Tanzania is located just south of the equator on the coast of East Africa, sharing borders with Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia. Like many other countries in the region, around 80 per cent of Tanzania’s population is dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods, income and employment. The sector accounts for around 56 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GOT, 2007). The majority of Tanzania’s population is concentrated along the coast, in the northern and southern highlands where the land is particularly fertile, and along the edge of Lake Victoria (USDS, 2010).
The United Republic of Tanzania is one of the countries that are continuing to suffer from the impacts of climate change and related hazards such as floods and droughts, which have substantially affected economic performance and undermined poverty reduction efforts. Two of the 14 selected projects activities are:
- Water efficiency in crop production irrigation to boost production and conserve water in all areas.
- Alternative farming systems and water harvesting.
The adverse impacts of Climate Change are already having their toll in the livelihoods of people and in the sectors of the economy in the country. Frequent and severe droughts in many parts of the country are being felt with their associated consequences on food production and water scarcity among others. The recent severe droughts which hit most parts of the country leading to severe food shortages, food insecurity, water scarcity, hunger and acute shortage of power signify the vulnerability of the country to impacts of climate change. The extreme drop of water levels of Lake Victoria, Lake Tanganyika and Lake Jipe in recent years and the dramatic recession of 7km of Lake Rukwa in about 50 years, are associated, at least in part, with climate change, and are threatening economic and social activities. Eighty per cent of the glacier on Mount Kilimanjaro has been lost since 1912 and it is projected that the entire glacier will be gone by 2025. The intrusion of sea water into water wells along the coast of Bagamoyo town and the inundation of Maziwe Island in Pangani District, off the Indian Ocean shores, are yet another evidence of the threats of climate change. The following section is found in the Meister Consultants Group study: *Floating Houses and Mosquito Nets: Emerging Climate Change Adaptation Strategies Around the World*.
Strategy and Actors As one of the Least Developed Countries (LCD), Tanzania is obligated by the UNFCCC to develop a National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA). In 2007, Tanzania fulfilled this obligation.170 The NAPA is the main strategic document of the Tanzanian adaptation policy. The environmental department of the vice-president is responsible for the development of NAPA; however, many other actors are also involved. The research team is interdisciplinary, and the data on vulnerability and adaptation measures was collected collaboratively. Stakeholders from academia, government, the private sector, and the local level were involved in the development of the NAPA. An important goal of involving stakeholders was to foster the collection of information and climate data, because, as with many other developing countries, the current data base on expected climate impacts is very limited. Therefore, planning processes and specific adaptation measures are often based on local knowledge and those climate impacts that can already be observed. The drawback to this approach is that it does not allow for any long-term planning. Hence, the primary goal of NAPA is to identify the most urgent measures. In total, 72 projects have been analyzed, 14 of which were selected to begin the implementation phase. Most of the projects in Tanzania concern agriculture and water resource management (irrigation, water saving, rainwater collection); however, energy and tourism also play an important role. The implementation of the most urgent projects has just started (see project case studies in the appendix). NAPA adaptation projects are focused at the technical level;they include, for example, irrigation and water storage infrastructure plans, and electrification measures using micro-hydropower. Further priorities are the sustainable use of scarce natural resources and the development of drought-resistant seeds. The implementation of the identified projects is not centralized; rather, it is distributed among the responsible ministries. Many adaptation projects are funded by international organizations like the United Nations Development Programme and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.