A novel approach to dynamic livelihood clustering

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Walelign, Solomon Zena; Pouliot, Mariéve; Larsen, Helle Overgaard

-wave panel dataset from 427 households in three locations of Nepal, we proposed an approach that combines households’ income and assets to identify different livelihood strategy clusters. Based on a Latent Markov Model we identify seven distinct livelihood strategies and analyse households’ movements between...

Do Smallholder, Mixed Crop-Livestock Livelihoods Encourage Sustainable Agricultural Practices? A Meta-Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thomas K. Rudel

2016-02-01

Full Text Available As calls for bolstering ecosystem services from croplands have grown more insistent during the past two decades, the search for ways to foster these agriculture-sustaining services has become more urgent. In this context we examine by means of a meta-analysis the argument, proposed by Robert McC. Netting, that small-scale, mixed crop-livestock farming, a common livelihood among poor rural peoples, leads to environmentally sustainable agricultural practices. As predicted, mixed crop-livestock farms exhibit more sustainable practices, but, contrary to predictions, a small scale of operation does not predict sustainability. Many smallholders on mixed crop-livestock farms use sustainable practices, but other smallholders practice a degrading, input-scarce agriculture. Some large farm operators use soil-conserving, minimum-tillage techniques while other large operators ignore soil-conserving techniques and practice an industrialized, high chemical input agriculture. The strength and pervasiveness of the link in the data between mixed crop-livestock farming and sustainable agricultural practices argues for agricultural policies that promote mixed crop-livestock livelihoods.

Reorienting land degradation towards sustainable land management: linking sustainable livelihoods with ecosystem services in rangeland systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Reed, M S; Stringer, L C; Dougill, A J; Perkins, J S; Atlhopheng, J R; Mulale, K; Favretto, N

2015-03-15

This paper identifies new ways of moving from land degradation towards sustainable land management through the development of economic mechanisms. It identifies new mechanisms to tackle land degradation based on retaining critical levels of natural capital whilst basing livelihoods on a wider range of ecosystem services. This is achieved through a case study analysis of the Kalahari rangelands in southwest Botswana. The paper first describes the socio-economic and ecological characteristics of the Kalahari rangelands and the types of land degradation taking place. It then focuses on bush encroachment as a way of exploring new economic instruments (e.g. Payments for Ecosystem Services) designed to enhance the flow of ecosystem services that support livelihoods in rangeland systems. It does this by evaluating the likely impacts of bush encroachment, one of the key forms of rangeland degradation, on a range of ecosystem services in three land tenure types (private fenced ranches, communal grazing areas and Wildlife Management Areas), before considering options for more sustainable land management in these systems. We argue that with adequate policy support, economic mechanisms could help reorient degraded rangelands towards more sustainable land management. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Improving animal health for poverty alleviation and sustainable livelihoods.

Science.gov (United States)

Stringer, Andy

2014-11-29

Animals are vital to ensuring food security for individuals, families and communities in countries around the world. In this, the latest article in Veterinary Record's series promoting One Health, Andy Stringer, director of veterinary programmes at the Society for the Protection of Animals Abroad, discusses how improving animal health, particularly of poultry and working equids, has the potential to reduce poverty and promote food security and sustainable livelihoods in low-income countries. British Veterinary Association.

Dark Side of Development: Modernity, Disaster Risk and Sustainable Livelihoods in Two Coastal Communities in Fiji

OpenAIRE

Per Becker

2017-01-01

The world is changing rapidly, as are the remotest rural communities. Modernity is spreading across the world under the guise of development and it is transforming disaster risk. This raises issues concerning how disaster risk is changing in such milieus. Using a sustainable livelihood approach, this article investigates access to different types of capital that central to the vulnerability of two coastal communities in Fiji that are affected by modernity to different extents. This comparativ...

Livelihood diversification in tropical coastal communities: a network-based approach to analyzing 'livelihood landscapes'.

