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Soil erosion, iron smelting and human settlement in the Haubi Basin, north-central Tanzania

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Paul Lane ,
Bertram B. B. Mapunda  and
Mats Eriksson
Paul Lane
Affiliation:
British Institute in Eastern Africa, PO Box 30710, Nairobi, Kenya. [email protected]
Bertram B. B. Mapunda
Affiliation:
Archaeology Unit, University of Dar es Salaam, PO Box 35050, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. [email protected]
Mats Eriksson
Affiliation:
Dept for Natural Resources and the Environment, SIDA, 10525 Stockholm, Sweden. [email protected]
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Extract

The Haubi Basin, situated in the Irangi Hills of Kondoa District, Dodoma Region, Tanzania (FIGURE 1), exhibits some of the most extreme examples of erosion and associated sedimentation in the region (Christiansson 1981; Payton et al. 1992) (FIGLIRE 2). The severity of the problem, with its consequent loss of productive land, has been known since the beginning of the 20th century (Kannenberg 1900; Obst 1915). Recognition of the extent and severity of the issues encouraged the British colonial government to introduce a variety of measures aimed at soil conservation in the 1930s (Fosbrooke 1950). These included the construction of check-dams, contour bunds and contour planting with sisal. After independence, a second programme of soil conservation measures was launched. These were initially similar to those employed under colonialism, but later included de-stocking, resulting in the removal of some 90,000 livestock from the most severely eroded areas. As in the colonial period, recent overexploitation of land resources by local populations was regarded as the primary explanation for the continuing soil erosion.

Type
Special section
Information
Antiquity , Volume 75 , Issue 290 , December 2001 , pp. 803 - 804
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2001

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References

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