Kangalawe, Richard Y. M.
Description:
Land degradation particularly through soil erosion is an important concern in many parts of the world including semiarid areas of central Tanzania. One of the issues that have gained importance is the concern on implications of local perceptions in resource management. The Irangi Hills (Figure 1) are severely affected by soil degradation; hence they provide a vivid example for studying environmental degradation, local perceptions, and land-management strategies that the local population use to cope with the degradation problems [1]. The Irangi Hills have been influenced by various land management interventions, for example, the implementation of various soil-conservation measures that have contributed to considerable changes in the spatial and temporal land-use patterns during the 20th century, and particularly over the last four decades. The Irangi Hills, located in Kondoa District in semiarid, central Tanzania (Figure 1), constitute about 10% (c. 1256 km2) of the District area that has been particularly affected by sheet and gully soil erosion [2, 3,4, 5, 6,7]. In many places soil erosion has reduced the agricultural potential of the land by the physical removal of topsoil, sand deposition on lower slopes and valley floors, and gullying and incipient badlands development [7]. The sub-humid, north-eastern parts of the Irangi Hills are more severely degraded than the semiarid south and south-west.