Critical Zones Africa (CZA) is funded through the generous support of the Science for Africa Foundation.
The study explores the unique and complex wetland of Kilombero, a RAMSAR site since 2000, and an important watershed, biodiversity habitat and agricultural productive area for rice and sugarcane. The valley is among the priority clusters of the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) which is considered highly potential for agribusiness opportunities due to fertile alluvial soils and a network of actors across multiple value chains. Moreover, Kilombero wetland connects the protected areas of Udzungwa Mountains National Park, Kilombero Nature Reserve and Udzungwa Scarp Forest Nature Reserve to the Selous Nyerere National Park.
The valley receives upstream water from the Udzungwa mountains while also supporting wildlife migration from the surrounding protected areas. While the water is retained for fishing, wildlife and agriculture, the significant amount is filtered for downstream uses for hydropower generation and floodplain agriculture in the lower Rufiji and the delta.
The growing populations of both people, wildlife and livestock complicate the governance of resources in the area hence attracting different kinds of competing interests in conservation and development initiatives. For example, at the same time that agricultural intensification is ongoing (with expansion of irrigation, use of fertilizers and pesticides), ecological connectivity is also constructed involving the construction of wildlife corridors and migratory routes across sugarcane and rice fields in addition to hydropower generation downstream. All these activities have caused complex local relations and tensions.
While the complexity of Kilombero has attracted competing interests of both local and international actors, scientific investigations that lay grounds for the protection of this vital landscape have not thought about the valley as a water common/critical zone. Against this background, this study carefully considers relations in this critical zone, and will focus on addressing a science gap in relation to financialisation of the economy that compromise the very sustainability of different interventions. We ask how useful is the Critical Zone approach – thinking vertically – for improving land-use decisions from Kilombero to Lower Rufiji, in the context of Tanzania’s Green Revolution.
The proposed study comprises senior and junior researchers as well as PhD and Masters projects at the University of Dar es Salaam. The team will investigate soil and water flows in the Kilombero valley and Rufiji River basin considering relations in this critical zone. It will also investigate nutrients and contaminants in the context of landscape change in the 30 years past, in order to project 30 years into the future. This will involve more focussed student research in the following areas:
- Soil and water contamination upstream to downstream
- Agricultural intensification (rice and sugarcane)
- Ecological flows/constructing connectivity (looking at water catchment protection and dams, waste management, salinity at the ocean edge; sediments, toxins in relation to hydropower production and livelihood improvement programmes; flooding in relation to dam management using old models pre climate change
- Relationship of science and farmers – building a people’s science
- Public engagement methods via radio
- Urbanisation and environmental change: past and potential future changes
- Generational changes – senses of society, self, soil and futures – paradigm shift to single year productivity via Green Agricultural Revolution
Research team
Principal Investigator (PI) = primary contact for the site
Research fellows
Graduate cohort
Site partner
