Many governments in developing countries including Tanzania have embarked upon an ambitious effort to conclude bilateral investment treaties. Bilateral investment treaties (BITs) are currently used as a famous means for establishing the legal framework for foreign investment in the world. BITs have been entered to by Tanzania mostly to improve the foreign investment climate and hence attract more foreign investment. Foreign investors are often worried about the quality of host countries institutions and enforceability of the law in developing countries. As a result, BITs guarantee them certain standards of treatments that can be enforced through investor state dispute settlement in international tribunals. Developing countries conclude BITs and accept restrictions on their sovereignty in the hope that the protection from political and other risks lead to increase in FDI flows. BITs aspire to protect, promote and in some instances to remove obstacles to foreign investment flows without looking at their implications on sustainable development. The purpose of this research is to examine the BITs framework in Tanzania, explores the increasing persuasiveness of these agreements in promoting FDIs and their impacts upon sustainable development. Sustainable development here refers to development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The thesis tries to look at what BITs say and identifies a number of key emerging development linkages and their implications on sustainable development. The thesis demonstrates that some BITs provisions have been seen to have disturbing and potentially worrying legal and policy implications for host states. Most BITs offer an avenue for dispute settlement mechanism that permits foreign investors to take host states to international arbitrations in cases where the investor alleges that the treaty’s provisions have been violated. As will be seen in this paper, the number of treaty based arbitrations has enormously increased in recent years. One of the main findings of the research is that, BITs are not mutually beneficial agreements and are one sided in favour of capital exporting countries. They are unbalance and can hardly provide the basis for a durable investment regime though they are reciprocal in appearance. Despite the fact that they establish equal rights and duties for both sides, capital flows from one side only. Thus, it is argued in this thesis that BITs lack clarity and consistency as benefits will accrue to the capital exporting countries. The thesis further argues that Tanzania faces some challenges regarding the provisions of BITs already concluded. Foreign investors are increasingly aware of the protection available under BITs, and increasingly inclined to invoke those rights in the face of undesirable government initiatives or proposals. The dissertation concludes that BITs will harbour important consequences for Tanzania and may have significant adverse implications if not well negotiated. It further reveals that BITs are not efficient in promoting sustainable development and there is a need for investment agreement to be balanced in a development dimension. Most of the treaties compare unfavourably with the model investment agreement drafted by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), and that the latter agreement provides a more development friendly template for such agreements. For that reason, Tanzania has to review its BITs so as to ensure that they are in harmony with the country’s broader social and economic principles for sustainable development. / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Centre for Human Rights / unrestricted

Canadian bitumen is mainly transported in a diluted form via pipeline and train, all posing a risk as they can lead to the release of diluted bitumen (dilbit) in the environment. In the summer of 2018, a collaborative large-scale field experiment was conducted at the International Institute for Sustainable Development - Experimental Lakes Area (IISD-ELA), a world-renowned aquatic research facility. The research objectives of the Boreal lake Oil Release Experiment by Additions to Limnocorrals (BOREAL) project were to understand the fate, behaviour, and potential toxic effects of dilbit in a freshwater Boreal lake to inform evidence-based management strategies for the transport of dilbit. A range of controlled dilbit spills was performed in seven 10 m diameter limnocorrals (~100,000 L of water) resulting in environmentally realistic dilbit:water dilutions ranging from 1:69,200 to 1:504, representing the upper half of the distribution of oil spill sizes in North America in the last decade. Additionally, two limnocorrals not treated with dilbit were studied as controls. This thesis identifies the bioaccumulating compounds derived from naturally weathered dilbit in adult giant floater mussels (Pyganodon grandis), to determine the rates at which they were accumulated and excreted. More specifically, the bioaccumulation potential and toxicokinetic parameters of polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs) and various metals were assessed in mussels exposed ex situ for 41 days (25 days of exposure and 16 days of depuration) to water from the limnocorrals. These compounds have shown to be toxic, carcinogenic, and mutagenic to aquatic organisms. Mussels exposed to dilbit-contaminated water experienced significantly greater TPACs concentrations (0.40 – 0.90 µg L-1, n=12) compared to mussels from the Control (0.017 µg L-1, n=4). Furthermore, dilbit-contaminated water had a higher proportion of alkylated PACs compared to their parent counterpart, demonstrating petrogenic PAC profiles. We detected significantly greater TPACs concentrations in mussels exposed to dilbit-contaminated water (25.92 – 27.79 µg g-1, ww Lipid, n=9, at day 25 of the uptake phase) compared to mussels from the Control (average of 2.62 ± 1.95 µg g-1, ww Lipid; ±SD, n=17). Alkylated PACs represented 96.4 ± 1.8%, ±SD, n=12 of TPACs in mussels from dilbit-contaminated treatments at day 25 of the uptake phase, indicating the importance of conducting a more inclusive assessment of petrochemical mixtures as most studies only focus on parent PACs. From first-order one-compartment models derived from nonlinear curve fitting of the accumulation phase or sequential modelling method, uptake (0.66 – 24.65 L g-1 day-1, n=87) and depuration (0.012 – 0.37 day-1, n=87) kinetic rate constants, as well as bioconcentration factors (log values from 3.85 – 6.12 L kg-1, n=87) for the 29 PACs that bioaccumulated in mussels suggested that alkylated PACs have greater bioaccumulation potential compared to their parent PAC counterpart. Results from this study also demonstrated that giant floater mussels could be used to biomonitor PAC contamination following oil spills as PACs accumulated in mussel tissue and were still present following the 16 day depuration phase. The results of this study are the largest, most comprehensive set of toxicokinetic and bioaccumulation information of PACs (44 analytes) in freshwater mussels obtained to date. Metal contamination following the controlled dilbit spill was minimal, but mussels exposed to water contaminated with naturally weathered dilbit experienced elevated concentrations of dissolved zinc (30.26 – 38.26 µg L-1, n=12) compared to the mussels in the uncontaminated water (6.75 ± 3.31 µg L-1, n=4), surpassing the Canadian water quality guidelines for the protection of aquatic life. However, it is not clear if dilbit contamination caused elevated zinc concentrations in the water as other factors, such as limnocorral building materials and/or galvanized minnow traps used in the limnocorrals, could have contributed to zinc contamination. Nonetheless, giant floater mussels did not accumulate zinc in their tissues.

