Environmental mainstreaming and post-sovereign governance in Tanzania

Abstract

Tanzania's experiences of development aid partnerships and environmental mainstreaming have been widely praised in recent years, yet the country continues to suffer from considerable problems of poverty, food insecurity and ecological degradation. As such it constitutes an interesting case study through which to examine hypotheses on global environmental governance. Looking specifically at claims that environmental governance is increasingly “post-sovereign”, this article assesses the degree to which environmental management in Tanzania is becoming “non-exclusive”, “non-hierarchical”, and “post-territorial”. It argues that evidence for non-exclusivity is plentiful, given the extent of foreign donor, private sector, and civil society inclusion in governance processes. Rather than the absence of hierarchy, the article suggests the existence of multiple hierarchies produced by both the transnationalisation of environmental politics as well as the complex nature of the Tanzanian state. Finally, rather than a trend towards post-territorialisation, the research suggests that environmental governance should be seen within a longer trajectory of greater state penetration, monitoring, surveillance and intrusion into rural life. It concludes that environmental governance is significantly transforming the Tanzanian state and that this is characteristic of changes in environmental governance worldwide.

Keywords:

• Tanzania
• environment
• governance
• politics
• sovereignty

Acknowledgements

This paper was made possible through funding provided by the British Institute in Eastern Africa for a fieldwork trip to Tanzania in August 2011, as well as support from the Department of International Politics, Aberystwyth University. The paper has benefitted from feedback provided by colleagues at the University of Manchester, the University of Leeds, and at the 2012 BISA-ISA Annual Conference in Edinburgh, as well as during the peer-review process. I am very grateful to the interviewees who were generous with their time and views. All errors, of course, remain my own.

Notes

1. See, for example, an IMF report on Tanzania in 2009 which praised its “remarkable turnaround” since the mid-1980s. Nord et al., Tanzania. See also Harrison and Mulley with Holtom, “Tanzania”, 271.

2. Assey et al., Environment at the heart of Tanzania's Development, iv. See also Dalal-Clayton and Bass, The Challenges of Environmental Mainstreaming, 54 and 69.

3. Nord et al., Tanzania, 7.

4. See http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/40/27/42139250.pdf (accessed October 27, 2011). See also Harrison and Mulley with Holtom, “Tanzania”, 272.

5. Norrington-Davies and Thornton, Climate Change Financing and Aid Effectiveness, 6–7; The United Republic of Tanzania, The Tanzania Five Year Development Plan, 70; interview with Kyaruzi Ladislaus; interview with Patrick Ndaki.

6. The United Republic of Tanzania, Millennium Development Goals Report, iii.

7. The United Republic of Tanzania, Millennium Development Goals Report, iii.

8. The United Republic of Tanzania, National Programme of Adaptation, 7.

9. Chachage and Mbunda, The State of the then NAFCO, NARCO and Absentee Landlords’ Farms/Ranches in Tanzania, 96. See also Chachage, Land Acquisition and Accumulation in Tanzania.

10. Cooksey, Public Goods, Rents and Business in Tanzania, 32–3; Jansen, Does Aid Work?; Norrington-Davies and Thornton, Climate Change Financing and Aid Effectiveness, 12.

11. This research has primarily involved reviews of Tanzanian planning and strategy documents, informed by the theoretical and secondary literature. It was supplemented by a fieldwork trip to Dar-es-Salaam in August 2011. Semi-structured elite interviews and follow-up emails were conducted with 12 government officials, academics, donors and civil society activists. A list of these follows the endnotes.

12. Interesting exceptions relevant to this paper include Broch-Due, “Producing Nature and Poverty in Africa”; Kimani, “A Collaborative Approach to Environmental Governance in East Africa”; Lecoutere, “Institutions under Construction”; and Ribot, “Democratic Decentralisation of Natural Resources”.

