to a report from the World Policy Institute, while Europe for example, was able to “exploit Africa’s resources” to help rebuild after World War II.). The proliferation of small arms in the region when the Cold War ended has helped fuel many conflicts.
Corporate Interests, Exploitation, Corruption and Other Issues
As the companies duel, countries and communities often find themselves in the crossfire. According to Danny Schechter corporate interests and activities in Africa have also contributed to exploitation, conflict and poverty for ordinary people while enriching African and foreign elites. A lack of support for basic rights in the region, plus a lack of supporting institutions, as well as the international community’s political will to do something about it and help towards building peace and stability has also been a factor. A World Bank report notes that “politics and poverty cause civil wars, not ethnic diversity.” It also points out that in Africa; failed institutions are also a cause. It adds that where there is ethnic diversity, there is actually less chance for civil wars, as long as there are not just a small number of very large ethnic groups, or ethnic polarization.
Cultural differences
The main causes of war in each case (varies from case to case) Cultural: ‘Age old enmities between ethnic groups’ ‘Clash of civilizations’ Conflicting identities, arising from fundamental differences between people gives too much emphasis to cultural differences. In many contexts no major conflicts despite plurality of cultures (Tanzania; Malaysia; Brazil). Identities constructed, not given. Constructed and accentuated by leaders to achieve objectives. In nineteenth century ‘far from there being a single ‘tribal’ identity, most Africans moved in and out of multiple identities, defining themselves at one moment as subject to this chief, at another moment as a member of that cult, at another moment as part of this clan, and at yet another moment as an initiate in that professional guild.’ (Ranger).
Types of war
Cold War: many ‘wars by proxy’ : East and West fought in third world country. For example, some countries which went through cold wars include Central America; Vietnam; Mozambique; Afghanistan. Some ended with end of Cold War, but some got life of their own (e.g. Afghanistan). New wars by proxy in ‘fight against terrorism’.
Revolutionary wars: This type of war aiming to overturn established order – Cambodia, Colombia, Maoists in Nepal.
Wars for Regional independence: This type qf war aims at freeing a part of the nation to be independent. Examples of the countries fought such kind of war are Eritrea, Biafra, Tamils in Sri Lanka, S. Sudan, Kosovo, the Basques in Spain, rebels in Southern Philippines.
Wars fought to gain (or retain) political supremacy by particular groups, divided. by ethnicity, religion and others. Rwanda, Burundi, N.Ireland, Uganda.
Impacts of war
How war is likely to affect the economy and HD. Those impacts can be grouped into three groups: Macro-impact, Meso-impact, and Micro-impact.
Macro impacts:
Directly war affects production in agriculture, industry and trade, Indirectly it effects the gains of foreign currency. There will be foreign exchange shortage. As far as there will be a shortage in trade, the Government tax revenue will also be affected, domestic expenditure/basic needs expenditure will be decreased because of the budget deficit and there will be increased Inflation.
Meso-impacts Government Military expenditure rises, where social expenditure declines. Government expenditure, budget deficit, inflation, foreign aid, and capital entitlements, real wages, employment, extra legal imports and exports, are likely to fall or rise. In Production, the tradable goods fall where non-tradables goods rise, and food production will also fall as the main producers will be taken to war.

Human Development:
There will be family disintegration, Fleeing, Women increased role and Lost entitlements. Case studies conducted in Afghanistan, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Uganda and the findings at the macro level showed that GDP almost always negative impact – supported by econometric work; Investment (public and private) negative, but foreign savings meant it fell by less than domestic savings; Consumption per head fell with per capita GDP, though generally not proportionately, as savings ratio fell; Exports in US dollars fell in two-thirds of the countries; But six countries achieved a rise. Both Angola (exporting minerals) and Iran (oil) high rates of growth of exports; But import capacity often held up – supported by aid and private credit: foreign debt spiraled; where Agriculture – negative, especially where people fled (Mozambique; Afghanistan); and where war occurred in central agricultural area – Uganda; Cambodia. But agricultural growth sustained in Sri Lanka, Sudan. There was a biggest Government Revenue divergences, In Nicaragua and Ethiopia revenue ratio rose sharply, There was sustained revenue collection in Mozambique, Angola and Vietnam where in Uganda and Iran it fell dramatically. Large fall in Somalia, Cambodia and Afghanistan. Expenditure increased more than revenue. Inflation rate generally rose, as predicted.
The findings at meso level were as follows: Sectoral shifts : switch to subsistence and informal activities, including simple production and trading (particularly smuggling); towards agriculture. The share of government expenditure allocated to military invariably rose, and in most cases the share of social expenditure fell, sometimes severely (Ethiopia and El Salvador). But social expenditure share sustained at high levels in Mozambique, Guatemala and Nicaragua. Social expenditure fell sharply in Uganda, El Salvador (over 50% per head) but rose in Mozambique, Nicaragua and Sudan.
Entitlements: Entitlements are people’s command over resources.
Market entitlements fell, wages from employment; earnings from self-employment; and rising inflation
Direct entitlements rose except where the war made production difficult – e.g. in mined areas in Afghanistan, Mozambique; the Lowero triangle Uganda. Public entitlements mostly fell, especially sharply where tax capacity collapsed. But in a few cases governments managed to preserve and even increase them. Civic entitlements compensated for losses in some cases: e.g. Sri Lanka. But where the wars were most fierce, the ability of communities and NGOs to respond was limited. Non-legal entitlements (looting, illegal trade) invariably rose with losers as well as gainers. New sources of trade and gain - illegal and legal: poppy production in Afghanistan; smuggling; informal sector Mozambique.
Development costs: Every study showed heavy development costs which include destruction of physical plant, land, human resources (death and light), new investment reduced, and yet emergence of new forms of capital including social and organizational conflicts.
Human Development costs: Wars or conflicts caused lost entitlements including worsening provision of basic needs goods and services such as doctors, nurses, education and food availability, split families, orphans and separated children, refugees psychological trauma and soon.



POLICY REVIEW
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a non-binding declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, partly in response to the atrocities of World War II. Although the UDHR is a non-binding resolution, it is now considered to be a central component of international customary law which may be invoked under appropriate circumstances by national and other judiciaries. The UDHR urges member nations to promote a number of human, civil, economic and social rights, asserting these rights are part of the "foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world." The declaration was the first international legal effort to limit the behavior of states and press upon them duties to their citizens following the model of the rights-duty duality which emphasizes on recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world
The following are the United Nations and its members developed bodies of law which now make up international humanitarian law and international human rights law

General principles


Article 1: Freedom, Egalitarianism, Dignity and BrotherhoodArticle 2: Universality of rights



International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights


Article 1 and 2: Right to freedom from discrimination · Article 3: Right to life, liberty and security of person · Article 4: Freedom from slavery · Article 5: Freedom from torture and cruel and unusual punishment · Article 6: Right to personhood · Article 7: Equality before the law · Article 8: Right to effective remedy from the law · Article 9: Freedom from arbitrary arrest, detention and exile · Article 10: Right to a fair trial · Article 11.1: Presumption of innocence · Article 11.2: Prohibition of retrospective law · Article 12: Right to privacy · Article 13: Freedom of movement · Article 14: Right of asylum · Article 15: Right to a nationality · Article 16: Right to marriage and family life · Article 17: Right to property · Article 18: Freedom of thought, conscience and religion · Article 19: Freedom of opinion and expression · Article 20.1: Freedom of assembly · Article 20.2: Freedom of association · Article 21.1: Right to participation in government · Article 21.2: Right of equal access to public office · Article 21.3: Right to universal suffrage



International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights


Article 1 and 2: Right to freedom from discrimination · Article 22: Right to social security · Article 23.1: Right to work · Article 23.2: Right to equal pay for equal work · Article 23.3: Right to just remuneration · Article 23.4: Right to join a trade union · Article 24: Right to rest and leisure · Article 25.1: Right to an adequate standard of living · Article 25.2: Right to special care and assistance for mothers and children · Article 26.1: Right to education · Article 26.2: Human rights education · Article 26.3: Right to choice of education · Article 27.1: Right to participate in culture · Article 27.2: Right to intellectual property



Context, limitations and duties


Article 28: Social order · Article 29.1: Social responsibility · Article 29.2: Limitations of human rights · Article 29.3: The supremacy of the purposes and principles of the United NationsArticle 30: Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.


