A Socio-Economic Profile of the Rufiji Floodplain and Delta.

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Socio-economic profile of Rufiji flood plain and Delta - Vol. 1 It is surprising to note that the respondents are not associating the various economic activities with environmental degradation (Table 39). This may be attributed to wrong information by respondents fearing that their current economic activities will be regarded as illegal. Among the sampled respondents, only 34% were able to relate some economic activities and environmental destruction. They argued that economic activities such as tree harvesting, over-fishing, unplanned harvesting of natural resources, shifting cultivation, fire accidents and clearing land for agriculture are responsible for environmental degradation. Table 39:Responses on whether or not economic activities affect the environment by AEZ Inner Delta Inner Delta Delta North Delta South North Flood South Flood West Total (n North South (n=26) (n=30) Plain (24) Plain Valley =182) (n=44) (n=15) (n=13) (n=30) Percent of respondents Yes 31.8 26.7 53.8 46.7 33.3 38.5 10.0 34.1 No 68.2 73.3 46.2 53.3 66.7 61.5 90.0 65.9 Source: Survey data, 2000 When asked to mention environmental changes that they would like to see happening in their villages, the respondents were thinly spread in the following measures: • More controlled harvesting of natural resources and induce sustainable harvesting; • Formation of environmental conservation groups; • Create alternative economic activities; • Provision of education/training in natural resources use and conservation; • Establish by-laws for natural resources conservation; • People participation in natural resource management; • Encourage tree planting; • Improve infrastructure and access to markets; • Clear demarcation of reserved lands; • Increased government interventions in natural resource management; • Use of improved farming technologies and discourage shifting cultivation, and; • Improve capital availability, through credit provision. 3.3.1 Dependency and access to natural resources Apart from the information provided in table 3.4 above, on attitude towards the environment, the respondents in the survey area are dependent on the natural resources for their livelihood. The question of dependency and access to natural resources is therefore very important. The main natural resources available in the survey area are as follows: • Rufiji river: This river cuts across the survey area. Towards the Indian Ocean it turns out into a series of Deltas. This river is mainly used for fishing, provision of flood plains for agriculture on both sides along the river, water for wild life and navigation/transport. • Lakes: These are inland lakes formed as a result of flooding of the Rufiji River. In the survey area a number of these lakes are available. The main uses of these lakes are for fishing and provision of drinking water. The flooding Rufiji River replenishes the number of fish. • Forests: The forest resources can be categorised into forest reserves, village forests and woodlands. The main uses of forests are for firewood, building poles and timber. Available trees include Mkongo (Afzelia quanzensis)-for timber, Mninga (Pterocarpus angolensis) –for timber and Mpingo (Dalbergia melanoxylon) for curving. Other non-timber forest products available are milala, honey and ropes. These forests and woodlands also have varieties of wildlife animals and birds. In the Delta available forests are mainly mangrove forests. Mangrove forests are rich in various species of Mangrove. Important species include Mkandaa (Ceriops tagal), Mkoko 38
Socio-economic profile of Rufiji flood plain and Delta - Vol. 1 (Rhizophora mucronata), Mkomafi (Xylocarpus granatum). There are varieties of animal species and birds, which were unfortunately not classified in this survey. The main uses of mangrove forests are for building poles and firewood (also salt making). Along the channels packs of poles are seen which we were told are exported to Zanzibar. • Agricultural resources: The survey area provides a variety of agricultural lands. These ranges from the flood plains along the Rufiji river (also flood areas of the Delta) to outside of the flood plain for rain fed agriculture. In the western valley these areas are known as Baweni. In the Delta, agriculture benefits from the floods of Rufiji River in both bringing the alluvial soils and diluting the salinity of the ocean waters. The main economic activities in the area are dependant on the availability of the above-mentioned natural resources. There are various ways of accessing the above natural resources by the people: • Access through license to timber products, which is normally under the control of the Local government. Access to non-timber forest products such as milala is free to all but in some villages fees are to be paid to the local government. • Access to agricultural land is mainly based on traditional ownership, where households inherit land from their fore fathers and use it as a clan land. Clearing new land is also practised with the blessings from the village government. Purchase of land was rarely observed. • Access to fishing is almost open to all, but we were told that some fishing levies have to be paid to the local government. 39
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A Socio-Economic Profile of the Rufiji Floodplain and Delta.

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