Drivers of Undesirable Land Use Practices in Nzovwe River Catchment, Mbeya-Tanzania

Despite the presence of laws, guidelines and policies regulating riparian land use, the Nzovwe River catchment is facing rampant undesirable land use within 60m of the buffer zone. This study was set to investigate the drivers of undesirable land use in the catchment. Questionnaires and key informant checklists were used to collect primary data from heads of households and key informants respectively. Statistical Package for Social Sciences was used to perform descriptive and inferential analyses of data. A content analysis was used to analyse key informants’ data. The Geographical Information System (GIS) was used to obtain and analyse land use images of the study area. Results as per key informants’ perspective revealed that lack of political will, administrative fragmentation, limited reallocation compensation funds, law ambiguities and poor land use planning are the drivers of undesirable land use in the catchment. The heads of households argued that undesirable land use in catchment is driven by poor governance (69.4%), negligence (52.4%), ignorance (35.3%), increased demand for land (52.9%), lack of LUP (15.1%), poverty (36.7%), law ambiguities (2.4%) and lack of political will (8.3%). We recommend that the government should emphasize the enhancement of social learning, participatory LUP and research-based policies