Abstract:
Eviction of people for establishment of protected areas is often accompanied with negative
consequences to the livelihoods of the evicted. This study assessed the eviction process
and its effects on the socio-ecological resilience of the evicted, examined coping strategies
for the evicted and analysed socio-economic factors that affected socio-ecological
resilience of people evicted for establishment of Uluguru Nature Reserve in Morogoro,
Tanzania. The results show that most of the evicted did not receive eviction notice prior to
eviction nor proper training on how to cope with the eviction. There was also low
involvement of the evicted in planning the eviction. Most of the evicted had low ability to
reorganize themselves after the eviction. Provision of casual labour was mostly adopted by
the evicted as a coping strategy after the eviction because they could not adopt other coping
strategies. This resulted in reduced income and certainty of livelihood. Male respondents
were better informed and better able to reorganise than female respondents. It is
recommended that eviction planning should be participatory and include provision of
appropriate prior information to the to-be evicted in a gender-considerate manner in order
to enhance their socio-ecological resilience in the face of eviction.