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Joshua E Cinner

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Diverse livelihood portfolios are frequently viewed as a critical component of household economies in developing countries. Within the context of natural resources governance in particular, the capacity of individual households to engage in multiple occupations has been shown to influence important issues such as whether fishers would exit a declining fishery, how people react to policy, the types of resource management systems that may be applicable, and other decisions about natural resource use. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: This paper uses network analysis to provide a novel methodological framework for detailed systemic analysis of household livelihood portfolios. Paying particular attention to the role of natural resource-based occupations such as fisheries, we use network analyses to map occupations and their interrelationships- what we refer to as 'livelihood landscapes'. This network approach allows for the visualization of complex information about dependence on natural resources that can be aggregated at different scales. We then examine how the role of natural resource-based occupations changes along spectra of socioeconomic development and population density in 27 communities in 5 western Indian Ocean countries. Network statistics, including in- and out-degree centrality, the density of the network, and the level of network centralization are compared along a multivariate index of community-level socioeconomic development and a gradient of human population density. The combination of network analyses suggests an increase in household-level specialization with development for most occupational sectors, including fishing and farming, but that at the community-level, economies remained diversified. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The novel modeling approach introduced here provides for various types of livelihood portfolio analyses at different scales of social aggregation. Our livelihood landscapes approach provides insights

Livelihood profiling and sensitivity of livelihood strategies to land cover dynamics and agricultural variability

Science.gov (United States)

Berchoux, Tristan; Hutton, Craig; Watmough, Gary; Amoako Johnson, Fiifi; Atkinson, Peter

2017-04-01

With population increase and the urbanisation of rural areas, land scarcity is one of the biggest challenges now faced by communities in agrarian societies. At the household level, loss of land can be due to physical processes such as erosion, to social constraints such as inheritance, or to financial constraints such as loan reimbursement or the need of cash. For rural households, whose livelihoods are mainly based on agriculture, a decrease in the area of land cultivated can have significant consequences on their livelihood strategies, thus on their livelihood outcomes. However, it is still unclear how changes in cultivated area and agricultural productivity influence households' livelihood systems, including community capitals and households' livelihood strategies. This study aims to answer this gap by combining together earth observation from space, national census and participatory qualitative data into a community-wise analysis of the relationships between land cover dynamics, variability in agricultural production and livelihood activities. Its overarching aim is to investigate how land cover dynamics relates to changes in livelihood strategies and livelihood capitals. The study demonstrates that a change in land cover influences livelihood activities differently depending on the community capitals that households have access to. One significant aspect of integrating land dynamics with livelihood activities is its capacity to provide insights on the relationships between climate, agriculture, livelihood dynamics and rural development. More broadly, it gives policymakers new methods to characterise livelihood dynamics, thus to monitor some of the key Sustainable Development Goals: food security (SDG2), employment dynamics (SDG8), inequalities (SDG10) and sustainability of communities (SDG11).

Sustainable livelihood cost-benefit model to enhance the understanding of the dynamics between low income housing and location

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Biermann, SM

2006-12-01

Full Text Available and the three most locality-influenced aspects of sustainable livelihoods – physical, social and natural capital. 2. RESEARCH FRAMEWORK 2.1 Sustainable livelihoods framework Moser (1998) uses the idea of “asset portfolios”, which are sets of physical... or enhance its capabilities and assets both now and in the future, while not undermining the natural resource base” (Department for International Development, 2000). Whereas Moser originally only covered three kinds of capital, i.e: • investments (in...

75 FR 61519 - Combating Exploitative Child Labor by Promoting Sustainable Livelihoods and Educational...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-05

... target households; 2. Strengthening policies on child labor, education, and sustainable livelihoods, and... formal, nonformal and vocational education opportunities to provide children with alternatives to child... education for all children and mobilizing a wide array of actors to improve and expand education...

