The Usage of social media in Creating Land Degradation Awareness in Rombo District, Kilimanjaro Region - Tanzania

Abstract

The environment is the fundamental for all living things, and land conservation is of greater apprehension for the sustainable economic development. To attain higher level of land conservation there should be greater effort in creating awareness to people on land degradation conservation. The study aimed to find out the usage of social media in creating land degradation awareness. Specifically, the study intended to: find out the causes of land degradation, identify the status on the usage of social media for land degradation awareness, likely determine the type of social media frequently used for land degradation awareness. The field work covered Rombo district in the Kilimanjaro region Tanzania, where five administrative wards were scrutinized, to mention: Tarakea, Motamburu, Olele, Mahida, and Ngoyoni. Data was collected employing household survey and interview and analysed using descriptive and thematic analysis techniques. The results show that the usage of social media that can be used in creating land degradation awareness includes providing education through media for peoples to understand relationship between human activities and land quality, providing user-friendly tools for knowledge sharing, enabling users to create, edit and add online contents, engaging discussions through social media on environmental issues as well as reporting on land degradation. Further, social media can be used to create land degradation awareness to peoples in Rombo district by 59%.  It was concluded that, public campaign program to enhance awareness on land degradation should be strengthened through the usage of social media for sustainable land usage.