13. Keohane et al., “The Effectiveness of International Environmental Institutions”, 20.

14. Barry and Eckersley, “W(h)ither the Green State?”, 272.

15. Sonnenfeld and Mol, “Globalization and the Transformation of Environmental Governance”, 1324.

16. Harrison, The World Bank and Africa, 3.

17. Harrison, “Post-Conditionality Politics and Administrative Reform”, 657. See also Fraser and Whitfield, “Understanding Contemporary Aid Relationships”, 100–1.

18. Latham et al., “Introduction”. See also Gould and Ojanen, “Merging in the Circle”, 24.

19. Conca, “Old States in New Bottles”; Sonnenfeld and Mol, “Globalization and the Transformation of Environmental Governance”.

20. Karkkainen, “Post-Sovereign Environmental Governance”.

21. Karkkainen, “Post-Sovereign Environmental Governance”, 75. Karkkainen, like much of the global environmental governance literature discussed above, also focuses on the developed rather than the developing world, using case studies from North America.

22. Dunn, “Contested State Spaces”, 436; Levine, “Convergence or Convenience?” 1044–5.

23. Nelson, Emergent or Illusory? 3; Neumann, Imposing Wilderness, 98.

24. Kimani, “A Collaborative Approach to Environmental Governance in East Africa”, 28.

25. Neumann, Imposing Wilderness, 129–31; Neumann, “Africa's ‘Last Wilderness’”.

26. Levine, “Convergence or Convenience?”, 1045; Nelson, Emergent or Illusory?, 3.

27. Coulson, Tanzania; Hyden, Beyond Ujamaa in Tanzania; Scott, Seeing Like a State, chapter 7.

28. Lwoga, “Bureaucrats, Peasants and Land Rights”; Scott, Seeing Like a State, 239; Shao, “The Villagization Programme and the Disruption of the Ecological Balance in Tanzania”; Sheridan, “The Environmental Consequences of Independence and Socialism in North Pare”.

29. Assey et al., Environment at the Heart of Tanzania's Development, 11.

30. Coulson, Tanzania, 314–15.

31. Jennings, “‘Almost an Oxfam in itself’”, 527–8; Neumann, Imposing Wilderness, 140.

32. Levine, “Convergence or convenience?”, 1047.

33. Shivji, Let the People Speak. The degree and permanence of this “liberalisation” is questioned by many authors, including Shivji. See also Cooksey, “Marketing Reform?”

34. Levine, “Convergence or convenience?”, 1048.

35. Gould and Ojanen, “Merging in the Circle”, 39; Harrison and Mulley with Holtom, “Tanzania”, 278–81.

36. Assey et al., Environment at the Heart of Tanzania's Development, 23. See also Fraser and Whitfield, “Understanding Contemporary Aid Relationships”, 80–81; Nord et al., Tanzania, 5.

37. Abrahamsen, “The Power of Partnerships”; Gould and Ojanen, “Merging in the Circle”; Harrison, “Post-Conditionality Politics and Administrative Reform”.

38. Dalal-Clayton and Bass, The Challenges of Environmental Mainstreaming, 26; Meadowcroft, “National Sustainable Development Strategies”.

39. Interview with Amon Manyama; interview with Blandina Cheche.

40. Interview with Magdalena Banasiak.

41. Assey et al. emphasise the role of local actors and coalitions who “owned” the process: including an (unnamed) “multi-stakeholder group of intellectuals” in the early 1990s who lobbied government on environmental issues and the leadership role of President Mkapa and the Vice President's Office. Assey et al., Environment at the heart of Tanzania's Development, 7 and 13.

42. Assey et al. emphasise the role of local actors and coalitions who “owned” the process: including an (unnamed) “multi-stakeholder group of intellectuals” in the early 1990s who lobbied government on environmental issues and the leadership role of President Mkapa and the Vice President's Office. Assey et al., Environment at the heart of Tanzania's Development, 11–13; Bojö and Reddy, Status and Evolution of Environmental Priorities in the Poverty Reduction Strategies, 14; The United Republic of Tanzania, National Strategy for Growth and the Reduction of Poverty; interview with Amon Manyama; interview with Blandina Cheche; interview with Magembe Ekingo; interview with Professor Longinus Rutasitara; telephone interview with David Howlett.