Social Capital, Organic Agriculture, and Sustainable Livelihood Security: Rethinking Agrarian Change in Mexico

Science.gov (United States)

Getz, Christy

2008-01-01

This paper explores the relevance of extra local market linkages and local-level social capital to sustainable livelihood outcomes in two agrarian communities on Mexico's Baja Peninsula. Contextualized by the specificity of Mexico's transition from state-directed rural development to neoliberally-guided rural development in the 1990s, findings…

From Survival to Sustainability : Nurturing Adaptive Livelihood ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

... that people re-establish their livelihoods in order to resume normal life. ... attention to economic, social and cultural processes, the role of institutions, and how ... researchers will document the effect of the earthquake on livelihoods, assess the ... a special issue profiling evidence to empower women in the labour market.

Effects of HIV/AIDS on the livelihood of banana-farming households in Central Kenya

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nguthi, F.N.; Niehof, A.

2008-01-01

This paper explores the effects of HIV/AIDS on the livelihoods of banana-farming households in Maragua district, Central Kenya. It is based on the results of a field study carried out during 2004-2005. The study applied the sustainable livelihood approach, using both quantitative and qualitative

Paisang ( Quercus griffithii): A Keystone Tree Species in Sustainable Agroecosystem Management and Livelihoods in Arunachal Pradesh, India

Science.gov (United States)

Singh, Ranjay K.; Singh, Anshuman; Garnett, Stephen T.; Zander, Kerstin K.; Lobsang; Tsering, Darge

2015-01-01

In a study of the traditional livelihoods of 12 Monpa and Brokpa villages in Arunachal Pradesh, India using social-ecological and participatory rural appraisal techniques, we found that the forest tree species paisang ( Quercus griffithii, a species of oak) is vital to agroecosystem sustainability. Paisang trees are conserved both by individuals and through community governance, because their leaves play a crucial role in sustaining 11 traditional cropping systems of the Monpa peoples. An Indigenous institution, Chhopa, regulates access to paisang leaves, ensuring that the relationship between paisang and traditional field crop species within Monpa agroecosystems is sustainable. The Monpa farmers also exchange leaves and agricultural products for yak-based foods produced by the transhumant Brokpa, who are primarily yak herders. Yak herds also graze in paisang groves during winter. These practices have enabled the conservation of about 33 landraces, yak breeds, and a number of wild plants. Paisang thus emerged as a culturally important keystone species in the cultures and livelihoods of both Monpa and Brokpa. Ecological and conservation knowledge and ethics about paisang vary with gender, social systems, and altitudes. Labor shortages, however, have already caused some changes to the ways in which paisang leaves are used and yak grazing patterns are also changing in the face of changes in attitude among local landowners. Given new competing interests, incentives schemes are now needed to conserve the ecologically sustainable traditional livelihoods.

ENHANCING RURAL LIVELIHOODS THROUGH SUSTAINABLE LAND AND WATER MANAGEMENT IN NORTHWEST ETHIOPIA

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Mehretie Belay

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Rural livelihoods (RLs in highland Ethiopia is critically threatened by increasing degradation of land and water resources (LWRs and lack of sufficient livelihood assets. In response, farmers adapted diverse indigenous land and water management (LWM technologies and livelihood strategies. This paper describes farmers’ methods of soil erosion identification and the practices of managing LWRs to enhance RLs. It presents the results of studies focusing on assessment of soil erosion indicators, farmers’ in-built sustainable land and water management practices (LWMPs and RLs in Dangila woreda (district in the northwestern highlands of Ethiopia. Data were gathered from May 2010 to October 2013 through participatory transect walks, field observation, formal and informal discussions with farmers, examination of office documents and from a survey of 201 rural households. Descriptive statistics and the livelihood strategy diversification index (LSDI were used to analyze the data. Results indicated that farmers employ around 13 indicators to identify soil erosion on their farmlands. Over 79% of the farmers indicated the occurrence of soil erosion on their farm fields and some 59% reported the trend was increasing for twenty years, 1991-2011. More than 174 km soil-bunds and greater than 4 km stone-bunds were constructed on farmlands and on grazing fields through farmer participatory watershed development campaigns. Some 34 gullies were stabilized using check-dams and vegetative measures. Almost 72% of the households applied cattle manure on about of their 75 ha lands to improve soil fertility. A total of 44 diversion canals and 34 water committees were established to facilitate the irrigation practice of 33% rural households. Over 20% farmers obtained results ranging from moderate to excellent by combining manure with chemical fertilizers in the same field. Nevertheless, introduced methods such as improved seeds and fertilizers were commented for