Category:Human rights · Human rights portal
Human Rights Law
In 1966, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) were adopted by the United Nations, between them making the rights contained in the UDHR binding on all states that have signed this treaty, creating human rights law.
Since then numerous other treaties (pieces of legislation) have been offered at the international level. They are generally know as human rights instruments. Some of the most significant are:
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) (adopted 1966, entry into force: 1969) [2]
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) (entry into force: 1981) [3]
United Nations Convention Against Torture (CAT) (adopted 1984, entry into force: 1984) [4]
Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) (adopted 1989, entry into force: 1989) [5]
International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families (ICRMW) (adopted 1990)

Enforcement of human rights law
The enforcement of international human rights law is the responsibility of the Nation State, and it’s the primary responsibility of the State to make human rights a reality. There is currently no international court that upholds human rights law (the International Criminal Court deals with crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide), although the Council of Europe is responsible for both the European Convention on Human Rights, and the European Court of Human Rights that acts as a court of last appeal for human rights issues in member states. In practice, many human rights are very difficult to legally enforce due to the absence of consensus on the application of certain rights, the lack of relevant national legislation or of bodies empowered to take legal action to enforce them.
Universal Jurisdiction
Universal jurisdiction is a controversial principle in international law whereby states claim criminal jurisdiction over persons whose alleged crimes were committed outside the boundaries of the prosecuting state, regardless of nationality, country of residence, or any other relation with the prosecuting country. The state backs its claim on the grounds that the crime committed is considered a crime against all, which any state is authorized to punish. The concept of universal jurisdiction is therefore closely linked to the idea that certain international norms are owed to the entire world community, as well as the concept of jus cogens.
International bodies
The United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is the only multilateral governmental agency with universally accepted international jurisdiction for universal human rights legislation. All UN gave England them but England already have advisory roles to the United Nations Security Council and the United Nations Human Rights Council, and there are numerous committees within the UN with responsibilities for safeguarding different human rights treaties. The most senior body of the UN with regard to human rights is the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. (United Nations Human Rights Council logo).

The United Nations Human Rights Council, created at the 2005 World Summit to replace the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, has a mandate to investigate violations of human rights. The Human Rights Council is a subsidiary body of the General Assembly and reports directly to it. It ranks below the Security Council, which is the final authority for the interpretation of the United Nations Charter. Forty-seven of the one hundred ninety-one member states sit on the council, elected by simple majority in a secret ballot of the United Nations General Assembly. Members serve a maximum of six years and may have their membership suspended for gross human rights abuses. The Council is based in Geneva, and meets three times a year; with additional meetings to respond to urgent situations.
Independent experts (rapporteurs) are retained by the Council to investigate alleged human rights abuses and to provide the Council with reports. The Human Rights Council may request that the Security Council take action when human rights violations occur. This action may be direct actions, may involve sanctions, and the Security Council may also refer cases to the International Criminal Court (ICC) even if the issue being referred is outside the normal jurisdiction of the ICC.
Security Council
The United Nations Security Council has the primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security and is the only body of the UN that can authorize the use of force (including in the context of peace-keeping operations), or override member nations sovereignty by issuing binding Security Council resolutions. Created by the UN Charter, it is classed as a Charter Body of the United Nations. The UN Charter gives the Security Council the power to:
Investigate any situation threatening international peace;
Recommend procedures for peaceful resolution of a dispute;
Call upon other member nations to completely or partially interrupt economic relations as well as sea, air, postal, and radio communications, or to sever diplomatic relations; and
Enforce its decisions militarily, if necessary.
The Security Council hears reports from all organs of the United Nations, and can take action over any issue which it feels threatens peace and security, including human rights issues. It has at times been criticised for failing to take action to prevent human rights abuses, including the Darfur crisis, the Srebrenica massacre and the Rwandan Genocide. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court recognizes the Security Council the power to refer cases to the Court, where the Court could not otherwise exercise jurisdiction.
Other UN Treaty Bodies
A modern interpretation of the original Declaration of Human Rights was made in the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights in 1993. The degree of unanimity over these conventions, in terms of how many and which countries have ratified them varies, as does the degree to which they are respected by various states. The UN has set up a number of treaty-based bodies to monitor and study human rights, under the leadership of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR). The bodies are committees of independent experts that monitor implementation of the core international human rights treaties. They are created by the treaty that they monitor.
Regional human rights
The three principal regional human rights instruments are the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, the American Convention on Human Rights (the Americas) and the European Convention on Human Rights.
The African Union (AU) is a supranational union consisting of fifty-three African states.[22] Established in 2001, the AU's purpose is to help secure Africa's democracy, human rights, and a sustainable economy, especially by bringing an end to intra-African conflict and creating an effective common market.[23]
The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights is the regions principal human rights instrument and emerged under the aegis of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) (since replaced by the African Union). The intention to draw up the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights was announced in 1979 and the Charter was unanimously approved at the OAU's 1981 Assembly. Pursuant to its Article 63 (whereby it was to "come into force three months after the reception by the Secretary General of the instruments of ratification or adherence of a simple majority" of the OAU's member states), the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights came into effect on 21 October 1986 – in honour of which 21 October was declared "African Human Rights Day".The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) is a quasi-judicial organ of the African Union tasked with promoting and protecting human rights and collective (peoples') rights throughout the African continent as well as interpreting the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and considering individual complaints of violations of the Charter. The Commission has three broad areas of responsibility:
Promoting human and peoples' rights
Protecting human and peoples' rights
Interpreting the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights
In pursuit of these goals, the Commission is mandated to "collect documents, undertake studies and researches on African problems in the field of human and peoples, rights, organise seminars, symposia and conferences, disseminate information, encourage national and local institutions concerned with human and peoples' rights and, should the case arise, give its views or make recommendations to governments" (Charter, Art. 45). With the creation of the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights (under a protocol to the Charter which was adopted in 1998 and entered into force in January 2004), the Commission will have the additional task of preparing cases for submission to the Court's jurisdiction. In a July 2004 decision, the AU Assembly resolved that the future Court on Human and Peoples' Rights would be integrated with the African Court of Justice.
The Court of Justice of the African Union is intended to be the “principal judicial organ of the Union” Although it has not yet been established, it is intended to take over the duties of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, as well as act as the supreme court of the African Union, interpreting all necessary laws and treaties. The Protocol establishing the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights entered into force in January 2004 but its merging with the Court of Justice has delayed its establishment. The Protocol establishing the Court of Justice will come into force when ratified by 15 countries. There are many countries in Africa accused of human rights violations by the international community and NGOs
PROTOCOL TO THE African charter on human and people’s rights on the rights of the woman also insisted on human rights.

EMPRICAL REVIEW
According to Kurt Hirschler, Tanzania is known to be an “oasis of peace” (Hofmeier 1997) on the troubled African continent. Although Tanzania is among the few African states that have experienced a “classical”war –a war between two independent states (Matthies 1998) –the East African country can look back on forty years of relative internal peace and stability. No civil wars, no military coups, no state-collapse, no warlords, neither ethnic nor religious, neither political nor social clashes have tormented the country and its people 40 years of peace and stability are unquestionably the greatest success of the country that is still one of the poorest countries in the world. But an increase in violent conflicts within the last few years seems to endanger this success. It appears that unavoidable reforms have helped the country out of its economic
and political misery, but to the price of increasing violent conflicts.

Tanzania has never been a country without conflicts. As in any other society, conflicts between different interests, identities, opinions and demands occurred. They were fought out along the lines of ethnic and regional affiliation, religion and ideology, gender and generation, and many others. There were - inter alia - disputes about land, the Union between Zanzibar and the Mainland, or the political direction of the country. The villagization programme, one of the government’s most controversial policies, caused severe tensions and numerous deaths, and the witch-hunt for so-called “economic saboteurs” questioned the famous record of peace and political stability as was indicated by a failed coup attempt in 1982/ 3.


The Evolution of Tanzania’s peace and political stability
A number of factors have contributed to Tanzania's peace and political stability: Unity and political solidarity forged during the independence struggle. Unlike in other African countries, where struggles for decolonization were based on factional lines:-racial, ethnic, religious, and regional - Tanzanians were unified under the solidarity of one nationalist movement, the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU).

A strong national identity.
Given the unity and solidarity emanating from the decolonization process Tanzania emerged from colonialism as a homogeneous political entity regardless of racial, ethnic, religious, and regional diversity. Tanzania is one of the very few African countries which attained a strong national identity immediately following their independence.

Common language
Together with the fact that the Tanzanian population is composed of more than one hundred ethnic groups, each speaking its own local dialect, Kiswahili is the country's lingua franca. The common language has not only helped to forge a political solidarity during the independence struggle, but has also been instrumental in forging a strong national identity.

Committed leadership.
As early as during the independence struggle, the Tanzanian nationalist leadership had a clear vision of what kind of society it envisioned building. Its objectives were to build a nation free of all kind of social injustices, disrespect and inequality. In its first two decades, following the country's independence in 1961, its leadership was consistently committed in words and actions to this vision in its development efforts in serving the people. The first president Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, for example, had never been criticised for lack of accountability or kleptomania.



Educated population.
Until the 1990s education in Tanzania was free from elementary to the university level. Primary education was both mandatory. and universal. Complemented by a sound adult education program, Tanzania's education policy produced a mass of educated and well-informed population, which was not gullible to political influences that could have threatened the stability, and peace of the country.

Political consciousness.
Tanzanians are amongst the best politically conscious people in Africa. They have the capacity of making an independent political judgement free of other people's influences. This is an attribute of both mass education and the boldness of the postindependence nationalist leadership in explaining the problems encountered in the long journey towards development.

