The threat posed by climate change impacts in Tanzania is life threatening. The majority of the population rely on subsistence agriculture having no alternative opportunities to earn an income. Agricultural production has dwindled due to the change of weather patterns including prolonged seasons of draught followed by heavy rainfalls. It is not only the livelihoods that are threatened. Many lives are at stake from increasing poverty, increasing waterborne diseases, new viruses as well as increasing food prices to name a few.
In Tanzania, agriculture is vulnerable to the changing weather conditions. Many farmers are forced to survive in extreme poverty conditions. Women are forced to travel long distances to fetch water for the basic household needs as well as irrigation. Children are forced to drop out of school before they should in order to help in household duties. More youth are moving to urban centers in search of alternative livelihoods.
The biggest challenge for most Tanzanian’s , is to find new ways to adapt to climate change impacts. This includes finding alternative livelihoods apart from agriculture.
Much as it has been argued that economic development does not go hand in hand with environmental sustainability, failure to invest in alternative activities within rural areas is leading to environmental degradation as scarce resources are depleted at an accelerated rate, while agricultural land is losing fertility.
In other areas which are not yet suffering from climate change impacts, agricultural products are still being produced in a subsistence way without the benefits of sustainable supply chains leading to poverty stricken areas, and with accumulating waste from perishable products due to limited capacity for processing, storage, as well as lack of efficient energy.
What I’m trying to point out simply is that, sustainable investments are needed in rural areas for climate change adaptation programs. These can be in terms of corporations offering alternative ways of earning an income, sustainable supply chains, small industries for processing and packaging fruits and other products depending on the regions, as well as substantial investment of alternative energy especially solar and wind energy.
Private investors will be glad to know that Tanzania, being part of SADDC as well as a member of the East African community offers a huge market as well as investor friendly terms.
In addition, investment can be made under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) program to which will enable the investor to gain emission credits (and reduce their green taxes) for their company as well as their country (if in EU).
Projects which are setup with companies under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) missions in cooperation with foundations that do projects in Africa, will enable (e.g. Netherlands) companies to claim a tax refund of 69% (within the Netherlands).
Furthermore, investors such as IFC (International Financial Corporation), which is part of the world bank, are investing in companies that are performing CSR missions.
More benefits for investing companies are in building a positive image that holds their customers faith.
Climate change impacts in Tanzania have the potential to have detrimental effects on the population, however cooperation can bring about sustainable development and grow more opportunities for both Tanzanians as well as the investing companies.
Green Waters Foundation Netherlands
www.green-waters.org
Friday, October 26, 2012
CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS IN TANZANIA.
By Stella Evelyne Tesha, 26th October 2012
The threat posed by climate change impacts in Tanzania is life threatening. The majority of the population rely on subsistence agriculture having no alternative opportunities to earn an income. Agricultural production has dwindled due to the change of weather patterns including prolonged seasons of draught followed by heavy rainfalls. It is not only the livelihoods that are threatened. Many lives are at stake from increasing poverty, increasing waterborne diseases, new viruses as well as increasing food prices to name a few.
In Tanzania, agriculture is vulnerable to the changing weather conditions. Many farmers are forced to survive in extreme poverty conditions. Women are forced to travel long distances to fetch water for the basic household needs as well as irrigation. Children are forced to drop out of school before they should in order to help in household duties. More youth are moving to urban centers in search of alternative livelihoods.
The biggest challenge for most Tanzanian’s , is to find new ways to adapt to climate change impacts. This includes finding alternative livelihoods apart from agriculture.
Much as it has been argued that economic development does not go hand in hand with environmental sustainability, failure to invest in alternative activities within rural areas is leading to environmental degradation as scarce resources are depleted at an accelerated rate, while agricultural land is losing fertility.
In other areas which are not yet suffering from climate change impacts, agricultural products are still being produced in a subsistence way without the benefits of sustainable supply chains leading to poverty stricken areas, and with accumulating waste from perishable products due to limited capacity for processing, storage, as well as lack of efficient energy.
What I’m trying to point out simply is that, sustainable investments are needed in rural areas for climate change adaptation programs. These can be in terms of corporations offering alternative ways of earning an income, sustainable supply chains, small industries for processing and packaging fruits and other products depending on the regions, as well as substantial investment of alternative energy especially solar and wind energy.
Private investors will be glad to know that Tanzania, being part of SADDC as well as a member of the East African community offers a huge market as well as investor friendly terms.
In addition, investment can be made under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) program to which will enable the investor to gain emission credits (and reduce their green taxes) for their company as well as their country (if in EU).
Projects which are setup with companies under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) missions in cooperation with foundations that do projects in Africa, will enable (e.g. Netherlands) companies to claim a tax refund of 69% (within the Netherlands).
Furthermore, investors such as IFC (International Financial Corporation), which is part of the world bank, are investing in companies that are performing CSR missions.
More benefits for investing companies are in building a positive image that holds their customers faith.
Climate change impacts in Tanzania have the potential to have detrimental effects on the population, however cooperation can bring about sustainable development and grow more opportunities for both Tanzanians as well as the investing companies.
Green Waters Foundation Netherlands
www.green-waters.org
The threat posed by climate change impacts in Tanzania is life threatening. The majority of the population rely on subsistence agriculture having no alternative opportunities to earn an income. Agricultural production has dwindled due to the change of weather patterns including prolonged seasons of draught followed by heavy rainfalls. It is not only the livelihoods that are threatened. Many lives are at stake from increasing poverty, increasing waterborne diseases, new viruses as well as increasing food prices to name a few.
In Tanzania, agriculture is vulnerable to the changing weather conditions. Many farmers are forced to survive in extreme poverty conditions. Women are forced to travel long distances to fetch water for the basic household needs as well as irrigation. Children are forced to drop out of school before they should in order to help in household duties. More youth are moving to urban centers in search of alternative livelihoods.
The biggest challenge for most Tanzanian’s , is to find new ways to adapt to climate change impacts. This includes finding alternative livelihoods apart from agriculture.
Much as it has been argued that economic development does not go hand in hand with environmental sustainability, failure to invest in alternative activities within rural areas is leading to environmental degradation as scarce resources are depleted at an accelerated rate, while agricultural land is losing fertility.
In other areas which are not yet suffering from climate change impacts, agricultural products are still being produced in a subsistence way without the benefits of sustainable supply chains leading to poverty stricken areas, and with accumulating waste from perishable products due to limited capacity for processing, storage, as well as lack of efficient energy.
What I’m trying to point out simply is that, sustainable investments are needed in rural areas for climate change adaptation programs. These can be in terms of corporations offering alternative ways of earning an income, sustainable supply chains, small industries for processing and packaging fruits and other products depending on the regions, as well as substantial investment of alternative energy especially solar and wind energy.
Private investors will be glad to know that Tanzania, being part of SADDC as well as a member of the East African community offers a huge market as well as investor friendly terms.
In addition, investment can be made under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) program to which will enable the investor to gain emission credits (and reduce their green taxes) for their company as well as their country (if in EU).
Projects which are setup with companies under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) missions in cooperation with foundations that do projects in Africa, will enable (e.g. Netherlands) companies to claim a tax refund of 69% (within the Netherlands).
Furthermore, investors such as IFC (International Financial Corporation), which is part of the world bank, are investing in companies that are performing CSR missions.
More benefits for investing companies are in building a positive image that holds their customers faith.
Climate change impacts in Tanzania have the potential to have detrimental effects on the population, however cooperation can bring about sustainable development and grow more opportunities for both Tanzanians as well as the investing companies.
Green Waters Foundation Netherlands
www.green-waters.org
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