An African account of ecosystem service provision: Use, threats and policy options for sustainable livelihoods

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Egoh, Benis N

2012-12-01

Full Text Available -1 Ecosystem Services December 2012/ Vol. 2 An African account of ecosystem service provision: Use, threats and policy options for sustainable livelihoods Benis N. Egoh a, , , , Patrick J. O'Farrellb, Aymen Charefa, Leigh Josephine Gurney a...

Tourism-Induced Livelihood Changes at Mount Sanqingshan World Heritage Site, China

Science.gov (United States)

Su, Ming Ming; Wall, Geoffrey; Xu, Kejian

2016-05-01

Although tourism has the potential to improve the wellbeing of residents, it may also disrupt livelihood systems, social processes, and cultural traditions. The livelihood changes at three rural villages at Mount Sanqingshan World Heritage Site, China, are assessed to determine the extent to which tourism strategies are contributing to local livelihoods. A sustainable livelihood framework is adopted to guide the analysis. The three villages exhibit different development patterns due to institutional, organizational, and location factors. New strategies involving tourism were constructed and incorporated into the traditional livelihood systems and they resulted in different outcomes for residents of different villages. Village location, including the relationship to the site tourism plan, affected the implications for rural livelihoods. High dependence on tourism as the single livelihood option can reduce sustainability. Practical implications are suggested to enhance livelihood sustainability at such rural heritage tourism sites.

Tourism-Induced Livelihood Changes at Mount Sanqingshan World Heritage Site, China.

Science.gov (United States)

Su, Ming Ming; Wall, Geoffrey; Xu, Kejian

2016-05-01

Although tourism has the potential to improve the wellbeing of residents, it may also disrupt livelihood systems, social processes, and cultural traditions. The livelihood changes at three rural villages at Mount Sanqingshan World Heritage Site, China, are assessed to determine the extent to which tourism strategies are contributing to local livelihoods. A sustainable livelihood framework is adopted to guide the analysis. The three villages exhibit different development patterns due to institutional, organizational, and location factors. New strategies involving tourism were constructed and incorporated into the traditional livelihood systems and they resulted in different outcomes for residents of different villages. Village location, including the relationship to the site tourism plan, affected the implications for rural livelihoods. High dependence on tourism as the single livelihood option can reduce sustainability. Practical implications are suggested to enhance livelihood sustainability at such rural heritage tourism sites.

Analyzing the factors affecting optimal management of saline water by application of Sustainable Livelihoods Framework

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Masoumeh Forouzani

2016-11-01

Full Text Available In recent years, fresh water has been increasingly reduced and saline water has been one of the options to help the continuity and stability of agricultural activities. Hence, long-term sustainability of saline water irrigation depends on how to manage it at the fields. Optimal management requires identifying the factors affecting it. In this regard, this study used the descriptive–survey method to analyze the factors affecting the optimal management of saline water based on the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework. The statistical population of the study consisted of all the farmers of the Karun County (N=19720. By using the table of Krejcie and Morgan, the sample size was determined (n= 120. The sample was chosen through the simple random sampling method. Data were collected using a questionnaire. The questionnaire's face and content validity were approved by a panel of the agricultural extension and education experts and its reliability was confirmed by calculating the Cranach’s alpha coefficient (0.65-0.83. The data was analyzed by using the SPSS software. At the first stage the variables was converted to standard scores in order to construct livelihood assets indices. Then, principal component analysis was ran to assign the weights of the indicators. The results showed that farmers' management behavior in using saline water was dominated by technical management manners. Social capital and physical capital were known as the most and least livelihood assets of farmers, respectively. Also, there were statistically significant differences in farmers' management behavior based on their livelihood assets.