The contribution of the one- party political system and the policies of socialism
and self-reliance.
In whatever ways one evaluates the outcome of Tanzania's one-party political system and the policies of socialism and self-reliance, one of their undeniable positive outcomes was their contribution to peace and political stability. Unlike in other African countries, Tanzania's one-party political system, coupled with the policies of socialism and self reliance, injected in the Tanzania's masses a sense of national unity, solidarity, hope and purpose as well as human respect. All these factors were key in strengthening the country's peace and political stability

Threats to Peace and Political Stability: Real and potential
conflicts
Since the introduction of the multi-party political system in 1992, there have been real and potential political, economic, religious and socio-cultural conflicts that threaten Tanzania's peace and political stability. These real and potential conflicts are at the national and local levels. Their major source is the political openness associated with the political and economic liberalisation.
National Conflicts
At the political level, the political openness that is associated with the introduction of the multi-party political system has resulted into freedom of expression. Some of the freedoms of expression have taken a dangerous stance of racial, ethnic, religious and regional or geographical sentiments. Issues of economic control are played on racial lines whereby black Tanzanians are pitted against Tanzanians of Asian origin, who are perceived as dominating the economy of the country. This results into the prevalence of concepts such as "indigenization" or "sera ya uzawa". Issues of development disparities are played on ethnic and regional or geographical lines whereby the country is split between numerous ethnic development associations as well as between the north and the south. Disparities of control of political power are played on religious lines whereby there is a perception, real or imagined, of Moslems being marginalized by Christians.

Political Parties and the Electoral Process
A major threatening dimension of the national political conflict is the disparity between the political parties in terms of their strength. The most conspicuous disparity is that between the ruling party, CCM on one side and the remaining opposition parties on the other. The conflict emerges from the opposition parties' perception that the ruling party's strength emanates from the advantages associated with incumbency rather than from the popular support it commands resulting from its good organisation, good leadership and sound policy programs.

According to the opposition parties perception, the ruling party has a hand in the political crises experienced within the opposition parties. It is considered to take deliberate steps to weaken the opposition for its own political advantage. This perception prevails even during elections The opposition parties persistent complaints are that the elections are always not free and fair. The hallmark of the national political conflict and the disparity between the ruling party and the opposition is the Zanzibar electoral experiences of the 1995 and 2000 general elections. The results of both elections were bitterly contested by the major opposition party, the Civic United Front (CUF). In both elections CUF accused CCM of rigging. Hence, according to CUF, the elections were not free and fair. As such, it rejected the official results and boycotted the House of Representatives and refused to recognise the legitimacy of the government. The political impasse, resulting from the political boycott, culminated in the events of January 27, which led to more than twenty deaths and first Tanzanians political refugees to Kenya. These sad events not only tarnished Tanzania's positive political image and pride of being considered an island of peace but also threatened the country's peace and political stability. Apart from the racial economic disparities between Tanzanians of African and Asian origins there is now a big economic gap between the rich and the poor. This is one of the direct outcomes of the policies of economic liberalisation. The most negative aspect of economic liberalisation is that many of the social services that Tanzanians used to get for free - clean water, medical services, education - are no longer provided for free by the government. Taking into consideration that many Tanzanians are currently poorer than they were before the economic liberalisation, very few can afford to pay for the social services. Disputes over natural resources are another dimension of the national economic conflict. This is more pronounced in the mining sector. The dispute is between nationals and big foreign investors. It has been prominent in Mererani over rare tanzanite and in Bulyanhulu and Tarime over gold.

Local Conflicts
In the recent past, Tanzania has been experiencing a number of isolated local conflicts. The conflicts have political, economic, religious and socio-cultural dimensions. Politically, the local conflicts are based on disputes over the control and leadership of political parties. Economically, they are disputes over land (farmers vs. pastoralists). Religiously, they are intra-denominational fights either over teachings (Wanamaombi vs. other Catholics) or over offices/areas of jurisdiction (Moslems over control of mosques and Lutherans over dioceses). Socioculturally, there have been leadership crises in big sports clubs particularly those with mass following (Simba and Yanga). All these conflicts, both at the national and local level, are potentially dangerous. If they are not appropriately addressed, they have the potential of undermining Tanzania's peace and political stability. The fundamental question to be addressed is: what should the country do to reverse the trend that threatens our peace and political stability?
Causes of Conflict
Conflicts are caused by a number of factors. In an actual case of conflict, there may be specific causes to them. However, of the number of cases of conflict in Tanzania, the following have been identified as their causes:

Distrust among parties to the conflict
A situation where one lacks confidence and may be suspicious of the other Perception of the leaders.

Stratification
A situation in which there is segmentation in a hierarchical way with those on top looking down upon the others in the hierarchy

Perception of Exclusion
This is a case in which one or a group of people is left out from participation in the affairs of the society or organisation. It is believed that some groups of people such as woman, some religions, or even tribes are not included in decision making process, implementation and even in sharing of the national cake,

Absence of effective mechanism for resolution of disputes
This is a case in which an organisation or society lacks regular and institutionalized procedures for consultations and adjudication of cases.

Misuse of powers
This is a situation in which those in authority apply the rules wrongly or for a wrong purpose. Many of the leaders in Tanzania are not committed to solve peoples problems, they are just there for their own interest and their families.

Lack of Transparency and accountability
Where decisions are made behind closed doors and the responsible officials are not subject to taking responsibility for wrongs arising from it. A good example is the EPA case where some leaders were involved in forging some documents to get money for their benefits.

Inequality based on Gender
This is the exclusion from participation and especially access to resources and benefits on the basis that one is a woman or man. Different studies show that woman have been left behind in terms of education and even good paying jobs.

Differences on the basis of Ethnicity (Tribal, Racial) and/or Social class Based on ones tribal or racial origin and wealth they can wear a sense of superiority over others a situation that is likely to generate misunderstanding and conflict can arise out of such feelings.

Differences on the basis of Religion
Based on ones beliefs they can exclude or wear a sense of superiority over others a situation that is likely to generate misunderstanding and conflict can arise out of such feelings. Besides the above, it has been established that conflict revolves around resources

Scarcity of Resources:Competition over Resources:Unequal access to resources If the resources are not enough to go around different individuals will fight one another(Compete) to gain access to them. Competition is not evil if it follows rules prescribed for it. Competition that generates conflict is that which operates outside the rules, it is not open and excludes others from it.

Approaches to resolve conflicts
International Approach to conflict resolution they operating universally
1. One World Government/State
Theorists look to conflict as a governmental issues and not an in dividual


2. Using the International Law
It is not possible to have one legal system around the world because the context differs, because of culture or interests.

3. Regional International
Different regional international instruments can be used to solve conflicts. For example SADC, EAC, Great Lakes Region, AU, ECOWAS

4. Balance of Power (weapons)
Two conflicts parties must have equal power. Using peace keeping process (force) intervene b y neutral force (which can be formed by military from sure that all parts have equal a runs etc. Volunteers can be sent for discipline keeping (polices).

5. International can be in the following term
(i) Requesting
(ii) They may come:- Security council are allowed to intervene
(iii) They can come by using another part(ies) who are the peace keeper

6. Diplomacy (Third part)
They use of the embassies of the countries which light or can come outside the groups. Kenya – Koffi Annan

(7) Disarmament
Taking away, destroying the weapons groups which are good in peace keeping which come from Humanitarian such as FAO, WHO, NGOs like Red Cross

(8) Local/African Methods/Applications in Conflict Resolution
International Approach are based on the use of force for example armament, use of groups, and no negotiations; they use command. In the African context there are two-Belief that before you intervene you must change the attitudes educating the conflicting parts, change their mind salting and also change their Beliefs and use negotiation (agreement) by making them understand the causes impacts etc. by negotiations the two parties may reconcile. Though the African approaches has been criticized that they are too slow and thus is too much delay and wastage of resources

(9) The use of third parties dialogue. Negotiations can be undersized by using laws so that there will be uniformily in resolving some conflicts.

(10) We can also borrow ideas of/from big philosophers (UTU by Nyerere) the book insisted about African dignity love etc.

(11) Mandela’s Approach – Forgiveness comments. Mandela thought that in order to resolve any conflict more thinking is required. This method is more psychological/spiritual understanding. “Think before do”

If we really need peace in African; we need love, spiritual, humanity and no revenge. These can be “bottom-up” approaches which derive from the involved communities themselves and frequently refer to “traditional mechanisms” to resolve conflicts (Zartman 2000, Cleaver 2001), as well as “top-down” approaches which are applied by a state agency. An example for the second approach provided the clash of two clans of the Wakurya of Tarime District (Mara Region) in the 1980s, when a prominent member of the ruling party was sent there by her party to reconcile the two groups.

In Tanzania, a number of factors have contributed to the absence of internal violent clashes. Historical factors like the absence of strong centralized proto-states in the pre-colonial era (Mpangala 1999) and the changes in the colonial administrative systems (Mpangala 1999, Deutsch 1996) have formed a conducive environment for a distinct policy of nation building which was implemented after the country gained its independence (Hirschler 2002b). The inclusive politics of the former President Nyerere offered all groups in society a place within the political, social and economic framework of the postcolonial state. For examples for this way of handling conflicts are numerous. In 1989 conflicts between farmers and pastoralists in Rundugai (Hai District) caused several deaths. The fighting was stopped by police, and several people were arrested. The Regional Commissioner promised to find a solution which allowed the pastoralists to graze their cattle without devastating the farmers’fields. According to officials from the village, no measures were taken. Consequently, clashes occurred again in 1999. In clashes between farmers and pastoralists in Kilosa District in December 2000, which caused the deaths of 31 people and made more than 400 people flee their homes, the authorities acted in the same way: the police came to stop the fighting, some people were arrested, some officials were transferred and promises were made to find a lasting solution to the conflict. But no further measures were taken (Mtwale 2002).

