New Ideas Concerning Arts and Social Studies Vol. 5

The paper aims to analyse the changes in sustainable living in Mtwara Rural District, Tanzania, by assessing the effects of gas extraction operations. A household survey was conducted between July and October 2020, whereby a questionnaire was administered to the household heads who were sampled for the study. Key informant interviews (KIIs) and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) were recorded, transcribed, and analysed together with field observations. The results show that gas extraction has had an adverse impact on changes in livelihood activities in general in the study area. Local communities residing closer to the gas extraction plant had higher livelihood diversity, especially in sea-shells collection, farming and farm wage labour and carpentry, compared to villages away from the gas processing plant. In order to bring equitable livelihood changes and outcomes among households, it is recommended to the Local Government Authority and non-governmental organizations involved in promoting livelihood improvement through extractive investments to promote local communities households ownership of resources by allowing them to have more access and control of their natural resources including gas, land as well as addressing the constraints for household residing close to extractive investment operations. Hence, incorporating those changes, analysing their impact on households' well-being, and designing various coping strategies for mitigating such events would probably shed more light on poverty reduction and promotion of sustainable livelihoods in rural areas affected by gas extraction.