Fig 1. Areas of Gathering

Gathering is practised in regions with harsh climatic conditions. It often involves primitive societies, which extract, both plants and animals to satisfy their needs for food, shelter and clothing. This type of activity requires a small amount of capital investment and operates at very low level of technology. The yield per person is very low and little or no surplus is produced.

Gathering is practised in:

♤ High latitude zones which include northern Canada, northern Eurasia and southern Chile;

♤ Low latitude zones such as the Amazon Basin, tropical Africa, Northern fringe of Australia and the interior parts of Southeast Asia.

In modern times some gathering is market oriented and has become commercial. Gatherers collect valuable plants such as leaves, barks of trees and medicinal plants and after simple processing sell the products in the market.