Our People in Tanzania should be Given an opportunity to participate in environmental Conservation

Environmental degradation or rather ecological disharmony has become such a serious problem that it is no longer possible to expect positive results without the participation of society as a whole. For any quantifiable results to be registered in the struggle to curb or rather reverse the situation, it should be borne in mind that no government in isolation, however rich and powerful it might be, can succeed without involving the whole of society from the grass-roots up. Governments and experts can help in systemizing the reversal process but community participation is probably the only way to see to it that friendship between man and the environment is maintained.

Environmental degradation is a widespread phenomenon. For many years, people inhabiting in Tanzania, but I presume all over the world, and especially those in developing societies, have been dependent on natural resources from the forests, sea and shores. Their dependence can easily be verified by studying their life style, that is, their shelter, food, recreation etc. It is not surprising therefore that what we have now been witnessing practically all along the coastline is ecological disharmony. On the one hand this disharmony can be attributed to a drastic change in climatic conditions (quite natural and probably beyond man’s control), but on the other hand we are also witnessing serious environmental degradation due to mankind’s unreasonable exploitation of nature in surrounded environment. Land erosion, destruction of very important natural vegetation and pollution of the land resulted to -effects of man’s unfriendly relationship with the environment. The overall result is nothing less than desertification of environment.