Land use dynamics in peri-urban areas and their implications on the urban growth and form: the case of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

It is argued that for an unforeseeable future, organic urban growth is likely to remain an indispensable reality depicting urban land development in resource starved situations such as Tanzania because of the severe resource constraints facing local and central governments, the nature of the subsisting land tenure structure in most peri-urban areas, poor national economic performance and looming poverty in rural and urban areas. Therefore, planners and policy makers have little choice but to ensconce and consolidate the emerging form. Decentralised land management anchored on the subsisting local government administrative structures, introduction of user-friendly and pro-poor land regularisation systems, and embarking on land banking by local authorities are some of the key and immediate policy action areas of concern.