River Basin Planning and Management of Wetlands

Abstract

The Rufiji River basin has wetlands with economic functions that require conservation; these functions have hitherto been taken for granted. Mismanagement of this basin wouldhave direct effects on these various functions and their values. The execution of largeprojects (e.g. hydropower and irrigation) may have effects which need to be evaluated.Coordinated planning and management at the river basin level is required for the sustainableutilisation of wetlands. To illustrate river basin planning, the catchment of the Rufiji River has been used as anexample in this paper. The Rufiji Basin (Figure 1) is the largest catchment basin in Tanzania, covering 177,420 km2, and has the highest potential for hydropower in Tanzania.