Participatory Land Use Planning as a Tool for Community Empowerment in Northern Tanzania

This paper presents several case studies to show how the Ujamaa Community Resource Team (UCRT) has been working within Tanzania’s legal and policy framework to support a diverse range of pastoralists, agro-pastoralists and hunter-gatherers, all of whom face
fundamental threats from external appropriation of, or encroachment on, lands and natural resources. The work also responds to local needs to rationalise resource use rights amongst competing local groups, such as farmers and livestock keepers. By using participatory
land use planning, it is possible to balance the need to secure local tenure with the need management practices in semi-arid environments. It can also strengthen the voice of local groups in the face of external pressures. However, major questions remain about the ability of local groups to enforce resource access and use rules, particularly in relation to more powerful central government and external are ignored or contravened. This highlights the importance of on-going engagement with political and policy processes whilst also working on local planning initiatives. Formalising land rights at the village level also involves trade-offs between strengthening local rights and maintaining access to resources at the larger scales needed for example by pastoralists in semi-arid regions. As climate change continues to change the ecological parameters of local production systems, such trade-offs will need to be continuously appraised and addressed.