ABSTRACT
Nepal undoubtedly constitutes one of the most prominent cases of endangered ecosystems in the world. Land productivity in Nepal stagnates inspite of increasing uses of fertilizer what could be interpreted as a clear indication of land degradation and excessive utilization of natural resources. The social science research on coping strategies concentrates on the behaviour of people or social groups under conditions of life-threatening risk, existential uncertainty and cyclical or permanent crisis proneness. In Karuwa-Kapuche, inter-village exchange accounts for 43% of the income sources of households surveyed, whereas intra-village exchange provides 29% and village-town linkages 28% of all the income. While the external side of vulnerability has mainly been examined from a macro-perspective of human ecology, entitlement theory and political economy, the internal side of coping has to be examined from a micro-perspective.
