4.0 ANALYSIS OF LAWS IMPACTING THE ENVIRONMENT IN SPECIFIC ECONOMIC SECTORS

Economic development in Tanzania has been categorized in eleven sectors by the government in preparation of the Rolling Plan and Forward Budget for Tanzania. Because the focus of this environmental law handbook is on the business community, this main body of the book takes the same approach. However, in addition to including economic data, environmental problems, and legislative frameworks for these formal sectors of the economy, this chapter also addresses the informal sectors' contributions to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and therefore the significant impacts that those sectors also have on the environment. Only with cooperation from the informal sector can sustainable economic development truly be achieved¹.

The significance of the informal sector is explained by Bagachwa as follows:

On the Tanzania mainland, the informal sector plays a significant role in providing employment opportunities. About 22 percent of total employment is engaged totally or partly in this sector with males and young primary school leavers in the majority. There is a large degree of self-employment in this sector, almost three quarters are operators while the other one-quarter are employees. The highest proportion of the informal sector workforce is engaged in trades/restaurants/hotels, however in rural areas the highest proportion are engaged in small-scale manufacturing. Sale of local beer is the leading business in the informal sector which alone provides employment to about 15 percent of the total workforce. However, in Dar es Salaam, the leading business is sale of cooked food and for other urban areas, it is urban agriculture and livestock keeping².

It is also important to note the economic trends in Tanzania, in order to understand what will be the future needs for improved regulation and voluntary compliance with good environmental practices in the business sector. Figures 4.0 A, 4.0 B, and 4.0 C are taken from the Rolling Plan and Forward Budget for Tanzania for the Period 1994-95 in order to show these trends.

FIGURE 4.0 A: A GRAPH OF OVERALL GDP GROWTH (figure not available)
FIGURE 4.0 B: SECTORAL COMPOSITION OF GDP (figure not available)
TABLE 4.0 C: PROJECTED ECONOMIC GROWTH (table not available)

1. For definitions of the informal sector, see Appendix E.
2. See: Chapter 2: Bagachwa, University of Dar es Salaam, in Tanzania: The Informal Sector, 1991a. A Report on the Urban and Rural Informal Sector Activities in Tanzania. Mainland Prepared by the Planning Commission and the Ministry of Labour and Youth Development, with assistance from UNDP/ILO/URT/91/028.