Environmental Law Regulations of Pesticide Usage (PDF)

Diploma Thesis from the year 2008 in the subject Environmental Sciences, grade: none, , course: Msc. Environmental Science, language: English, abstract: Over the years, the use of agricultural chemicals in agriculture has spread rapidly in Tanzania. The compliance of the pesticide application regulations seems not to be appropriate with the purpose of sustainable development as the result environmental degradation continues rapidly. A number of studies have shown that enforcement has not received sufficient attention of compliance from decision makers, and low environmental performance and violations of environmental laws have been spread.
The aim of this study was to assess the gaps between enforcers and compliers, towards environmental management of pesticides in relation to enforcement for compliance with the existing legislation.

Data was collected using structured questionnaires based on Table Eleven, a total number of 40 and 15 from target group and government officials were selected respectively in Shinyanga district. Based on the approach of the Table of Eleven, the research reveals the factors affecting compliance behaviours of the target groups and look into the performance of enforcement system in improving compliance. Table of Eleven software were used to analyze the perceptions of both the regulated and the regulators with respect to the law and its enforcement.

Results showed that the full compliance of law requirements is still weak. The main factors encouraging the violating behaviour are unfamiliarity and lack of clarity of the law, lack of acceptance of the policy objectives, low risk of being reported by social communities, low risk of sanction and severity of sanction. All these factors reflect the main weakness of the enforcement system.

Following these results it was recommended that training should be emphasized to the target group to create awareness on regulation issues. Through gaining knowledge the target group will understand and accept the regulations, hence dimensions of unfamiliarity, lack of clarity and lack of acceptance of policy objectives will be improved.

Keywords: Effectiveness, Compliance, Enforcement, agricultural chemicals, regulation