As indicated in the National Environmental Policy of 1997, Tanzania faces several environmental challenges which include land degradation, lack of accessible good quality water for both rural and urban habitants; loss of biodiversity, deteriorations of aquatic systems, deforestation, environmental pollutions, climate change and a scant financial resource to address these challenges.

The impacts of environmental degradation affect vital sectors that have direct effects to agriculture, food systems and people’s livelihoods.

We, the Inter-faith Standing Committee on Economic Justice and Integrity of Creation and members of Policy Forum, having gathered at the alternative Mining Conference in Arusha from the 19th and 20th October 2011 have deliberated for two days on the negative impacts of mining on communities and the environment, we issue a call to the Tanzania government and parliament to live up to their mandated roles by acting on behalf of communities who have not received tangible benefits from mining activities that have claimed chunks of their ancestral lands.

As the world faces an energy crisis due to limited oil reserves and a problem of climate change due to greenhouse emissions, increasingly, biofuels (fuel consisting of, or derived from biomass) are seen as the panaecea to these two predicaments by providing an alternative to fossil fuels. Countries of the developed North and the corporate world has been at the forefront of pushing for this alternative which is seen as a win-win solution (i.e. energy security is enhanced whilst the environment is protected).