This National Invasive Species Strategy and Action Plan (NISSAP) is a 10-year nationwide sectoral document aiming at protecting Tanzania’s biodiversity, ecosystem services, and livelihood assets from invasive species and their negative impacts by (i) presenting the national strategy for managing invasive species in Tanzania; (ii) providing an overview of invasive species in Tanzania, their impacts (such as make ecosystems less resilient to future shocks such as drought or further climate change), existing and potential plans for management, including issues such as climate change adaptation and mitigation, better land use planning as well as population and water use regulations; (iii) addressing the key aspects related to introductions, pathways, and management options of priority invasive species in each sector. Important aspects such as the need for effective intra- and inter-sectorial communication and coordination; improved operationalization and enforcement of laws and regulations; and capacity building in research and monitoring have also been covered in the Strategy. The actions are categorized into three levels of implementation priorities, namely (1) critical, those that should be implemented immediately after the endorsement of the Strategy; (2) high priority, those that should be initiated as soon as possible but their implementation is contingent upon prior actions being undertaken; (3) medium priority, those that are deemed important but not essential for successful implementation of the Strategy.
The Strategy contains the following six strategic objectives (1) prevent the introduction and spread of new IS; (2) reduce negative impacts of existing priority IS; (3) enhance national capacity to manage and research on IS; (4) enhance stakeholder’s education awareness and participation on the management of IS; (5) mainstream IS management into regulatory tools; (6) strengthen and promote collaboration and coordination with stakeholders on the management of IS.
The main actions to be taken to achieve the aforementioned objectives are (i) identify and manage priority pathways and vectors of IS introduction and spread; (ii) strengthen and enforce regulations dealing with the importation and movement of live materials; (iii) develop and strengthen a national IS database; (iv) improve existing monitoring standards and protocols for managing IS; (v) provide adequate, stable, long-term investments in the national capacity to detect and implement management and research measures on IS; (vi) intervene on the low level of education, public awareness, inadequate extension services and poor participation of stakeholders in the management of invasive species; (vii) identify and capacitate agencies responsible for enforcement of regulatory tools on IS.
The Implementation of the NISSAP will be guided by the National Environmental Management Act (EMA), 2004. The overall coordination, communication and reporting of the Strategy will be under the Vice President’s Office (VPO), Division of Environment, Biodiversity and Conservation. The costs estimated for the implementation of the Strategy over a period of 10 years should be covered by the funds raised from the government and various development partners.
