Abstract
In Africa, the land and water resources quality are key factors for sustainable development. The degradation of the quality of these resources leads to scarcities and conflicts, which together threaten the sustainability of rural livelihoods. This work investigated and analysed the livelihoods conflicts over the land and water resources and their scarcities, policies that contributed to the land and water scarcities and the livelihood conflicts and linkage of the conflicts to the resources scarcities and degradation. Implications of degradation of the resources, development policies and livelihoods conflicts on sustainable development are discussed. Literature study, visits and discussions, participatory assessments, observations and questionnaire survey were used tools to collect data. Interviews of the 266 households revealed that, those experiencing the land and water scarcities and conflicts over these resources are significantly (p < 0.001) higher than those not experiencing the scarcities and conflicts. Crop-livestock competition, over the land and water resources causes prominent conflicts. A significant, (p < 0.05) associations of livelihoods conflicts to water shortage and period of water shortage for crop and livestock production were found. Improved accessibility to soil and water management technologies, wildlife–livestock co-existence, recognition of needs and land rights for pastoralists are recommended to minimize scarcities and herders versus farmers’ conflicts.
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Acknowledgement
The International Foundation for Science (IFS) in Sweden, and the United Nations University-Institute of Advanced Studies (UNU/IAS) in Japan, jointly financially supported this study. The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security in Tanzania, made its research facilities available for the work, and administered the funds at the Agricultural Research Institute-Uyole (ARI-Uyole). The authors wish to thank Ms C. Kabungo, Ms S. Swai and Mr. J. Kaijage of ARI-Uyole; and the Mbarali District Council Agricultural workers, from the district to the village level, for participation in field data collection for this work.
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Malley, Z.J.U., Taeb, M., Matsumoto, T. et al. Linking perceived land and water resources degradation, scarcity and livelihood conflicts in southwestern Tanzania: implications for sustainable rural livelihood. Environ Dev Sustain 10, 349–372 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-006-9069-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-006-9069-9