Although chances were not equally distributed, exclusive politics, which could foster conflicts, were hardly employed by the Governments of that era. In addition, the well-organised one-party-state and the efficient intelligent service enabled the Government to get early notice of arising conflicts and to react accordingly. The state’s response to arising conflicts took different forms, oppressive and conciliatory ones. Also the economic order of that time reduced the gap between the rich and the poor –which nevertheless existed. Social conflicts along socio-economic differences
were unlikely to develop (Kaiser 1996).

Not the least important, the uniting policy of nation-building contributed to the creation of a consensus-oriented political culture that refuses violent measures to carry out conflicts (van Donge/ Liviga 1986, Okema 1996). This political culture has developed within the general population as well as among elites

Although some scholars were worried that the introduction of a competing multi-party-system would bring up political entrepreneurs who would not hesitate to instrumentalize ethnic or religious sentiments to gain support, these cases were rare in Tanzania. The main reason is a widespread conviction that next to policies which helped to reduce prejudices between the different ethnic groups education - if not indoctrination - in the idea of “Unity” was of central significance to this approach (Campbell 1999). With a Rousseauan concept of a unified society with an identifiable general will, Nyerere’s idea of unity saw the pursuance of differing ideas and interests as an attempt to destroy the whole for the sake of a few. Conflict was seen as something negative which would endanger the peaceful harmony in which the interactions between Tanzanians were perceived.

The violent developments in most of Tanzania’s neighbouring countries also fostered the
perception that quarrel and disunity will lead to civil war. Until today Tanzanians have very negative attitudes towards conflict, which is seen only as a force of destruction, not as a potential “engine of progress”that can also lead to further development and of course it needs to be mentioned that the negative attitude towards conflict and dissent was used to justify the ruling party’s exclusive claim to power (Cranenburgh 1990: 89ff, Mmuya 1998).

The severe economic crisis from the late 1970s onwards made reforms inevitable. In 1986 agreements with the IMF and the World Bank were achieved and the transformation of the state-controlled economy into a market economy was started (Rösch 1995, Biermann 1998:175ff, Hofmeier 2002). In 1992, the monopoly of the ruling party CCM was given up. A multi-party system was introduced and the political space was opened up for further democratisation (Hyden 1999, Mmuya 2000, Erdmann 2002).

These two fundamental turns, which were accompanied by several other reforms, meant nothing less than a complete change in the modes of interaction between state and society and within the society: The principles of competition and private activity were introduced into Tanzania’s political and economic systems and replaced those of equality, unity and
centralised control. A local popular uprising of dissatisfied citizens to be an intrigue of ambitious politicians who did not dare to instrumentalize even tribalist sentiments to mobilize the local population for their own interests.

The government employed a deliberate policy of bringing different ethnic groups together in order to reduce prejudices. Some of the pupils of secondary schools were sent to boarding schools in different regions, where they lived and learned together with pupils from all over the country. The national service, where young people from different parts of Tanzania got semi-military(Attended national service-JKT) as well as civilian education and worked in developmental projects, served the same purpose.

The reforms were meant to improve Tanzania’s economic and political situation, and indeed, liberalisation of the economy and the introduction of a market-based system contributed much to the improvement of living conditions. Goods became available –although expensive, and new business opportunities developed. Those who were able to take advantage of the new system – and those who had the necessary contacts! – could improve their situation and achieve considerable wealth. But the majority of the population remained poor (Lugalla 1995). The gap between the rich and the poor increased and private accumulation of wealth became obvious. The relative equality within the population, which was one of the achievements Tanzanians used to be proud of, was perceived to be lost. Competition divided the society into winners and losers. Not that there had never been advantaged anddisadvantaged before, but neither had the gap been so big nor had it been as visible and undisputed as it is now.

It is the “illegitimacy of the existing distributive mechanisms” (Mehler 2002: 38), the inequality of chances, combined with the visibility of wealth and the perception of illegal enrichment that causes tensions. A rapidly growing population of young migrants from the rural areas have shown to be a potential threat to peace in towns, especially in Dar es Salaam. Jobless and uneducated, they come to the towns to make their life there. But they find themselves deprived and without any chance. The public opinion which suspects networks of “the influential”to restrict access to the national wealth and to distribute chances only among their clientele, falls on fertile ground among those who feel themselves denied of their share of the national cake.

The privatisation of education due to the limited financial resources of the government the improvement of the extremely poor educational sector has been put into private hands (Lwaitama/ Mtalo/ Mboma 2001, Mushi 2001). Especially the Christian churches became active and provided a good education. Although these schools are usually open for non-Christians too, the Muslim community mostly depends on the low standard governmental schools. Thus the already existing educational gap between Muslims and Christians is reinforced. This dissimilarity in education is translated into competitive disadvantages of Muslims in their efforts to find a good job. Privatisation of education as privatisation of the health system –has been one of the reforms which were introduced to improve service and to consolidate the state budget.

Economic reform introduced private ownership, competition and exclusion into a society
which was characterised by ideals of state control, unity and inclusion. This did not only lead to those more general and later “culturalised”feelings of injustice and deprivation’
Suspicion and conflicts between Christians and Muslims have a long tradition in Tanzania (Bakari/ Ndumbaro 2001).

Nevertheless, especially in the years of the introduction of the multiparty-system, some politicians, like the infamous Reverend Mtikila, tried to gain some profit through the instrumentalisation of ethnic, racist and religious sentiments. In recent years the debate about indigenisation of the economy (uzawa) was fuelled mainly by Iddi Simba, the former minister of trade and commerce. In a revival of a debate which began in the early nineties, a greater share of the economy for “indigenous”Tanzanians is demanded –which is a clear aggression against foreign companies as well as against Tanzanians of Asian origin, who still control most of the country’s economy.

Nile Perch at Lake Victoria, sisal plantations in Tanga and Kilimanjaro Regions, supermarkets in Dar es Salaam etc. But in all these sectors indigenous business people and small artisans had already been active – less productive, less professional and usually
informal. Most of the small-scale activities were not registered. Usually taxes were not paid and working conditions were poor. The Tanzanian government favoured the larger companies and granted them access to resources which up to then had informally but obviously been controlled by locals (Shivji 1998, Chachage 2001, Kamata 2002). Especially when the new competitors with their huge capital and their superior expertise, technologies and approaches were foreigners, the locals felt deprived of their supposed right to earn their living from what they got out of “their own”land (Kulaba 2002). Mererani in Northern Tanzania is the only place in the world where a certain gemstone, called Tanzanite, is mined. The mining area is occupied by thousands of artisan miners and small companies. In the year 2000 the government gave about one quarter of the area to the South- African mining company Afgem. The largest quantities and the best quality of Tanzanite is assumed to be found in Afgem’s plot. Conflicts escalated, when Afgem insisted in its right to sole access to their area, while the small scale miners went on with their practice to ignore any border and invaded Afgem’s territory underground. A practise which is definitely illegal but widespread and well established, and which had never caused any major troubles. Since the problems started, the conflict left several people dead and injured. In their effort to increase professionalism in the mining sector and to regain control about it, the government ordered to temporarily close some of the small mines in July 2002, after almost 40 miners had died in an accident in the mines. The order was rejected by the miners, and reportedly 4.000 small-scale miners rioted the town in a bid to pressure the government to allow them to resume their mining activities (ippmedia (online) 16.7.2002).

Both examples have at least one thing in common. Reforms which were aimed to improve the economic and social situation changed the existing patterns of interaction and lead to an increase in conflicts. Through the reforms, chances were now made available but access was restricted. Private enterprise and competition were introduced into a society where control and unity had dominated the system. A constituent principle of competition is exclusion. If everybody is in the boat, there will be no competition. Since access to now available but scarce resources was thus restricted by exclusion, fighting for a good position became profitable and necessary, and the proneness to conflicts increased.

Since conflict in Tanzania has never been perceived as a constructive force which is inherent in societal development but as an evil that has to be eliminated, strategies and mechanisms for a peaceful conflict management have hardly been developed. Where “traditional” mechanisms failed, the state tended to react by suppressing the symptoms rather than tackling the underlying causes or installing durable systems of conflict management.

A similar process can be observed in the context of the democratization process. Whereas one would have expected an increase of peace, more conflicts and violent clashes occurred than before the reforms. The opening up of the playing ground to many players has opened up chances for competitors - and on the other hand it has increased risks. An ambitious candidate, loosing elections in the one-party system could have hoped to be included anyway by a presidential appointment to parliament or to another post.

In the Tanzanian multi-party system, where the winner takes it all, loosing an election means exclusion from the even more lucrative distributive system (Kelsall 2002). In addition, winning a seat and hence getting access to the networks became more attractive when the government permitted members of parliament to have their own private businesses. The former ban of having a private enterprise while holding a public office had been introduced by the Nyerere administration (McHenry 1994: 29ff). Although politicians always knew how to circumvent it, this regulation had at least avoided an openly visible enrichment of MPs. And it had contributed to reduce the need to fight intensively for an electoral victory. Consequently the inter- and the intra-party competition for good positions has become much more fierce and unfair since the multi-party system was introduced. Regional blocs and ethno-regional, clientelist networks have emerged as power and resource basis of ambitious politicians (Kelsall 2002). Corruption, vote-buying and rigging have become common features especially of internal party elections, while the inter-party relations are characterised by efforts to get the competitors down rather than by co-existence and co-operation (TEMCO: 2000).

