Politics in Land And Water Management

A study by Fred Simon Lerise tracing land-use intensification processes in a village on the slopes of Kilimanjaro over three decades. Tanzania is famous for its post-independence efforts at rural development, as one of the few African countries that nationalised and centralised access to and use of land, water, and other natural resources. The policies were broadly unsuccessful: land-use intensification remains low, there is little equity in access to land, disputes over property rights are increasing, and environmental degradation is ever-pressing. Smallholder agriculture is responsible for some 50 per cent of Tanzania’s GDP, and improving rural productivity remains central to national development. Lerise analyses decision-making and interactions between local institutions, donor agencies, and central government, considering laws and procedures on the ground and highlighting how practices were inevitably at variance with theories. Lerise is Senior Lecturer in Urban and Rural Planning at the University College of Lands and Architectural Studies, Dar es Salaam.