Reframing the concept of alternative livelihoods.

Science.gov (United States)

Wright, Juliet H; Hill, Nicholas A O; Roe, Dilys; Rowcliffe, J Marcus; Kümpel, Noëlle F; Day, Mike; Booker, Francesca; Milner-Gulland, E J

2016-02-01

Alternative livelihood project (ALP) is a widely used term for interventions that aim to reduce the prevalence of activities deemed to be environmentally damaging by substituting them with lower impact livelihood activities that provide at least equivalent benefits. ALPs are widely implemented in conservation, but in 2012, an International Union for Conservation of Nature resolution called for a critical review of such projects based on concern that their effectiveness was unproven. We focused on the conceptual design of ALPs by considering their underlying assumptions. We placed ALPs within a broad category of livelihood-focused interventions to better understand their role in conservation and their intended impacts. We dissected 3 flawed assumptions about ALPs based on the notions of substitution, the homogenous community, and impact scalability. Interventions based on flawed assumptions about people's needs, aspirations, and the factors that influence livelihood choice are unlikely to achieve conservation objectives. We therefore recommend use of a sustainable livelihoods approach to understand the role and function of environmentally damaging behaviors within livelihood strategies; differentiate between households in a community that have the greatest environmental impact and those most vulnerable to resource access restrictions to improve intervention targeting; and learn more about the social-ecological system within which household livelihood strategies are embedded. Rather than using livelihood-focused interventions as a direct behavior-change tool, it may be more appropriate to focus on either enhancing the existing livelihood strategies of those most vulnerable to conservation-imposed resource access restrictions or on use of livelihood-focused interventions that establish a clear link to conservation as a means of building good community relations. However, we recommend that the term ALP be replaced by the broader term livelihood-focused intervention

75 FR 56558 - Office of the Secretary: Combating Exploitative Child Labor by Promoting Sustainable Livelihoods...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-09-16

... and its root causes, and the importance of education for all children and mobilizing a wide array of..., education, and sustainable livelihoods, and the capacity of national institutions to combat child labor... DEPARTMENT OF LABOR Office of the Secretary: Combating Exploitative Child Labor by Promoting...

Community electricity for sustainable livelihoods through public-private partnership (Ethiopia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Uganda)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2003-07-01

In the past, public-private partnerships have been developed in all four countries involved in the project with varying levels of success. There are clear lessons to be learned from these approaches, and much potential to develop models which build on their success factors. Models that will be developed within the course of this research will address the inequalities and social exclusion within existing public-private partnership models in order to broaden access to electricity services. Fieldwork will be carried out in communities, using a sustainable livelihoods approach to assess existing approaches and develop the most promising models through a series of pilot projects in each country. The objective of this work was to define and test models for public-private partnerships to deliver electricity services to rural and under-served urban communities, to enable the provision of electricity for communal and domestic access. (author)

Quantifying rural livelihood strategies in developing countries using an activity choice approach

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Øystein Juul; Rayamajhi, Santosh; Uberhuaga de Arratia, Patricia D C

2013-01-01

outcomes are compared across strategies and household differences in asset holdings are analyzed using multinomial logit regression. Findings reveal that income diversification is the norm, that a higher degree of specialization does not characterize more remunerative livelihood strategies, that nonfarm......This article uses a quantitative activity choice approach, based on identification of activity variables and application of latent class cluster analysis, to identify five major rural livelihood strategies pursued by households (n= 576) in Bolivia, Nepal, and Mozambique. Income sources and welfare...... income significantly contributes to higher income earnings, that environmental reliance does not vary across strategies, and that small-scale farmers are the largest and poorest livelihood group. Some livelihood strategies are superior to all other strategies in terms of income earned; access to more...

TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION AND BUSINESS DIVERSIFICATION: SUSTAINABILITY LIVELIHOODS IMPROVEMENT SCENARIO OF RICE FARMER HOUSEHOLD IN SUB-OPTIMAL LAND

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Adriani D.

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The increased role of the sub-optimal land to support food security continue to be encouraged in Indonesia, given the more limited expansion for potential land. But until recently, development of sub-optimal land becomes not an easy thing. Ecological and technical barriers became the main issue. A series of these issues resulted in a high number of underemproleymeny and poverty in agriculture region. Technological inovation of agriculture and the business diversification can be seen be the solution to those issues. This research aims to analyze the impact of the technological innovation and business diversification on underemployment, working time, household income and also sustainable livelihoods of farmers on the sub-optimal land. The research was carried out in Pemulutan District, Ogan Ilir Regency, South Sumatra Province, Indonesia. The objects of research are farmers which adopter and non adopter technological innovation, and also work outside of paddy farming (business diversification. The research method is the survey. Method of sampling is stratified random sampling. Data obtained in the field analyses using descriptive statistics and inferesia. The results showed there are positive impact of technological innovation on the allocation of working time farmer households, the numbers underemployment, household income and livelihood sustainability. Determinant factors for farmers in applying technology and business diversification are paddy farming income, off-farm income, and age. The use of technology and business diversification proves to be one of the positive scenarios for sustainable livelihood of farmers in sub-optimal land.

Applying a synthetic approach to the resilience of Finnish reindeer herding as a changing livelihood

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Simo Sarkki

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Reindeer herding is an emblematic livelihood for Northern Finland, culturally important for local people and valuable in tourism marketing. We examine the livelihood resilience of Finnish reindeer herding by narrowing the focus of general resilience on social-ecological systems (SESs to a specific livelihood while also acknowledging wider contexts in which reindeer herding is embedded. The questions for specified resilience can be combined with the applied DPSIR approach (Drivers; Pressures: resilience to what; State: resilience of what; Impacts: resilience for whom; Responses: resilience by whom and how. This paper is based on a synthesis of the authors' extensive anthropological fieldwork on reindeer herding and other land uses in Northern Finland. Our objective is to synthesize various opportunities and challenges that underpin the resilience of reindeer herding as a viable livelihood. The DPSIR approach, applied here as a three step procedure, helps focus the analysis on different components of SES and their dynamic interactions. First, various land use-related DPSIR factors and their relations (synergies and trade-offs to reindeer herding are mapped. Second, detailed DPSIR factors underpinning the resilience of reindeer herding are identified. Third, examples of interrelations between DPSIR factors are explored, revealing the key dynamics between Pressures, State, Impacts, and Responses related to the livelihood resilience of reindeer herding. In the Discussion section, we recommend that future applications of the DPSIR approach in examining livelihood resilience should (1 address cumulative pressures, (2 consider the state dimension as more tuned toward the social side of SES, (3 assess both the negative and positive impacts of environmental change on the examined livelihood by a combination of science led top-down and participatory bottom-up approaches, and (4 examine and propose governance solutions as well as local adaptations by

Perceptions of community-based field workers on the effect of a longitudinal biomedical research project on their sustainable livelihoods