System dynamics modelling has been used for around 40 years to address complex, systemic, dynamic problems, those often described as wicked. But, system dynamics modelling is not an exact science and arguments about the most suitable techniques to use in which circumstances, continues. The nature of these wicked problems is investigated through a series of case studies where poor situational awareness among stakeholders was identified. This was found to be an underlying cause for management failure, suggesting need for better ways of recognising and managing wicked problem situations. Human cognition is considered both as a limitation and enabler to decision-making in wicked problem environments. Naturalistic and deliberate decision-making are reviewed. The thesis identifies the need for integration of qualitative and quantitative techniques. Case study results and a review of the literature led to identification of a set of principles of method to be applied in an integrated framework, the aim being to develop an improved way of addressing wicked problems. These principles were applied to a series of cases in an action research setting. However, organisational and political barriers were encountered. This limited the exploitation and investigation of cases to varying degrees. In response to a need identified in the literature review and the case studies, a tool is designed to facilitate analysis of multi-factorial, non-linear causality. This unique tool and its use to assist in problem conceptualisation, and as an aid to testing alternate strategies, are demonstrated. Further investigation is needed in relation to the veracity of combining causal influences using this tool and system dynamics, broadly. System dynamics modelling was found to have utility needed to support analysis of wicked problems. However, failure in a particular modelling project occurred when it was found necessary to rely on human judgement in estimating values to be input into the models. This was found to be problematic and unacceptably risky for sponsors of the modelling effort. Finally, this work has also identified that further study is required into: the use of human judgement in decision-making and the validity of system dynamics models that rely on the quantification of human judgement.

System dynamics modelling has been used for around 40 years to address complex, systemic, dynamic problems, those often described as wicked. But, system dynamics modelling is not an exact science and arguments about the most suitable techniques to use in which circumstances, continues. The nature of these wicked problems is investigated through a series of case studies where poor situational awareness among stakeholders was identified. This was found to be an underlying cause for management failure, suggesting need for better ways of recognising and managing wicked problem situations. Human cognition is considered both as a limitation and enabler to decision-making in wicked problem environments. Naturalistic and deliberate decision-making are reviewed. The thesis identifies the need for integration of qualitative and quantitative techniques. Case study results and a review of the literature led to identification of a set of principles of method to be applied in an integrated framework, the aim being to develop an improved way of addressing wicked problems. These principles were applied to a series of cases in an action research setting. However, organisational and political barriers were encountered. This limited the exploitation and investigation of cases to varying degrees. In response to a need identified in the literature review and the case studies, a tool is designed to facilitate analysis of multi-factorial, non-linear causality. This unique tool and its use to assist in problem conceptualisation, and as an aid to testing alternate strategies, are demonstrated. Further investigation is needed in relation to the veracity of combining causal influences using this tool and system dynamics, broadly. System dynamics modelling was found to have utility needed to support analysis of wicked problems. However, failure in a particular modelling project occurred when it was found necessary to rely on human judgement in estimating values to be input into the models. This was found to be problematic and unacceptably risky for sponsors of the modelling effort. Finally, this work has also identified that further study is required into: the use of human judgement in decision-making and the validity of system dynamics models that rely on the quantification of human judgement.