The revolutionary government of zanzibar



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3.3: Climate


The climate of Zanzibar is tropical and maritime, and follows the monsoon winds (Poyry, 1987) i.e. the northeast trade winds from December to February and the southeast monsoon from March to November (NCDP, 1980). The main rain season (masika) occurs between March and June, caused by the southeast monsoon winds. The short rains (vuli), usually starts in October and ends in December. However, some inter-monsoonal precipitation takes place. Record shows that one fifth of total rainfalls between the rain seasons (Poyry, 1987), which is dominated by a binomial rainfall pattern (NCDP, 1980; Kombo, 1994).
According to Khiari (1992), the whole pattern of rainfall of the islands has changed in terms of amount and reliability. Consequently the current rain season have been observed to start late and end early and abrupt; hence shorter period of rain with less water. These changes have negative impact on forest planting targets as planting programmes depends on the onset, duration and reliability of rainfall. The average rainfall for the island is about 1500 mm per annum. The maximum and minimum annual rainfall is 1800 mm and 1400 mm respectively. February to late March is the driest period of the year with about 20mm of rainfall. The highest temperatures occur during the short dry season with a maximum mean of 33oC in Unguja and 29oC in Pemba. The minimum temperatures for Unguja and Pemba are 23.3oC and 21.1oC, respectively (Wirth et al, 1988).

3.4: Soils


The Zanzibar soils are mainly categorized into two classes; the shallow, infertile, rocky coral rag soils in the east and deep, fertile soils in the west. In the coral rag shifting cultivation is the dominant farming system where as the deep soils support permanent agriculture and plantations crops hence, they are densely populated compared to coral rag areas (Review Mission, 1991). Predominantly, Zanzibar bedrock and parent material consists of limestone of marine origin. Lager proportion of western side of the islands has been overlain with alluvial sands, silts and clays with freely drained reddish soils formed from these sediments termed "kichanga". Darker "kinongo" soils, derived from limestone parent materials, are found towards east. These soils become darker in colour with increasing humus content and pH as one moves further eastward. The soil depth decreases until finally coral rock is exposed on the surface with soil confined to pockets in depressions on the rock surface (Borsa, 1991). The remaining "kinamo" heavy soil type is found in isolated areas (Review Mission, 1991).

3.5: Ecology


The islands (Unguja and Pemba) are typical coastal low lying ecosystems basically influenced by the Indian Ocean and underlying coral limestone geology. Both islands are endowed with mangrove vegetation estimated to cover nearly 6.1%(16000 ha) of the total land area which is about 232,800 ha. The mangrove forest area is the second largest natural forest vegetation, after the coral rag thicket which is estimated to cover 40% of the total land area. As will appear below, the local economy is largely influenced by activities targeting exploitation of the marine and coral rag forest ecosystems.

3.6: Socio-economic profile


The economy of Zanzibar is mainly depending on cloves for export, subsistence agriculture and the newly adopted tourism industry. Since early 90's there has been a shift from monopolist economy to free enterprise as a measure towards economic recovery programme. Agricultural sector contribute about 50% share of GDP and employs nearly 70% (ZFDP, 1993) of labour force that earns about 90% of export value. The manufacturing sector has a potential for development if entrepreneurs could be found. The share of the public sector in the state's GDP is quite high. The major contribution has come from wholesale, retail trade and public administration. At present the Government of Zanzibar is the largest single employer in the country (ZFDP, 1991).
Economic Situation: Zanzibar economy is still highly dominated by and dependent upon the agricultural sector, mainly the production and sell of cloves and clove products. The good performance in past years is attributed to a very high production volume and a reasonable high external market price of the commodity compared to recent years.   Nevertheless, the share of agricultural sector to the overall output has been steadily declining from the level of 41.0 percent in 1995 to around 38.2 percent in 1999. Besides agriculture, trade tourism and other service sectors are major contributors to economic growth. The share of trade (including tourism has gradually increased from the level of 19.8 percent in 1995 to around to over 21.0 percent by 1999. Zanzibar imports almost 80 percent of her basic requirements (including from mainland Tanzania). The prices and tax variations of most commodities have an inflationary pressure to consumers. Zanzibar has a very narrow export basket constituted by a few commodities, because import values are higher, Zanzibar has persistently operated a negative trade balance.
Agriculture Sector: Agriculture is the main contributor to GDP which is sometimes as high as 41.0 percent in 1995. Because the sector is predominantly dominated by cloves and clove products which brings in more than 70 percent of export and employs more than 60 percent of the labour force, growth fluctuations is eminent in most periods. Other cash crops include copra, seaweed, spices, fish products and some vegetables. The sector is very much constrained by lack of credits, use of out dated technology and insufficient extension services. Production of cloves has been varying from year to year based on the cyclical, production of the bud. In most times, Zanzibar experiences a bumper crop harvest after every 4 year cyclical. In recent years the highest production level was recorded in 1996 with 12,000 tons, followed by the lowest amount of 254 tons realized in 1998. Similarly, the world market price for cloves has been declining over the years. The highest price was attained noted in 1997 at US$ 9,000 per ton, compared to what was the price in 1977 of US$ 600 per ton.
Besides agriculture, fishing is another important economic activity in Zanzibar engaging more than 25 percent of the people especially those living near the coastal areas in the islands. Nevertheless, the type of fishing is still traditional and artesian, where production is low and subsistent.
Livestock keeping is of subsistence level too, based on both local and modern methods of breeding. The subsector constitutes an average level of 10.0 percent of GDP, however the production is still low resulting in the importation of cattle, eggs and even chicken from mainland.