Also in Tanzania politics have become a business and politicians have turned into political entrepreneurs (Mmuya 1998, Kelsall 2002).It seems to be the case that the idea of a constructive role of the opposition has not yet taken roots –neither within the ruling party nor within the opposition parties themselves. Political competition has become a race for individual or group interests, rather than a competition of ideas and policies. Consequently, the opposition’s efforts center on how to win the next general elections and the party in government is focused on reducing the space for its competitors. Demonstrations of opposition parties are usually prohibited – because of “security concerns”–and when they take place nevertheless, they are dispersed violently and the party leaders are prosecuted.

The Tanzanian Labour Party (TLP) has frequently experienced this repression. Its party leader Augustine Mrema, once the most threatening challenger to President Mkapa, has been beaten, arrested, sentenced and released several times. The party’s offices have been searched and devastated by security forces; TLP-demonstrations have been declared illegal and violent dispersal has led to numerous injured demonstrators.

The same response was taken by the government when the Zanzibar-based Civic United Front (CUF) became the strongest opposition party –after TLP had been successfully weakened. After the general elections of October 2000, CUF refused to accept the results in Zanzibar, which, in their opinion, had been rigged. CUF demanded a re-run of the elections, while the CCM government rejected this resolutely. The conflict escalated in January 2001, when CUF held demonstrations, which were suppressed with an unprecedented display of violence. Between 30 and 40 people were killed by security forces. It was the first time in Tanzania’s history that a political conflict had demanded so many lives.

But after a short period of intensification of the conflict, a process of reconciliation between the two parties began which resulted in an agreement in October 2001. During the six months of negotiations, which were conducted by small teams in complete secrecy, a process of confidence-building between the leaders of the two parties developed. It enabled them to sign an accord which did not only agree upon a “cease-fire”but also worked out an elaborated plan to eliminate the causes of the conflict (Hirschler 2002a)

Phase one of the agreement Unfortunately Mwafaka one (I) did not work or help Mwafaka II Indicators were almost the same Mwafaka II came again with new style with foreign observers For example American, German embassy was among the four fronts to observe the Mwafaka process.

Mwafaka II come up with some agreement and recommendations but there was no in implementation. Mwafaka III will come out soon.

Despite some minor problems, some sections of the agreement are now being implemented step by step. In May 2003, by-elections were held in Pemba, the island where the killings of 2001 took place (Burkey 2003). The elections were well-organised and conducted in a peaceful atmosphere. Both political parties accepted the results. This agreement shows two interesting aspects. Firstly, measures were agreed upon which removed some obstacles to a further deepening of the democratisation process in Zanzibar, the introduction of an independent Electoral Commission, a permanent voter’s register and

Referring to Galtung’s three components of conflict (interests, attitudes, behaviour) Kotzé suggests three elements of a successful conflict resolution: a cease-fire (behaviour), confidence-building (attitudes) and structural changes (interests). All three elements were tackled by the CCM-CUF negotiation team.

Many Tanzanians are shocked by the recent increase of conflicts and violence in their
country. And many see Tanzania on the road to civil war. But compared to the majority of countries in the South, Tanzania is still a very peaceful place. And surely, the foundations which have been laid in the era of Nyerere are still effective and will not be destroyed easily. Nevertheless, potentials for conflicts increased with the complete change of Tanzania’s economic and political orders. Conflicts are an integral part of societal interaction and the more dynamically societies change, the more conflicts between different interests, identities, opinions and demands are likely to occur.

The recent Zanzibar conflict has helped to experience a model of peaceful conflict management. In addition, it resulted in a push towards advancing the democratisation process. An achievement which would not have been attained without this confrontation.
Tanzania needs to accept conflicts as a normal aspect of human interaction. And Tanzanians will have to develop durable mechanisms of peaceful conflict management, which are not there at the moment (Heilmann 2001). Values that reject violent responses to conflicts can help a lot. But if peaceful mechanisms to manage arising conflicts are not developed and institutionalised, and if the underlying causes of conflicts are not tackled, an increase in conflicts and violent responses will be unavoidable –even in the oasis of peace and stability.

PERSONAL PERSPECTIVES
The Government of Tanzania should establish a strong tool to resolve disputes. Good governance should be practiced and people must be given right to express themselves. The human rights should be put into consideration if or when there is decision to made. Leaders have to make decision for the benefits of the nation and not for personal achievements. Issues such as Richmond contracts and BOT may become sources of conflicts if they are not well handled.







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Yahya-Othman, Saida (2001), Part Six: Religion and the Provision of Education and












SOUTHERN NEW HAMPSHIRE UNIVERSITY

AND

OPEN UNIVERSITY


NAME: MKWAZU CHANGWA M.

SUBJECT: DEVELOPMENT AS A TOOL FOR CONFLICT RESOLUTION

CODE: ICD 721

INSTRUCTOR: Dr. SINDA

CLASS: II

CENTRE: DAR ES SALAAM

TOPIC: IMPACTS OF CONFLITS IN TANZANIA


Individual assignment

ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION

INTRODUCTION
It have been noticed that there are different activities which lead to change in the environment. This paper is going to discuss about how environment degradation in both developing and developed world has been attributed by increase human activities in pursuit of economic growth. The paper will consist four main parts; the theoretical review part which include definition an explanations. The second part is the policy review part, under this part different policies in environment will be discussed. Then it will be followed by the empirical part, this part will show the real situation in Tanzania how big is the problem and what has been done to protect the environment. The conclusion part is the last and will include suggestion.
THORETICAL REVIEW
Definition of environment
Environment does not only refer to Biological or physical artifacts of a society but instead it encompasses also economic, political, social cultural factors which when put together with the physical and biological factors form the ecosystem of the nations production, exchange, and consumption processes(Shao et al 1992).
Environment has been defined as totality of surrounding conditions; he longed for the comfortable environment of his living room. It is the area in which something exists or lives; the country-the flat agricultural surround”. wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
It is also defined as the sum all external influences and conditions affecting the life and development of an organism or ecological community. Sfep.abag.ca.gov/reports/soe/soegloss.htm
The existing conditions in the surrounding that results from a combination of climate, soil, topography, and other plants and animals. An organism’s environment influences its form and survival. www.calforests.org/glossary.html
The National Environmental Action Plan (1994) and The National Environmental Policy (1997) identify land degradation, lack of access to good water, pollution, loss of wildlife habitats and biodiversity, the deterioration of aquatic systems and deforestation as factors associated with the current environmental problems. Activities such as deforestation and extensive agricultural practices reduce the vegetal capital stock, the water retention capacity of land and increase erosion. Protected areas have recently been encroached upon for farming and settlement. Overgrazing, ground fires and felling of trees for energy, construction etc, reducing the regeneration of plants and animals. It is estimated that over 60 percent of the total and area may be classified as dry lands, much of it threatened by desertification. Deforestation is estimated to expand rapidly at around 3,000,000-400,000 hectares per annum.
The environment is defined broadly under the State Environmental Quality Review Act to include the physical conditions that will be affected by a proposed action, including land, air, water, minerals, flora, fauna, and noise, resources of agricultural, archeological, historic or aesthetic. www.nymir.org/zoning/Glossary.html
Efforts to curb environmental degradation have been stepped up in recent years because of the generally fast deterioration of the environment at large. This is mostly due to the human activities, which are surpassing their bounds day and night. It must be pointed out however that, because of the fast growing exploitation of the environment, man has been forced to revisit his activities, albeit the need for natural resources is practically on a daily upsurge. And by revisiting we actually mean trying to strike a balance between man’s daily needs from nature and the degradation of the environment so as not to deny the coming generations their right to nature.
The danger lingering over our heads is that of finding an inhabitable world as a result of uncalculated exploitation of the environment. Since the days of Charles Darwin, man has seen this danger. It is because of this fact that we are today forced to wage campaigns for the preservation of nature and rational exploitation of the environment. This is actually a call to mankind to maintain ecological harmony as a precondition for life on earth.
Heads of states and government who met in Johannesburg stated that “the global environment continues to suffer from the loss of biodiversity depletion of fish stocks, advancing desertification, worsening climate change, more frequent and devastating natural disasters and increasingly vulnerable developing countries. They added that “We risk the entrenchment of these global disparities and unless we act in a manner that fundamentally changes their lives, the poor of the world may lose confidence in their representatives and the democratic systems to which we remain committed, seeing their representative as nothing more than sounding brass or tinkling cymbals (World Summit;2002).
Other provision address a comprehensive range of environmental and developmental issues, such as climate change, energy, agriculture, trade, African development, and small Island states. The implementation Plan calls for a substantial increase in use of renewable sources of energy with a sense of urgency, although it sets no specific targets; implementation of a new global system for classification and labeling of chemicals, restoration of depleted fish stocks. Further it urges that states have not yet ratify “in a timely manner” the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate change.
Prominent in the implementation plan are ocean and coastal management and preservation issues. “Oceans, Seas, islands and coastal areas form an integrated and essential component of the earth’s ecosystem and are critical for global good security and well-being of many economies”, the document states. In particular, it encourages the application, by 2010, of an ecosystem approach to sustainable development of oceans, which also requires effective coordination and cooperation on global and regional levels.

