Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Selous Game Reserve was created in order to prevent people from moving
back into the tsetse-infested area (Matzke, 1976). The creation of the game
reserve also meant that the land was now in the control of the state rather
than outside it. Only later did the remit of the reserve change to include
conservation aims.
Even with independence the process of social control over rural commu-
nities has continued, with its resultant impact on the environment. Ujamaa
villages created by the process of villagization were originally conceived as
cooperative villages where people would work together to increase agri-
cultural production (Hyden, 1975; McHenry, 1979; Kikula, 1997). These
villages would also facilitate the delivery of social and agricultural services
to often remote and dispersed communities. However, the independent
government, along with the colonial governments who preceded it, failed
to recognize the inl uence of ecology on patterns of settlement. Variable
rainfall, soils, wildlife and disease all determined settlement patterns,
livelihood choices and population distributions. In particular, rainfall
distribution meant that 60 per cent of the population lived in 20 per cent
of the land area of Tanzania (Maro and Mlay, 1978). Villagization settled
agricultural groups in areas marginal for farming and so contributed to
the conl ict that already existed between pastoral and agricultural ethnic
groups, as these villages were often located on or near to important water
sources. Pastoralism was perceived to be a more primitive livelihood strat-
egy and so pastoral communities were encouraged to settle into villages,
regardless of the ecological need to move livestock. Although villagization
was planned as a way to increase production it was a failure and led to
declines in food and cash crop production (Smith, 2001).
To summarize, the ecology of semi-arid regions is characterized by both
inter-annual and intra-annual variability in rainfall. Large volumes of
rain can fall over short periods, while single and multi-year droughts are
common. This variability in climate, along with variability in geology and
soils, results in spatial and temporal heterogeneity in vegetation composi-
tion, primary production and water availability. Semi-arid regions are
therefore characterized by variability. It is now more widely recognized,
however, that the ecological conditions presently found in semi-arid
regions are, at least in part, the result of long-term human activity in these
areas. At the same time, the climatic variability in semi-arid regions is a
huge challenge for people in trying to sustain their livelihoods. As a result,
in semi-arid Tanzania both pastoral and agricultural livelihoods strate-
gies are found and each has developed l exibility in order to cope with
variability. Traditional pastoral livelihoods common to the region allow
for mobility of people and livestock so that adequate forage can be found
throughout the year, in much the same way as wild ungulate populations