Mainstreaming Climate Change Considerations in Small-scale Sand Mining: Practical Challenges in Selected Villages in Mvomero District, Tanzania

Small-Scale Sand Mining (SSSM) is a common socio-economic activity that employs many members of rural communities in Tanzania. This is largely because it is practiced widely across nearly all districts in the country, where it provides earnings for youth, men and women and supports the construction sector, particularly in fast-growing urban areas. Nonetheless, SSSM appears to be less regulated compared to large-scale mining of precious metals, despite the fact that relevant mining, land and environmental laws formally apply to both scales of mining activities. Such a reality poses a significant threat, which is a pressing global concern, through practices such as clearance of indigenous vegetation, deep excavation, land degradation, and greenhouse gas emissions associated with sand transportation. Notably, this threat is exacerbated by legal, institutional and practical limitations in regulating SSSM. This study focuses on practical limitations, using Mvomero District as a model to exemplify practical limitations that impede mainstreaming of climate change considerations in SSSM activities. This paper adopted a qualitative research methodology. Data was collected through documentary review, interviews, focus group discussions and direct observation to examine how SSSM is practiced on the ground. It found that the manner in which SSSM activities are handled in Mvomero District may exacerbate climate change and its impacts, owing to practices such as unregulated expansion of mining areas beyond legal limits, minimal distance between adjacent SSSM sites, deep excavation that interferes with soil moisture and water tables, inadequate rehabilitation of exhausted sites, weak accountability mechanisms, and increased greenhouse gas emissions from sand transportation. The paper calls for concerted, consistent and inclusive efforts to prevent harmful SSSM practices from further contributing to climate variation in the District.