To achieve sustainable fisheries, the implementation plan proposes to maintain or restore depleted fish stocks to levels that can produce the maximum sustainable yield on an urgent basis, and where possible not later than 2015. urging development and implementation of national and regional plans of action, the document envision implementation of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) international plan of action on managing fishing capacity by 2005 and the international plan of action to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal and unregulated fishing by 2004(world summit;2002).

Recalling the Millennium Declaration, in which heads of State and government resolved to make every effort to ensure the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and embark on the required reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases, the Summit plan of action strongly urges States that have not already done so to ratify the Protocol “In a timely manner”.

On the subject of climate change, the document (implementation plan) proposes, among others, to promote systematic observation of the earth’s atmosphere’ support the initiative to assess the consequences of climate change on the Artic and the Antarctic; enhance cooperation to reduce air pollution; support the effective regime for the protection of the ozone layer; improve access by developing countries to affordable, accessible, cost-effective and safe alternatives to ozone-depleting substances by 2010, and address illegal traffic in such substances(world summit).

Promoting sustainable agriculture, the Implementation Plan encourages development of integrated land-and water-management plans; adoption of sustainable programs to enhance productivity and combat land degradation; exchange of good practices; adoption of well-defined and enforceable land-and water-use laws; use of market-based incentives for agricultural enterprises and farmers; and redevelopment of contaminated land, as well as conservation and sustainable use of traditional and indigenous agricultural systems.

The plan sets a target of 2010 to halt the loss of biodiversity. Stating that “biodiversity is currently being lost at unprecedented rates due to human activities”, the document urges a more efficient and coherent implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Requiring new and additional financing and technical resources to developing countries, that goal is to be achieved through national, regional and international efforts to effectively conserve and use biodiversity in a sustainable manner, support initiatives for “hot-spot” areas and introduction of ecological networks and corridors. The document also invites action to control invasive alien species; recognize the role of local and indigenous communities as holders of traditional knowledge and practices; and negotiate an international regime to promote a fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources (world summit;2002).
Environmental degradation or rather ecological disharmony has become such a serious problem that it is no longer possible to expect positive results without the participation of society as a whole. For any quantifiable results to be registered in the struggle to curb or rather reverse the situation, it should be borne in mind that no government in isolation, however rich and powerful it might be, can succeed without involving the whole of society from the grass-roots up. Governments and experts can help in systemizing the reversal process but community participation is probably the only way to see to it that friendship between man and the environment is maintained.
It is not surprising therefore that what we have now been witnessing practically all along the coastline is ecological disharmony. On the one hand this disharmony can be attributed to a drastic change in climatic conditions (quite natural and probably beyond man’s control), but on the other hand we are also witnessing serious environmental degradation due to mankind’s unreasonable exploitation of nature along the coastline. Coastal erosion, extinction of rare but ecologically very important natural vegetation and pollution of the coastline and subsequently of the sea are but a few of the after-effects of man’s unfriendly relationship with the environment. The overall result is nothing less than desertification of the coast lines.
Human activities also adversely affect coastal areas due to over-exploitation of living resources, especially fish, and coastal development, for the construction of tourist hotels without taking into consideration ecosystem services. These give short-term economic gains, which often times do not take into consideration long-term effects on the environment. In other words most of our projects along the coastline are executed without a proper cost-benefit analysis on the side of the environment in the long run.

POLICY REVIEW
Environmental Policy
The overall objectives of the National Environmental Policy are the following:
(a) To ensure sustainability, security and equitable use of resources for meeting the basic need of the present and future generations without degrading the environment or risking health or safety;
(b) To prevent and control degradation of land, water, vegetation, and air which constitute our life support systems;
(c) To conserve and enhance our natural and man-made heritage, including the biological diversity of the unique ecosystems of Tanzania.
(d) To improve the condition and productivity degraded areas including rural and urban settlements in order that all Tanzania may live in safe, healthful, productive and aesthetically pleasing surroundings;
(e) To raise public awareness and understanding of the essential linkages between environment and development, and to promote individual and community participation in the environmental action;
(f) To promote international cooperation on the environment agenda, and expand our participation and contribution to relevant bilateral, sub-regional, and global organizations and programs, including implementation of treaties.
National Environmental Policy 1997, particularly stressed on the need for formulating environmental legislation and sectoral legislation as an essential component for effective and comprehensive environmental management and improvement of life. Meaningful and effective environmental law must be clearly understood and treasured by the communities and individuals whom it is aimed. The legislation will set out standards and procedures, duties and limits, create obligations for all stakeholders, which will fit human activities and govern resources sustainably. The government is on process of preparing such law.
A number of sectoral-related environmental legislation have been formulated or reviewed. Examples: Forestry, Wildlife, Fisheries, Mining, Energy, Water, Lands, Local Authorities and Urban Authorities.
The government is signatory and has acceded to a number of International/ Regional environmental treaties as follows:
· Convention on Biological Diversity ratified on 8 March, 1996;
· Convention for the Protection, Management and Development of the Marine and Coastal Environment of the Eastern African Region and Related Protocols ratified on 1 March, 1996;
· United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification ratified April, 1997;
· United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ratified in April, 1996;
· The Vienna Convention on the Protection of Ozone Layer and Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer acceded on 7 April, 1993 and 16 April, 1993 respectively;
· Basely Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal acceded on 7 April, 1993, and,
· Bamako Convention on Ban of the Import into Africa and the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes within Africa ratified on 7 April 1993.
Division of Environment:
The Division of Environment has the following overall functions:-
· Formulation of policy on Environment
· Co-ordination and Monitoring of Environmental issues
· Environmental Planning
· Policy-oriented
· Environmental Research
Division's strategies and plans are:
· National Environmental Action Plan, 1994
· National Plan for Agenda 21, 1993
· National Action Programme to Combat Desertification, 1999
· National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, 2000
· Coastal Biodiversity Conservation Strategy, 1995
· Country Programme to phase out ozone depleting substances, 1996
· National Action Plan on Climate Change, 1997

EMPIRICAL ISSUES
ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION IN TANZANIA
There has been growing c0ncern over the environmental crisis taking place the world over but particulary so in Africa and recently in Tanzania. In the 70s desertification and its resultant impact were taken for granted in that it mainly a problem for dry zone (Nkomoki 1997; 37). Today the problem has grown beyond the dry zones and as Msambichaka (1994:7) puts it, in the case of Tanzania, it has transcended the dry zones of central Tanzania. He continued to say that 45%of the Tanzanian land suffers desertification problem while 35% under desertification threat. Talking about the crisis of environment in Tanzania, Misana and Nyaki (1993:5) have estimated that the land that is currently degraded stand at between 33 and 45% of the total land area. These areas include Shinyanga, Dodoma, Singida and Kondoa (semi arid eco zones) where the ecosystem is very fragile. The degradation of the environment has also affected other areas and these include Kilimanjaro, Arusha, Mbeya, Uluguru Mountains (land slides and mud flows) and Makonde escarpment (soil erosion).

Causes of the environmental degradation
When looks at environmental crisis from the point of view in the form of deforestation, desertification and soil erosion, one discovers that it has been caused by among other factors the increasing pressure on land by expanding human and livestock population, overgrazing, over cultivation and bushfires. It is estimated that 300-400 million hectares are cleared annually for agriculture purposes and that forests and woodlands have declined from 4.4 million hectares to 3.8 million hectares from 1983 to 1987 (Shechambo and Kulindwa1994).

Various policies adopted by the government before and after independence have been the causes of the environmental destruction in Tanzania. These policies which included human settlement, export crop promotion etc. have fuelled the already growing problem of environmental destruction (Shao: 1997:24).

The indiscriminate policy of redistributing or resettling people over land particularly between 1969 and 1975/76 during the period of villagelisation resulted in massive destruction of forests just to give way to areas where people could be settled not only did this bring about desertification in some of the areas in Tanzania but also that the rural habitat and resources base upon which productivity is dependant got undermined.

Studies which have been done in Ulyankulu forest reserves in Urambo district Tabora region and Katumba and Mishamo refugee settlements in Mpanda which have been responsible for the disappearance of 750km sq. and 4620kmsqof natural forests respectively(Semakafu: 1990). Other places where thousands of km sq. Of forests were cleared to give way to refugee settlements, these included Likuyu and Namabaga and Mazimbu and Dakawa which gave way to Mozambican refugees.

Some of the cash crops in Tanzania like cotton, tobacco and tea have involved the clearance of large areas of land and vegetation to the extent that we see a contradiction between the urge and demand for foreign exchange for the country and raw materials for capital on the one hand and environmental destruction on the other.

Statistics are abound which have indicated that there has been a fast decrease of forests in lieu of the need for fuel wood. The demand for fuel wood is high in the areas of domestic use(household), crop processing(tobacco curing, tea dying), brick making, baking local beer brewing, charcoal burning and fish processing.

