A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Award of Masters of Laws (International Law) of Mzumbe University
This research deals with the assessment of international instruments and municipal laws present in Tanzania, to determine the extent of their contribution to protection of the coastal zone environment. The rationale behind this study came from the fact that the Constitution of United Republic of Tanzania 1977 (as amended) has not addressed enough the aspect of environment, likewise the Environment Management Act of 2004 has not addressed in precise terms the coastal zone management despite making it an offence for anyone to pollute environment. The study involved both, the library and field research. The researcher employed two techniques namely purposive and snowball sampling whereby the former type of sampling procedure enabled the researcher to get data from prominent respondents. While the later were applied to few selected experts as well as those with sufficient experience. The targeted population included 2 legal officers from the Office of Vice President, Environmental Division; 2 Officials from The National Environmental Council: 7 Lawyers from various NGOs: 10 Fishermen: and 5 different people: The work has five chapters and each chapter deals with a specific topic. The first chapter introduces the research and it deals with the background, statement of the problem and literature review among others. The second chapter is conceptual framework, in which some concepts regarding coastal environment have been covered. Chapter three looks into the legal and institutional framework. Findings are under chapter four. The last chapter is about the summary, conclusion and recommendations. The study shows that there are various causes of destruction of the coastal environment. The notable are poverty, lack of environment education: corruptions, and poor planning on the part of the government. Also the study shows that the present legal regime in Tanzania has not addressed in precise terms the management of the coastal zone environment, therefore the researcher proposes, the establishment of national and international law specifically to address and protect the coastal zone environment.