Making community based environmental impact assessment work: Case study of a Dairy Goat and Root Crop Project in Tanzania

Abstract

Community Based Environmental Assessment (CBEA) is an approach used to collate information in order to identify and analyze the environmental impacts of planned, on-going and completed community development activities. This study was conducted with four villages in the Kongwa and Mvomero Districts of Tanzania where dairy goats and root crops were introduced as project interventions. The study addressed three key research questions. (1) What are key environmental challenges in the project villages? (2) What are the likely environmental impacts from this project? (3) What could be the community-perceived mitigation and enhancement measures for such impacts? Participatory appraisal methods including focus group discussions, participatory village resource mapping, transect walks and pair wise ranking were used in the field research. Research revealed several environmental challenges and depicted a number of environmental impacts (both negative and positive) including shortage of pasture, deforestation, conflicts between farmers and pastoralists and loss of biodiversity. In contrast to conventional regulatory environmental assessments that are required for larger-scale industrial projects in many countries, this study offers experiences from a small-scale development project where environmental impacts are assessed. Such methods could be applied to other small-scale development initiatives where positive or negative environmental impacts can be enhanced or ameliorated.