Full text available at http://www.academicjournals.org/app/webroot/article/article1380634546_Yanda%20and%20Shishira.pdf
The livelihoods of most people in developing countries
depend on direct utilization of natural resources surrounding
them. Sometimes circumstances arise be it natural
or of their own making that impact negatively or positively
on the level of the natural resources availability. Under
such circumstances, human beings, try to device means
of coping with the change. It is important to learn and
document how different communities cope with changing
environment so that appropriate policies may be formulated.
The underlying hypothesis is that in a geographical
area consisting of varying potentials, people would naturally
tend to exploit first, areas where they will gain more
productivity with minimum investment. Then they would
move towards the marginal areas with delicate environmental
balance as resources become depleted in the
formally high potential areas. This phenomenon is exami-ned in the Pare-Usambara area of northeastern Tanzania
where highlands are highly endowed with natural resources
and are surrounded by marginally endowed
lowlands on the west