In recent years seaweeds has come up as a supplement to cloves as a cash crop production. Between the years 1991 to 1998 a number of women along coastal villages engaged themselves in the production and sell of this crop. However, in recent years, the seaweed market was faced with problems of changing market demand and price fluctuation and uncertainly thus demoralizing the usually helpless small farmers.


Manufacturing sector: Zanzibar has a very small manufacturing sector. Its share to the overall GDP is in the average of 6.0 percent. It is almost stagnant, growing at a very low rate of less than 1.0 percent year. The sector is based towards chemical products and consumer goods such as food, beverages, tobacco and textile. Exports of finished /processed goods is insignificant contributing less than 5.0 percent of total export earnings. This proportion is attributed by products made under Economic Processing Zone (EPZ) type of manufacturing of manufacturing, limited furniture products and other wood products

Energy: The energy sector in Zanzibar is constituted by electric power, petroleum and petroleum products supplemented by firewood and its products. Coal and gas is rarely used both in domestic as well as for industrial use. Zanzibar gets 70 percent of its electric power needs from mainland Tanzania through a submarine cable and the rest, for Pemba is thermal generated. Between 70-75 percent of the electricity generated is domestically used while less than 20 percent is industrially used. Fuel wood, charcoal and kerosene is widely used as sources of energy for cooking and lighting for most parts of rural and urban areas.
By far, fuel wood (firewood and charcoal) comprise the main source of house hold energy on account of which, all fuelwood in Zanzibar town is commercialized. Zanzibar relies on wood imports from mainland Tanzania to bridge deficits in local supply.
Mining: All geological survey so far conducted have indicated that Zanzibar has no significant mineral deposits. In this respect, the mining sector of Zanzibar is constituted by stone quarrying used for construction and lime making. It is a very insignificant proportion but based on the importance of the resource to the construction sector, stone mining becomes an important ingredient to the lives of rural people especially those living in coral rag areas. Nerveless, non-sustainable management of quarrying business presents a major ecological concern in Zanzibar today.

Transport and Communications: The share of this sector to GDP has increased from 5.1 percent in 1998 to 5.5 percent by 1999. Zanzibar has a total road network of 1,600 kilometer of roads of which 85 percent are tarmac or all weather surface. The remaining is earth road which is annually rehabilitated to make it passable throughout the year. Zanzibar has now a thriving improved sea transport network which by using public owned ships and private speed boats serves the ports of Zanzibar, Dar es Salaam, Pemba, Tanga, Mtwara and Mombasa. Using the two main airports of Unguja and Pemba, Zanzibar is well connected to the rest of the world. The Zanzibar main airport can now handle bigger planes, which has resulted in an increase in passenger and cargo inflows and outflows. Similarly, Zanzibar is well served by the newly restructured public telecommunication company (TTCL) and 4 private owned mobile systems. Through, these systems the whole of Zanzibar (Unguja and Pemba) is widely covered and connected to most parts of the world.

Building and Construction: Construction of both public and private infrastructure constitutes another small proportion of the overall output. In recent years, this sector has generated a proportion of 3-3.5 percent of GDP.


Financial Sector: Accessibility to credits and other financial resources is an important ingredient towards social and economic development. Although, Zanzibar has very little control on monetary policy issues and the levels of its financial institutions is very low, yet the existing national bank of PBZ, NBC, Postal Bank and other small financial institutions play a significant role in serving the economy.
Employment: By 2003, Zanzibar had an employed force of 33,870 out of which, the government accounted for 75.2 percent (25,788) of the total, the private sector engaged 13.9 percent (4,379) and public enterprises had 6.0 percent (2,043). Employment in non-government organizations and foreign companies operating in Zanzibar engaged 4.9 percent (1,666) of total employment force. Thus, the government and its institutions is the single largest employer (budget speech for 2003/04). It is the government policy as defined within the Zanzibar Vision 2020 to promote the private sector as the main employer and the generator of more employment opportunities.
A total of 10,000 school leavers enter the job market annually. However, the majority of the youths are ill prepared professionally because the education system fails to provide necessary professional skills or trades with the result that such youth have nothing to do except loitering, drug abuse and working as commercial sex workers (budget speech, 2003/04). As part of the strategy to arrest the deteriorating youth situation, the Ministry of Education and vocation Training is reviewing its education curricula and master plan to focus more weight on technical education, functional education and labour market demands, a policy strategy that will be partly operationized through the ZSEP.
Economic Prospects: The economy of Zanzibar is continuously is largely affected instability of clove prices in the world market, fluctuation if in oil prices, and the rise in prices of many intermediate goods and machinery which Zanzibar imports. The good weather as well as the improved prices in external market is however expected to stimulate economic performance but real growth is expected from the current emphasis on non-agricultural sectors mainly industrial and services sectors. This with the current and on-going pace of investment and stability, the economy was expected to sustain at an average level of 5.0 percent the early 2ist century.


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