Benchmarking the Tanzanian environmental impact assessment regulations/guidelines with those of Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and the World Bank

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was introduced in the United States in late 1960’s varying in procedures and practices, due to different in legal and administrative requirements and was adopted by most of the developing countries in Africa as; Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. This research aimed at providing a comparative overview of EIA guidelines in legal, and administration practices in Tanzania compared to Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and the World Bank based on criteria proposed by Leu et al. (1997) , Ahmad et al.(2002) and Wood (2003).Chapters on Stakeholders consultation, Baseline data and Impact analysis were reviewed to assess the 20 EIA reports submitted to NEMC, to strengthen the findings questionnaires were administered to EIA consultants (26) and NEMC officials (16). Tanzania has proved quite successful in EIA regulation system compared to studied countries apart from World Bank, although both their systems are prone to mismanagement and low priority of EIA in planning, inadequate follow-up mechanisms, lack of capacity building, relaying EIA results to the stakeholders and quality inconsistency of EIA reports. EIA is required to be practical, cost effective, efficient, focused, participatory, interdisciplinary and transparent. For Tanzania the study revealed lack of environmental awareness, insufficient environmental database, low stakeholders participation, absence of PEA guidelines, weak expert’s registration system, absence of appeals tribunal and inconsistence quality of EIA reports. Refresher trainings to stakeholders, appeals tribunal, EIA database establishment, improved accreditation system, proper coordination between NEMC and DoE is recommended to significantly improve EIA effectiveness.