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Christabelle S. Moyo

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Researchers involved in biomedical community-based projects rarely seek the perspectives of community fieldworkers, who are the ‘foot soldiers’ in such projects. Understanding the effect of biomedical research on community-based field workers could identify benefits and shortfalls that may be crucial to the success of community-based studies. The present study explored the perceptions of community-based field workers on the effect of the Etiology, Risk Factors and Interactions of Enteric Infections and Malnutrition and the Consequences for Child Health and Development Project" (MAL-ED South Africa on their tangible and intangible capital which together comprise sustainable livelihoods. Methods The study was conducted in Dzimauli community in Limpopo Province of South Africa between January-February 2016. The sustainable livelihoods framework was used to query community-based field workers’ perspectives of both tangible assets such as income and physical assets and intangible assets such as social capital, confidence, and skills. Data were collected through twenty one individual in-depth interviews and one focus group discussion. Data were analysed using the Thematic Content Analysis approach supported by ATLAS.ti, version 7.5.10 software. Results All the field workers indicated that they benefitted from the MAL-ED South Africa project. The benefits included intangible assets such as acquisition of knowledge and skills, stronger social capital and personal development. Additionally, all indicated that MAL-ED South Africa provided them with the tangible assets of increased income and physical assets. Observations obtained from the focus group discussion and the community-based leaders concurred with the findings from the in-depth interviews. Additionally, some field workers expressed the desire for training in public relations, communication, problem solving and confidence building. Conclusions The MAL-ED South Africa

Influence of the Farmer’s Livelihood Assets on Livelihood Strategies in the Western Mountainous Area, China

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Zhifei Liu

2018-03-01

Full Text Available The livelihood strategies of farm households depend on the conditions of their assets, and farm households cope with risks and shocks through portfolios consisting of different types of assets. Thus, discussing the relationship between the livelihood assets and the livelihood strategies of farm households helps in understanding their livelihood conditions and in formulating reasonable poverty reduction policies. Taking Zunyi City, which is located in a western, mountainous area of China, as the study region and using the framework of sustainability analysis, this study first tries to establish the mechanism of the influence of farm household livelihood assets on livelihood strategies, then evaluates different farm household livelihood assets by establishing an evaluation index system for them, and finally conducts an empirical analysis on the influence of farm household livelihood assets on livelihood strategies using a multinomial logit model. The research results indicate the following: (1 natural assets and material assets have a significant negative influence on farm households’ choice of livelihood strategies, that is, the more natural assets and material assets that farm households own, the more likely they are to choose livelihood strategies involving engaging in agricultural production; (2 Manpower assets and financial assets have a significant positive influence on farm households’ choice of livelihood strategy, namely, the more manpower assets and financial assets that farm households own, the more likely they are to choose livelihood strategies involving engaging in non-agricultural production; (3 Social assets have no significant influence on farm households’ choice of livelihood strategy.

(Re)building livelihoods of communities confronting HIV and AIDS in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Findings show that the organisations support livelihoods in very different ways and have adopted different approaches in the way they organise, provide and attempt to ensure the sustainability of the support. However, support is often based on limited experience since there are no guidelines and proper monitoring and ...

The role of cooperatives in sustaining the livelihoods of rural communities: The case of rural cooperatives in Shurugwi District, Zimbabwe

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Smart Mhembwe

2017-04-01

Full Text Available The main focus of the research was to analyse the role of cooperatives in sustaining the livelihoods of local rural communities in Shurugwi District in Zimbabwe. Descriptive survey design was used in this mixed method approach to the study. A questionnaire, interviews and observation methods were employed as the main research instruments. Purposive sampling technique was adopted and data were collected from government officials and from members of the six cooperatives in Shurugwi District. A total of 50 research participants were involved in the study. It was found that cooperatives were established as a strategy to sustain livelihoods of rural communities. With the adoption of cooperatives, people in the rural communities managed to generate employment, boost food production, empower the marginalised, especially women, and promote social cohesion and integration, thereby improving their livelihoods and reducing poverty. Most cooperatives face a number of challenges that include lack of financial support, poor management and lack of management skills, and lack of competitive markets to sell their produce. The study recommends that the government and the banking sector render financial support to cooperatives in rural communities to allow them to expand and diversify their business operations; constant training on leadership and management skills is provided to cooperatives’ members. There is also a need for cooperatives, especially those in the agricultural sector, to form some producer associations so as to easily market their produce. Lastly, the study recommends that future research should focus on investigating issues that hinder the growth of the cooperative movement in rural communities of Zimbabwe. It is hoped that policy-makers, the academia and communities would benefit from the study.

