Effectiveness of cultural heritage impact assessment as part of environmental and social impact assessment in Tanzania.

This study assessed effectiveness of Cultural Heritage Impact Assessment (CHIA) as part of Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) in Tanzania. In doing so, three specific objectives were investigated: (a) Qualifications of people who have conducted CHIA in Tanzania; (b) Frequency of inclusion of cultural heritage component in ESIA reports and (c) Implementation of CHIA mitigation measures. This was done by reviewing ESIA and Environmental Auditing (EA) reports and having consultations with consultants and regulatory authorities. Purposively, the study focused on ESIA reports with the component of CHIA. In this regard, 122 ESIA reports were drawn purposively and of these, only 34 ESIA had the CHIA component and were further considered for objective two. Out of 34 studied ESIA reports only seven had auditing reports and were used for objective three. In addition to the report reviews, 35 respondents were interviewed to complement results for objective one and three. Both Qualitative and Quantitative data analysis methods were used. The key findings of this study support the existing body of knowledge as presented in chapter two. The findings of this study were that, regarding qualifications of people who have done CHIA in Tanzania, 60% had no relevant qualifications for CHIA. On the point of CHIA inclusion into EISA reports, only 27.9% ESIA reports had information regarding CH. Finally, in terms of implementation of CHIA mitigation measures, findings showed that only 14.3% of the audited reports implemented proposed CHIA mitigation measures. The study at the end recommends that guidelines and monitoring for CHIA should be established. There is a need for the review and amendment of the existing heritage and environmental laws to allow better consideration of CHIA. Finally, a close coordination among stakeholders and monitoring is required to ensure that proposed CHIA mitigation measures are implemented.