The commercialization of timber and the government liberalization export of timber particularly the business of logs internally and externally. This activity is done by agents from both outside and within the country. While there are those who have government licenses to harvest the forests, there has arisen a “mafia” unlicensed group of people depleting the forests.

The negative environmental affects that arise from unsuitable methods of mining and quarrying include land degradation, river diversion, disturbance to wildlife and vegetation and air water pollution. In gold mining areas water pollution is aggravated by the use of mercury by artisans and small miners. On the other hand, bad fishing practices (use of dynamite, chemical poisons, small nets) destroy the aquatic life cycle and fish stock.

In urban areas, environmental problems are serious in the unplanned, usually congested settlements. There is lack of waste separation between hazards and non-hazardous, industrial, domestic and hospital waste and poor management of landfills. Industrial effluent, noxious gases, vehicular exhausts pollute water (lakes, rivers and ocean) and air mainly in major urban centers like Dar es Salaam, Mwanza, Morogoro, Arusha, Tanga and Mbeya (Environmental policy).
Also environmental degradation in coastal areas is a serious problem, which has escalated in the last 10 years, such that it has now given rise to serious concern. Tanzania’s coastline stretches 800 km along the Indian Ocean, which like other developing countries is experiencing rapid change. The following examples show the dimension of the problem:
Dar es Salaam used to have very clean and attractive beaches as well as commendable tourist beach hotels. But some, if not most of them, are now in danger of falling down because of coastline erosion.
Waves reach the beaches at a terrific speed and as a result erosion is inevitable. This has become possible because of, among other reasons, dynamite fishing, which has destroyed the coral reefs which used to buffer the hotels. Thus, dynamite fishing has not only destroyed life in the sea, but has given the sea a free ticket to destroy the beaches.
The Hotel Africana was swallowed by the waters a few years ago, others which might also face extinction in the coming few years include Bahari Beach Hotel, Kunduchi Beach Hotel, Silver Sands Hotel and White Sands Hotel, which was built just a few years back.
In efforts to fight erosion, hotel owners have constructed stone and concrete barriers on beaches, but such measures have not stopped the erosion. Apart from that, the construction of these structures has made these beaches ugly and unsuitable for beach-goers including tourists. So it is just a matter of years before these hotels will be rendered useless like their predecessor, Hotel Africana.
Another beach hotel has just been stopped in its tracks. This one was being constructed along the Oyster bay. The point about this project is that the hotel, being built by a big businessman in Dar es Salaam is within 60 metres of the shore. This is contrary to the law on such projects. The law says that a hotel should be built at a distance of more than 60 meters from the shore. This project was approved during the former President Ali Hassan Mwinyi’s tenure in office. This raised a lot of eyebrows in the country. The speed at which it was being built also raised a lot of questions.
However, during the campaigns for the general election in 1995, one of the presidential candidates promised to deal with the issue as one of his priorities, if he won. Well, he won and a few months later he said the project owner followed the right procedures to acquire the plot so he did not see the logic in stopping the project. However, a presidential commission on corruption maintained that the plot might have been allocated through corrupt means. This was partly because the law was in force when the allocation was made after it was turned down several times before.
The project owners, Indian Ocean Hotels Ltd., stopped constructing the hotel more than a year ago. There are reports that the government has ordered the demolition of the hotel and offered to compensate the developers for the costs incurred so far. It is said that the owners were issued with a permanent restraining order by the City Commission two years ago and consequently suspended work.
The end results are rapid depletion of the resources and people’s livelihoods, health hazards and intensification of poverty. While it is important to address each of these problems separately, comprehensive solutions call for mutually reinforcing interventions.

It is estimated that O.5 million hectares of forests is cleared annually, resulting in desertification, rapid rural-urban migration and rampart existence of famine. Although more than 80% of Tanzanians are farmers; there was a shortage of 661,000 tons of food in year 2001/2002 due to poor rainfall in 1999/2000 and poor agricultural practice overgrazing (Kusila, June 2000). There is very poor local community participation in identifying environmental problems and how could be handled as in case of illegalization policy (kikula, 1995). Even if the majority of Tanzania knows about environmental degradation and its impacts in terms of shortage of rainfall, and infertile land, there is great lack of extension services to empower them to utilize their available resources sustainability. Out of 83,000 rural villages, about 25% of them have extension officers (MOA, 1991) who do not seem to deliver effectively what the society expects from them.

Major Environmental Problems in Tanzania
Land Degradation
Human impacts on deforestation, soil erosion, overgrazing, and degradation of water resources and loss of biodiversity have all resulted into land degradation. Poor agricultural practices such as shifting cultivation, lack of crop rotation practices, lack of agricultural technology and land husband techniques exacerbate the problem.

Liviga (1999), contends that the effects of ever stocking, which are localized, give rise to serious degradation in places such as Shunyanga and Mbulu where livestock units have exceeded the carrying capacity. This situation is seen as a good indicator of each of capacity for the decentralized institution at the local level to enforce laws and instruments which are meant to ensure sound environmental management.

Pollution management and urbanization
Pollution is a major problem in urban areas of Tanzania. Improper treatment and disposal of solid and liquid wastes are the major contributors to urban area pollution. The combined results of these problems are that both air and water have been contaminated with pollutants, which are detrimental to human health. In Dar es Salaam, for example, less than 5% of the population is connected to a sewage system. Where a sewage system exists, raw sewage is discharged directly into the Indian Ocean without prior treatment. Thus a workable water supply and sewage treatment is needed for the urban areas.

Agricultural and range Land Resources Management.
Agriculture and rangeland resources are the backbone of Tanzania’s economy. It is estimated that about 55% of the land could be used for agriculture and over 51% for pastoral lands. However, only about six percent of the agricultural and is cultivated with the practice of shifting cultivation which caused deforestation and land degradation on the pastoral land. Lake Manyara basin, Geita Gold Mines, Usangu Wetlands and Ngorongoro Conservation areas have been affected the most by inadequate control and land management.

The main cause for these problems is due to lack of proper instruments of enforcement of the existing legislation, policy and by-laws by local authorities. Again where the mandates of central and local institutions on environmental management are weak, conflicting and confusing; enforcement of laws and implementations plans becomes difficult if not impossible.

Management of forest resources
Forest resources provide both direct products and by-products. The forest reserves are also linked with agriculture, beekeeping energy, water uses and biodiversity. It is estimated that fuel wood and agricultural residues account for 92% of the total energy consumption in the country. As a result, the mismanagement of fuel resources, timber business, charcoal and logging significantly contributes to deforestation and environmental degradation.

Management of Wildlife Resources
Tanzania is one of the few countries with vast number of wildlife resources. For example, Tanzania’s, “protected areas” cover about 25% of the total land (Nshala: 1999). The protected land is comprises of national parks, game reserves, game controlled areas and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.

Unfortunately, communities living around these protected areas do not benefit from the wildlife industry. They live in uncertain conditions visited by persistent attacks by the wild animals and destruction of their crops. This has resulted in an antagonistic relationship between the wildlife authorities and the local populace. Local communities resort to activities like poaching to gain access to and benefits from the wildlife management.

Management of mineral resources
With respect to mineral resources, a Joint Appraisal Mission Report (1999) noted conflicting authorities on matters regarding mineral prospecting and mining. Additionally, local authorities have a minimal role in the mineral resource management process, despite the fact that mineral depletion is occurring in the local communities’ area. Any attempts made by local authorities to make by-laws imposing mineral levy such kind of by-laws have been met with an “outcry of double taxation” by mineral concessionaires against both the central government and the local authorities.

The Tanzanian economy depends upon mineral resources for a major source of its revenues. However, mineral exploitation is often done without regard to environmental and social impacts. Thus the Mining Act of 1998 addressed this problem and required mining companies to conduct environmental impact assessments. Mining activities are major cause of environmental degradation by deforestation, destruction of habitat, loss of biodiversity and general damage to the land.


Impact of soil degradation
In the process of discussing the impact we should like to revisit what we said at the beginning of this chapter which is that we cannot discuss the environmental crisis in abstract that is outside the rubric of the national development processes. In this context we would like to argue the present environmental turmoil has a lot to do with the fragility of Tanzania agricultural economy the basis of which is very externally dependent. The nature of the environment is very much linked to this kind of economy. The structuring restructuring of the external forces normally have a direct influence on the national economy just as much as is also true of the vice versa(Mbilinyi,1994).

Due to depletion of the vegetation cover, soil erosion is a most common feature, and with it goes the soil fertility. Degradation of the land through erosion first reduces the activities of people on land due to formation of gullies and wastelands. Secondly agricultural productivity is highly affected and for that, peasants are forced to intensify their labour through expansion of their fields while the production keeps on dwindling due to infertility of the soil. Due to this very reason the economy of the country which depends largely on exportation of agricultural products greatly affected. The low output is also caused by the fact that deforestation and desertification results in lack of rains and reduction of water in the soil due to a fall in the water table and ever the rising evaporation.

Individual Tanzanian suffer from environmental destruction due to increased workload, women in particular have to use minimum of seven hours a day to go in search of firewood. Some say that population pressure as the cause of fire wood scarcity, the truth still remains that intensive and extensive cutting of trees have contributed greatly.

