TANZANIAN EXPERIENCE

In Tanzania, public authorities are the custodians of important information that the public needs to participate in policy debates and help ensure environmental accountability. At the same time, there is a dearth of independent research institutions in Tanzania with the resources and capacity to generate reliable, accurate and timely environmental information. A duty lies with public authorities to inform citizens of the existence of environmental information, to provide access to the information and to let them know how to access it. Yet despite a clear constitutional basis for the state providing information to the public, in practice Tanzanians are rarely able to exercise their rights to access environmental information. In Tanzania, citizens' rights fall far short of the minimum requirements as articulated in ratified international conventions.

In practice, the government has not always acted in the best interests of many Tanzanians by withholding critical environmental information from the public, not sharing information in a timely manner, and at times even misleading citizens. When the public learns of potential or real environmental mismanagement or degradation through unofficial channels or at the time of implementation or impact, inquires by the public often fall on deaf ears. For example, Tanzania has no standards for environmental impact assessments, nor any law making an assessment mandatory. EIA studies are conducted on some foreign funded proj ects, usually at the request and conditionality of the funder, such as the World Bank or USAID. Even in cases where an EIA is prepared, the public usually does not have guaranteed and formal access to the statement or any related deliberations and decision-making processes. The following two case studies demonstrate the problems that Tanzanians are experiencing as development initiatives with environmental impacts are prepared and implemented.