Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar have rich marine and coastal resources which provide a livelihood
and major food source for many of the estimated 16 million people living in the coastal areas or on the
main islands of Zanzibar and Tanzania. However those resources, particularly fisheries are being
overexploited, and harvests are beginning to fall. The government of Tanzania seeks to improve
fisheries management and improve the economic benefits that come from the fisheries and
mariculture sectors, through participation in a new regional World Bank regional fisheries governance
program, the First South West Indian Ocean Fisheries Governance and Shared Growth Project
(SWIOFish1).
Tanzania intends to use the technical assistance and funding from the World Bank to improve its
ability to capture data on its fisheries resources, perform monitoring surveillance and control activities
to improve its tax collection efforts from international offshore fishers, as well as benefit from the
considerable migration that takes place among fishers from different countries.
Required as a condition of World Bank funding, this document is the Environmental and Social
Assessment (ESA) for the First South West Indian Ocean Fisheries Governance and Shared Growth
Project (SWIOFish1) project planned for the United Republic of Tanzania, which includes the coastal
and marine zones and economies of Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar.
The SWIOFish1 Project Development Objective (PDO) is to improve the management effectiveness
of selected priority fisheries at the regional, national and community level, ideally in all the 11
countries that make up the South West Indian Ocean (SWIO) Region. Tanzania is one of the first
SWIO countries to participate in the initial rollout of SWIOFish1.
The overall objective of the Environmental and Social Assessment (ESA) is to evaluate the
biophysical and socio-economic impacts of the SWIOFish1 project, and to develop an Environmental
and Social Management Framework and Involuntary Resettlement Process Framework to manage
these impacts in a way that meets national requirements and World Bank Safeguard policies. The
Process Framework is presented in a separate document.
There are four components in SWIOFish1. Component 1 includes a series of activities that will be
implemented in individual SWIO countries but focused on regional cooperation. It is anticipated that
all SWIO countries, including Tanzania, will participate in this activity.
The other three components have common objectives for all participating SWIO countries, but will
have country-specific project activities. This ESA focuses strictly on the component activities being
implemented in Tanzania and Zanzibar.