Impacts of Changing Pastoral Strategies on Environmental Resources and Livelihoods in Tanzania's Lake Victoria Basin

Land tenure in pastoral and agro pastoral areas of Tanzania is under stress. The stress emanates mainly from changing natural and demographic environments. Other underlying causes are social, economic and political changes. In the past three to four decades, both pastoral and agro-pastoral areas have been experiencing rapid population increase, with a national mean population growth rate estimated at 3 per cent per annum (Kurian 1992). This has increased demand for cultivation lands, forcing pastoralists and agro-pastoralists to more marginal areas and triggering off in some cases environmental degradation process. These processes are paralleled by overall climatic changes with concomitant increasing droughts. The combined effect of these processes has culminated into a general decline of pastoral and agro-pastoral community's welfare and increased livelihood insecurity. This study explored the impacts of these changes in agro-pastoral land use on the physical environment as well as livelihood and welfare of the community in Missungwi District.