43. The United Republic of Tanzania, National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty II.

44. Assey et al., Environment at the heart of Tanzania's Development, iv.

45. Assey et al., Environment at the heart of Tanzania's Development, 2.

46. Assey et al., Environment at the heart of Tanzania's Development, 20; Luttrell and Pantaleo, Budget Support, Aid Instruments and the Environment, 13.

47. The United Republic of Tanzania, National Strategy for Growth and the Reduction of Poverty, chapter 5; The United Republic of Tanzania, MKUKUTA Monitoring Master Plan and Indicator Information; Vice President's Office, Poverty and Environment Newsletter, Volume 1.

48. The United Republic of Tanzania, National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty II, Chapter 2.

49. Interview with Professor Benedict Mongula; interview with Brian Cooksey; interview with Magdalena Banasiak.

50. Karkkainen, “Post-sovereign Environmental Governance”, 75.

51. See also Barry and Eckersley, “W(h)ither the Green State?”; Conca, “Old States in New Bottles?”; Sonnenfeld and Mol, “Globalization and the Transformation of Environmental Governance”.

52. On the role of conservation NGOs, for example, see Brockington and Scholfield, “The Work of Conservation Organisations in Sub-Saharan Africa”; Sachedina, “Wildlife is Our Oil.”

53. Assey et al., Environment at the Heart of Tanzania's Development, 1; interview with Amon Manyama; interview with Professor Benedict Mongula; interview with Blandina Cheche; telephone interview with David Howlett. Indeed a recent Tanzanian review of this process explicitly identified donors as the primary drivers of environmental mainstreaming. Rutasitara, Mainstreaming Environment into MKUKUTA II Process, 5–7.

54. Assey et al., Environment at the Heart of Tanzania's Development, 17; UNDP-UNEP, Poverty and Environment Initiative (PEI).

55. Assey et al., Environment at the Heart of Tanzania's Development, 15. The role of a VPO/UNDP-appointed advisor of the Environmental Integration Programme, David Howlett, was central to this process. Much was made of the fact that his role was demand-driven, working principally to VPO and not to external agency (UNDP) or funder (DFID and DANIDA) agendas.

56. Assey et al., Environment at the Heart of Tanzania's Development, 15; Gould and Ojanen, “Merging in the Circle”, 85–6; Green, “Globalizing Development in Tanzania”, 135–6; Fraser and Whitfield, “Understanding Contemporary Aid Relationships”, 78–80; interview with Professor Longinus Rutasitara.

57. The United Republic of Tanzania, National Strategy for Growth and the Reduction of Poverty, Chapter 3; Assey et al., Environment at the Heart of Tanzania's Development, 25, 36–7. See also The United Republic of Tanzania, National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty II, 4. However, MKUKUTA II has been criticised for failing to live up to the high standards of participation and dialogue established by its predecessor.

58. Brockington, “Corruption, Taxation, and Natural Resource Management in Tanzania”; Lecoutere, “Institutions Under Construction”; Ribot, “Democratic Decentralisation of Natural Resources”.

59. Gould and Ojanen, “Merging in the Circle”; Green, “Globalizing Development in Tanzania”; Igoe, “Power and Force in Tanzanian Civil Society”; Mercer, “Reconceptualizing State–Society Relations in Tanzania”; Shivji, Let the People Speak.

60. Lange, “The Depoliticisation of Development and the Democratisation of Politics in Tanzania”; Mniwasa and Shauri, Review of the Decentralization Process; Nelson, Emergent or Illusory?; Sunseri, “‘Something Else to Burn’”, 632.