Environmental destruction has also greatly affected climatic condition in Tanzania. Tropical climate used to dominate is being replaced by semi-desert climate, therefore water sources are drying and, water tables are falling. In some places like Shinyanga all the rivers have dried up. Region patterns and amount have been altered greatly that is why year after year flood events hit different parts of the country and thus makes it difficult to predict and manage them.

Drying and destruction of water sources has resulted into increasing hardships to the people in the affected areas. The hardships which are a result of shortage of water supply are first increasing workload through waling distances to water sources. This being woman’s work the whole production capacity of women suffers through fetching water.

Due to water scarcity there is a problem of hygiene which affects people’s health. People and livestock tend to scramble for water in the few available sources and thus water borne diseases like amoeba, bilharzias, typhoid, diahhorea and other stomach ailment are a result. Water scarcity also contributes to poor health due to the changing cooking, washing and eating habits. People are forced to eat once a day in an attempt to economies on water and firewood which are increasingly becoming scarce. As a result malnutrition among children and women is very high and so is high death rate for children particularly those under five (Shao; 1994).

When water is polluted, plants take in poisonous substances from water it results for stunted growth, poor crop yield and death of plants; Acid rain corrodes buildings; the habitat of aquatic animals and plants is destroyed when water is polluted. Also water pollution leads to the spread of waterborne diseases such as cholera and typhoid and the soil looses its fertility and causes plants roots to die.

Therefore environmental destruction brings about a circle of poverty whereby poverty forced people to exploit the environment which in turn affected the climate and lower production while at the same time increasing workload. The society becomes sickly and weak, it fails to produce and hence it is stuck in the quagmire of poverty.

That is why communication and education are important in this respect in helping to raise the awareness of the people and make them understand the issues and problems involved. Education and communication are also important in efforts to develop the knowledge, attitudes and skills required for participation in sustainable development of coastal regions. In other words, people should be enabled to make decisions. They should be helped to do so only after proper cost-benefit analysis as regards the pluses and minuses of the pending activity. As a rule people tend to look at immediate economic gains (most of which are short-term); they should be armed with tools to enable them to look critically at the environment and forecast the effects of a project, adverse or otherwise, before implementation.
In that respect, information, through education in all its forms, is informal and formal and at all levels is one of the basic prerequisites for achieving the needed levels of consciousness to help people in decision making. It is imperative to point out here that the intention is not to create a bank-client relationship but to create a thinking person, one of dialogue, of communication. That is why this information has to be communicated by all means, for example, inter-personal discussions, theatre, newspapers, radio and television, but the bottom line should be to arm the consumer with tools of analysis to help him/her in the cost-benefit analysis whenever and wherever the question of environmental exploitation arises.
Importance of environment in economy of Tanzania
Importance of Environment in the economy of Tanzania is of four folds: it provides the basic resources for virtually all socio-economic activity in the country, it holds natural habitats, plants and animals that are art of an irreplaceable global heritage, waste receptacle and a foundation for eventual alleviation of abject poverty. It follows therefore that the major thrust of environmental management is protection of the natural living space of humankind and integration of environmental scarcity in making decision on all economic issues and activities.

The government of Tanzania realised the danger facing such resources including clean air, fossil fuels, whales, hardwoods and endangered species by taking appropriate measures ranging from policy, legal framework and institutional arrangement which are conforming to socio-political and economic system.
The government in collaboration with various stakeholders has put emphasis on promoting, strengthening and sensitising communities and individuals participation as a strategy to invigorate environmental conservation and management. Together with these there were awareness campaign, environmental education and skills development which complemented on various issues of environmental conservation and management. Emphasise for the environmental conservation and management is to raise the capacity and ability of the communities and individuals in sustainable management for own benefits and for the future generation. It is vividly that the efforts have raised the public awareness, interests and actions as more than 159 Community Based Organisations (CBO) and non-Governmental Organisations (NGOS) has been formed as well as private sector and individuals joining the process. Furthermore, the government and other collaborating institutions and agencies such as CBOs / NGOs are implementing various programmes both in rural and urban areas. The media institutions (radio, TV, press, newspapers) has played a significant role in sensitising and undertaking various education programmes on environmental issues thereby cultivating public / private interest, commitment and awareness on environmental management and conservation aspects.
The government adopted sector policies related with forest; mineral, wildlife; fisheries; agriculture and livestock and land which put priority on conservation and management of resources and environment, raising public awareness and understanding of the linkages between environment and livelihood, and promoting international co-operation on environmental agenda. Current intervention are directed in implementing the National Action Programme to Combat Desertification, Biodiversity Conservation, environmental friendly production practice sand abatement of pollution and strengthening both human resources and institution.
It is clear that current global, regional and national environmental conservation and management are aiming towards overcoming poverty-related problems, diseases, food insecurity and insufficiency, filth shelter, unsafe water, inadequate energy supply and unemployment.
Growing awareness of the general public and individuals advantages of sound environmental conservation and management forms the basis for sustaining the resources and environment. This goes together with implementation of sound strategies on poverty eradication as poverty is highly tied with unsustainable resources utilisation and environmental degradation and promotes joint gender efforts. Furthermore, the government has committed itself in environment conservation and management and poverty eradication with full support of individuals, CBO, NGOs and Donor Agencies.
Public and Private Sector's Role
It is widely accepted that environmental management is everybody’s responsibility. The roles of the government institutions are to assist local communities to become aware of their own situation and support them to become responsible for their own destiny. Important is policy formulation, setting regulatory and institutional framework and promotion of education programmes. Furthermore, the government will be responsible with timely provision, updating generation and dissemination of accurate information related with environmental management.
As stated in the National environmental Policy 1997 and concretised by Development Vision 2025 the local communities as well as business entities has the responsibilities of planning, implementing programmes / projects that are reflecting their needs and foster efficiency in resource utilisation including reuse, recycling and reduction of waste. In addition the private sector has the role of participating in different forum including policy and legal formulation process related with environmental management.
Donor Community:
Environmental management has received attention from many donor agencies than any sector in Tanzania due to its importance to the rest of the economy. Donor agencies contributing financial and technical resources are: DFID; ICUN, GEF; WWF; FAO; WB; USAID; UNDP; UNEP, CARE, as well as Governments of Finland, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden.
Priorities for Actions:
High priority has been put on designing and implementing environment policies aimed at both conservation and management of the resources and environment, raising public awareness and understanding of the linkages between environment and their livelihoods, and promoting international co-operation on the environment agenda.

The Government has adopted the forest policy, mineral sector policy, wildlife policy, fisheries policy and land policy. Priority interventions will be directed at implementing the National Action Programme to Combat Desertification, Biodiversity Conservation; cleaner production in industries and abatement of pollution; and human resources and institutional strengthening. The key actions will include.

Strategies that empower local communities, the civil society at large and the private sector to participate effectively in environmental conservation activities, public awareness on sustainable use of the natural resources through education and public media, energy efficiency programmes and development of alternative energy sources, environmentally sound practices for small-scale mining and fishing activities, cleaner production for industries through incentive mechanisms and economic instruments promoting re-use and recycling of waste, promoting of pollution, desertification and drought, development of standards and indicators for environmental management and data base, promoting of traditional biodiversity conservation practices, formulation and implementation of integrated coastal zone management programmes, Implementation of relevant aspects of international treaties on the environment

PERSONAL PERSPECTIVES AND CONCLUSION
We have seen different efforts done by the Government at least to reduce the problem, but more plans and strategy to deal with the problem. The following points have also to be put into consideration in order to help efforts of the Government give good results:
Good policies on environment protection have to be established.
The natural resources taken should be in some way benefit all community for example those who cut trees in the Southern part of Tanzania for logs and timber should have done something bigger for the whole community not building houses for village leaders only.
Good governance should be practiced, for example, The big tons of logs which are transferred to other countries and the government gets a small percent and sometime got nothing because of some readers involving themselves in different kind of corruption, like embezzlement, fraud and soon.
The decision made must involve those who will be affected by the action.
Forecasting on what will be the effects of the project in the future, and sometime find protective measures. For example if they agree that a company which cuts trees in a certain area, should be told to plant other trees or provide means for the community to do so on their behalf.
Training, projects, seminars should be conducted to make people aware of the importance of environment in their life.























REFFERENCES

1 Africanconservation.org, Joint Environment and Development Management Action
(JEMA)
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Kikula I and Mwalyosi R.B.B(1994); Environmental management in Tanzania.
Makaranga Revocatus, Sustainable Coastal Development; Communication and Education Issues in Tanzania; Mtanzania News Paper Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Misana S and Nyaki (1993), Population and Deforestation in Tanzania in Population, environment and development in Tanzania Demographic unit, University of Dar es salaam, United Nation Department of Economic and social Development.
Msambichaka L.A(1994); Environmental problem and Public Health Hazards in Tanzania under SAP’s; Paper presented at a workshop on National Policy Structural Adjustment and Environment in Dar es salaam, Tanzania
Nkonoki S. R (1991); The ecology; Strategy for Environment.
Patel S, Pinckey T and Jaegar W (1994), small holder wood production and population pressure in East Africa.
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World summit on Sustainable Development Report (2002), Johanesburg, South Africa.
Tanzania Development Partners Groups (DPG) Discussion Paper – Forests.