An assessment of community participation in conservation of degraded stream water catchment areas in Masasi district, Tanzania

This study investigates participation of the local communities in conserving the degraded stream water catchments in Masasi district. Stream water catchments are among the environmental resources of the earth which faces serious environmental degradation. The study was carried out as a response to the current situation of environmental degradation taking place in stream water catchments in the study area due to agricultural activities, deforestation, livestock keeping and bushfires. This study was conducted for the purpose of exploring the extent to which local community participate in conserving the degraded stream water catchments for improved status. Specifically the study aimed at achieving the following three objectives: first to examine the major environmental problems in stream water catchment areas; second, to analyze the causes of environmental degradation of the stream water catchment areas; and third, to assess the nature and extent of communities’ participation in the management and conservation of stream water catchment areas. This study adopted both qualitative and quantitative research designs. Structured questionnaires, interviews, focus group discussions and observation techniques were used to collect primary data where by 117 respondents were sampled. The IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 20) was used to analyze data gathered through questionnaires while content analysis was used to analyze the information gathered from interviews, observations, focus group discussions and documents. The findings from the study indicate that land degradation, soil erosion, pollution and landslides are major environmental problems facing the stream water catchments in the study area. These environmental problems have resulted mainly due to human activities such as poor agricultural practices like shifting cultivation, livestock rearing and deforestation. Deforestation is done in order to clear land for cultivation, extract timber and building poles. It was also found that degradation of stream water catchments is occurring due to inadequate sensitization of environmental related issues and low level of environmental education of the people in the community. These findings imply that the local communities in the study area depend directly on nature based activities such as agriculture for their livelihoods. This brings to the conclusion that stream water catchment environmental resources in the study area have been degraded due to human activities and low level of education and sensitization on issues related to environment among the people in the community. This study recommends that the government and other environmental stakeholders should aim at enhancing environmental awareness rising in the community to make sure that people are aware of the socio-economic value of the goods and services they obtain from the environment. Therefore the use of environmental resources should not exceed its capacity of maintaining them and bring the attitudes of sustainable natural resources use. The government should continue to support communities to reduce poverty in order to reduce over dependency of environmental resources for their survival. Therefore effective involvement of the community in conservation of the degraded stream water catchments is recommended in order to provide community commitment and sense of ownership of the natural resources and therefore adhering to government efforts in the management and use of the natural resources particularly the stream water catchments.