Dar Es Salaam — THE cost of soil erosion on the agricultural lands and forest degradation has been estimated to be over one third of the national Gross Domestic Product ( GDP).
The estimated costs of environmental degradation in the lakes and rivers due to excessive loads of sediments and nutrients caused by soil erosion may be even higher.
The Minister of State in the Vice-President's Office (Environment), Dr Batilda Burian said that a vicious cycle links desertification to declining agricultural productivity and individual income levels leading to severe economic crisis and poverty.
The minister made the remarks during the ongoing five days workshop on up scaling investments in sustainable land management which is set to discuss and agree on the mechanism of broadening the scope of planning processes beyond specific sectors.
In her speech read on her behalf by the Director of Administration and Personnel in the Vice-President's office, Mr Raymond Moshi, the minister said commercial agriculture will improve land management, consequently leading to increased production.
"This will also entail an increased quantum of resources to be mobilized and ensure private sector increased investment in agriculture," she said.
Dr Buriani said that although climate change is a challenge, the measures to address it brings in enormous opportunities for private sector to contribute in dealing with the impacts of climate change, combating land degradation, improving land productivity as well as reducing poverty among people.
Opportunities such as the carbon trade, reduced emissions from forest and forest degradation, REDD, gives great opportunity for private sector and other actors to engage in this activities and participate in emission reduction, she said.
In his remarks, the Acting Director of Environment in the Vice-President's Office, Mr Steven Nkondokaya said that the workshop intended to create an enabling environment for mobilizing internal, external and innovative resources to provide an investment framework for sustainable land management.
He said that the workshop will help to ensure that sustainable land management related development policies and strategies receive adequate resource allocations in public budgets and expenditure framework.
He said that it is estimated that about 45-75 per cent of the country is a dry land and that land degradation has significantly reduced and continues to reduce economic productivity of the land resulting into desert like conditions.
