8033. EIA and environmental permitting in Zanzibar

The Government of Zanzibar requested cooperation with the Netherlands on the topic of impact assessment in 2013. Between mid-2014 and the end of 2016 the NCEA implemented a cooperation project with the Zanzibar Environmental Management Authority (ZEMA) and the Department of Environment (DoE), focused on capacity building in this area. The project was funded by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO.nl).  The RVO approved a new cooperation project, building on the previous one. The project started early 2017 and will have a duration of two and a half years.

Advisory reports and other documents

Significant details

For this project the following results have been identified:

1. Strengthened collaboration between ZEMA and other authorities;

2. Improved ZEMA’s operational capacity to process EIAs, including structural changes to the financing of EIA tasks;

3. Improved EIA review practice for ZEMA and the mainland National Environmental Management Council (NEMC), including drafting of permitting conditions.

The project started with an inception phase, during which the results and activities were further detailed and realistic result indicators have been developed.

During an NCEA visit in September 2017, the two organisations jointly worked on structure and content for the ZEMA website. This site will be instrumental in informing project developers on ESIA requirements. Preparations were also set in motion for an ESIA awareness raising event for the tourism sector, which took place in September 2018 (Tourism day).

As the majority of the ESIAs in Zanzibar takes place in the tourism sector, ZEMA requested the NCEA to organize a three day workshop on ESIA review with a focus on tourism in February 2018. NEMC (the ZEMA of Tanzania mainland) and several local government representatives were amongst the audience. The participants practiced the process of ESIA review on 3 ESIA cases. The focus was on translating the review results into conditions to be put in the Environmental Certificate. Also, a start was made with drafting a review checklist for tourism projects.

In November 2018, the NCEA organized a two-day workshop on EIA for tourism projects at the request of NEMC in Dar es Salaam. This is a repetition of the above mentioned workshop for more people from NEMC and at their own budget. This seemed like a good opportunity for a renewed exchange between ZEMA, DoE and NEMC. From the ongoing project cooperation budget between NCEA and ZEMA, the participation of 6 Zanzibar participants could be arranged, and the workshop was then linked to a 1 day NEMC/ZEMA exchange on specific EIA topics such as database, web-site, and fees & charges.

In March of 2019, the NCEA organised a three-day workshop on reviewing ESIAs for oil and gas related projects. This workshop took place in Zanzibar, and was attended by staff from the Mainland NEMC as well.
Finally, in June 2019, a delegation from Zanzibar and Mainland visited the Netherlands for a week-long study tour, with the aim to share experiences and lessons-learnt from Dutch ESIA practice.

Parties involved

Members of the working group

Technical secretary: Ineke Steinhauer

Further details

Country: Tanzania; Zanzibar (Tanzania)

Last modified: 11 Aug 2022