Artisanal mining in Southern Tanzania: Preliminary reflections on a ‘Green squeeze’

Abstract

Artisanal miners in Mabadaga Village, Southern Tanzania, operate in an environment defined by multiple livelihoods, plural authorities, and changing institutions for resource governance. This complexity is being exacerbated by a green squeeze: intensifying pressure on certain small-scale producers resulting, in part, from the creation and expansion of a protected areas network across the region. In this article, we discuss a few key ways that the miners in Mabadaga Village are being impacted by, and creatively adapting to, their plural and changing institutional environment. In doing so, we highlight the miners’ adaptability, flexibility, and tenacity in trying to navigate formal and informal institutions at the interface of artisanal mining and the green economy. However, we conclude that, as small-scale producers who do not fit neatly into the green economy, the miners are literally and figuratively being squeezed out of their livelihoods while being excluded from accessing the benefits of the region’s emergent green economy. From this double-disadvantaged position, the tenacity of the miners appears to be no match against a green squeeze that is increasingly rendering their livelihoods precarious, unpredictable, and beyond their control.