“This study will provide some insights that will contribute towards bringing about a balance on the views of the relationships between poverty and the environment. But beyond this the juxtaposition of mountains and plains like that found in the Usambara, replicates many times in Tanzania, from Kilimanjaro to Meru, Kilosa to Mbeya. In livelihoods too, there are pastoralists and other self-provisioning groups who have found great difficulties to adjust to social and environmental changes. An underlying concern is the relationship between population density and natural resources. Invariably there are Malthusian overtones and this means that there is serious need to examine this inter-relationship. For instance at the turn of the century the population density in the Usambara highlands was no greater than it is today in the plains around Mnazi ward. “