61. Assey et al., Environment at the Heart of Tanzania's Development, 10.

62. Assey et al., Environment at the Heart of Tanzania's Development, 47; Bofin et al., REDD Integrity, 72; Chachage, Land Acquisition and Accumulation in Tanzania; Igoe, “Power and Force in Tanzanian Civil Society”.

63. The United Republic of Tanzania, National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty II, ix.

64. The United Republic of Tanzania, National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty II, 43; The United Republic of Tanzania, State of the Environment Report 2006, 146; interview with Brian Cooksey.

65. DFID Tanzania, Operational Plan 2011–15, 6; interview with Magdalena Banasiak. For a similar view from the IMF, see Nord et al., Tanzania, 7.

66. Karkkainen, “Post-Sovereign Environmental Governance”, 76.

67. Death, Governing Sustainable Development.

68. Dunn, “Contested State Spaces”, 439.

69. The United Republic of Tanzania, State of the Environment Report 2006, 47.

70. The United Republic of Tanzania, State of the Environment Report 2006, 22–23. The disputes over the proposal to build a new highway through the Serengeti between the Tanzanian government, local community groups, Kenyan and international conservation organisations, and the East African Court of Justice illustrate this complexity. See http://www.savetheserengeti.org/ (accessed August 20, 2012).

71. Ubwani, “Tanzania's bid to block Serengeti road case flops”.

72. Luttrell and Pantaleo, Budget Support, Aid Instruments and the Environment, 34–5.

73. For a recent (partial) attempt see Rutasitara, Mainstreaming Environment into MKUKUTA II Process, 15.

74. Bofin et al., REDD Integrity, 60.

75. The United Republic of Tanzania, State of the Environment Report 2006, 112.

76. Kimani, Reinvention of Environmental Governance in East Africa, 146–7. This assessment is disputed by others, e.g., Magdalena Banasiak (email exchange).

77. Gould and Ojanen, “Merging in the Circle”, 13.

78. Harrison, “Post-Conditionality Politics and Administrative Reform”, 661.

79. Research by NGOs and local activists reveals a wide range of cases of conflict, characterised by shady business relationships, unknown investors, unclear lines of political accountability and responsibility, contested land ownership, and contradictory accounts of village meetings. See Chachage and Mbunda, The State of the then NAFCO, NARCO and Absentee Landlords’ Farms/Ranches in Tanzania; Chachage, Land Acquisition and Accumulation in Tanzania; Cooksey, Public Goods, Rents and Business in Tanzania; Igoe, “Power and Force in Tanzanian Civil Society”; Jansen, Does Aid Work?; interview with Bernard Baha; email exchange with Brain Cooksey.

80. Chabal and Daloz, Africa Works.

81. Gould and Ojanen, “Merging in the Circle”, 72.

82. Chabal and Daloz, Africa Works; Cooksey, Public Goods, Rents and Business in Tanzania, Appendix 1; Ruitenbeek and Cartier, Putting Tanzania's Hidden Economy to Work.

83. Cooksey, The Investment and Business Environment for Gold Exploration and Mining in Tanzania, 90.

84. Cooksey, Public Goods, Rents and Business in Tanzania, 66 and 84.

85. Cooksey and Kelsall, The Political Economy of the Investment Climate in Tanzania, 85. See also Bofin et al., REDD Integrity; Ruitenbeek and Cartier, Putting Tanzania's Hidden Economy to Work.

86. Brockington, “The Politics and Ethnography of Environmentalism in Tanzania”, 102–6.

87. The close relationship between the spheres of conservation and development is acknowledged in Brockington and Scholfield, “The Work of Conservation Organisations in Sub-Saharan Africa”, 5.

88. Karkkainen, “Post-Sovereign Environmental Governance”, 77.

89. Dunn, “Contested State Spaces”; Kimani, “A Collaborative Approach to Environmental Governance in East Africa”; Norrington-Davies and Thornton, Climate Change Financing and Aid Effectiveness.

90. The United Republic of Tanzania, State of the Environment Report 2006. The 1997 National Environment Policy identified six major environmental problems facing Tanzania: land degradation, accessibility of water, air and water pollution, loss of biodiversity and habitats, aquatic systems degradation, and deforestation. See Assey et al., Environment at the Heart of Tanzania's Development, 5.

91. Cooksey, The investment and business environment for gold exploration and mining in Tanzania, 80–86; Harrison and Mulley with Holtom, “Tanzania”, 292–3.

92. Ubwani, “Tanzania's Bid to Block Serengeti Road Case Flops”.

93. Such an argument has many similarities to James Ferguson's claims about the workings of the development “anti-politics machine” in Lesotho. For a discussion of Ferguson's argument and its bearing on Tanzanian politics, see Green, “Globalizing Development in Tanzania”, 125–7; Igoe, “Power and Force in Tanzanian Civil Society”, 138.

94. Hyden, Beyond Ujamaa in Tanzania; Scott, Seeing Like a State, chapter 7; Shao, “The Villagization Programme and the Disruption of the Ecological Balance in Tanzania”.

95. Brockington, “The Politics and Ethnography of Environmentalism in Tanzania”, 109; Igoe, “Power and Force in Tanzanian Civil Society”; Neumann, “Africa's ‘last wilderness’”; Sunseri, “‘Something Else to Burn’”.

96. Sheridan, “The Environmental and Social History of African Sacred Groves”, 91.

97. Shivji, Let the People Speak, 243–7; Sunseri, “‘Something Else to Burn’” , 609–10.

98. Smith, “Tanzania Denies Plan to Evict Maasai for UAE Royal Hunting Ground”.

99. The United Republic of Tanzania, Poverty and Human Development Report 2009, 26.

100. The United Republic of Tanzania, State of the Environment Report 2006, 39; interview with Bernard Baha.

101. Shivji, Let the People Speak, 244–50; Smith, “Tanzania Denies Plan to Evict Maasai for UAE Royal Hunting Ground”; Sunseri, “‘Something Else to Burn’”; interview with Bernard Baha.

102. Cooksey, “Marketing Reform?”, 67.

103. Chachage and Mbunda, The State of the then NAFCO, NARCO and Absentee Landlords’ farms/ranches in Tanzania, 95.

104. The United Republic of Tanzania, National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty II, 22.

105. DFID Tanzania, Operational Plan 2011–15, 11; Jansen, Does Aid Work?, 12; UNDP-UNEP, Poverty and Environment Initiative (PEI); interview with Blandina Cheche; interview with Magembe Ekingo; interview with Kyaruzi Ladislaus.

106. The United Republic of Tanzania, National Strategy for Growth and the Reduction of Poverty, Chapter 5; The United Republic of Tanzania, MKUKUTA Monitoring Master Plan and Indicator Information.

107. Interview with Magembe Ekingo.

108. The United Republic of Tanzania, The Tanzania Five Year Development Plan, 79.

109. Dalal-Clayton and Bass, The Challenges of Environmental Mainstreaming, 56 and 94–5.

110. Abrahamsen, “The Power of Partnerships”, 1459. See also Broch-Due, “Producing Nature and Poverty in Africa”, 36–8; Gould and Ojanen, “Merging in the Circle”, 14; Green, “Globalizing Development in Tanzania”, 137.

111. Bojö and Reddy, Status and Evolution of Environmental Priorities in the Poverty Reduction Strategies, 2.

112. Igoe and Brockington, “Neoliberal Conservation”, 437–8.

113. Conca, “Old States in New Bottles”.

114. Harrison, “Post-Conditionality Politics and Administrative Reform”, 669.

115. Igoe and Brockington, “Neoliberal Conservation”, 433; Karkkainen, “Post-Sovereign Environmental Governance”; Sonnenfeld and Mol, “Globalization and the Transformation of Environmental Governance”.

116. Abrahamsen, “The Power of Partnerships in Global Governance”; Harrison, The World Bank and Africa; Latham et al., “Introduction”.