Effectiveness of community-based mangrove management for sustainable resource use and livelihood support: A case study of four villages in Central Java, Indonesia.

Science.gov (United States)

Damastuti, Ekaningrum; de Groot, Rudolf

2017-12-01

Community-Based Mangrove Management (CBMM) is implemented with different approaches and outcomes. This study examined the effectiveness of various CBMM practices to achieve sustainable management of mangrove resources. We analyzed local mangrove resource management strategies in four coastal villages (e.g. Sriwulan, Bedono, Timbulsloko, and Surodadi) on Central Java, Indonesia. Local data on institutions, socio-economic conditions and mangrove resources utilization was collected through participatory resource mapping and interviews with 16 key actors and 500 households. The main differences in CBMM-practices that affect the outcomes in each village were the type of community participation, the level of organizational and economic assistance from external institutions, the magnitude of the rehabilitation project, the time selected for rehabilitation and the maintenance strategies applied in each village. Surodadi achieved most in terms of both efficient resource utilization and local livelihood improvement. Bedono's management strategy was most effective in extending and maintaining the rehabilitated mangrove areas but less in terms of livelihood support while the strategy applied in Timbulsloko resulted in higher resource utilization compared to Surodadi. Sriwulan failed on most criteria. This study suggests that combining the management strategies practiced in Bedono and Surodadi and adding external scientific and technological assistance, income diversification, institutional reinforcement and continuous monitoring of the functioning of local institutions can improve the CBMM performance to sustainably manage mangrove resources and improve livelihoods. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The pursuit of sustainable livelihoods in Vietnam's Northern uplands

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thulstrup, Andreas Waaben

capital & are able to strategically negotiate with external actors & incorporate elements of intervention in existing livelihood strategies. Other actors are constrained by intervention as a result of dependency on inputs, technology for intensive farming, as well as by inequality & debt.......Despite remarkable achievements in economic growth and poverty reduction, disparities between upland & lowland areas in Vietnam still exist. Numerous development programs have been implemented in upland areas but have frequently failed to achieve their objectives. The top-down approach......-up approach in order to represent the most marginalized groups. The aim of this book is to analyze the enabling & constraining factors for the average household, experienced as a result of planned intervention. Planned intervention mostly benefits households that already possess significant human & social...

Dynamics of rural livelihoods and environmental reliance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Walelign, Solomon Zena; Jiao, Xi

2017-01-01

Using environmentally augmented panel dataset of 2009 and 2012 from four districts in Nepal, we assess environmental reliance of households in different livelihood strategies and dynamic transition groups. We employ a latent class cluster analysis to determine the optimal number of livelihood clu...... the pressure and dependency on environment. Furthermore, conservation policies and natural resource management are critical in the study areas to sustain the increased demands on environmental products and services.......Using environmentally augmented panel dataset of 2009 and 2012 from four districts in Nepal, we assess environmental reliance of households in different livelihood strategies and dynamic transition groups. We employ a latent class cluster analysis to determine the optimal number of livelihood...... clusters and assign individual households to particular cluster; and regression models were used to examine the covariates of change in environmental income and reliance. The analysis identifies six distinct livelihood clusters in terms of asset investment in different livelihood activities. Results show...

Livelihoods and natural resources

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cotta, Jamie Nicole

generation and shock coping. In addition, a multi-method approach (utilizing income, transect inventory and free-list data) demonstrates the significant economic importance of agroforestry environments, particularly managed fallows, when compared with natural forests. Interventions aimed at sustaining...... by both high vulnerability (e.g., residents with flood-vulnerable cultivation) and limited availability/diversity of environmentally-sourced coping products. Finally, future research and development initiatives should take into account not just natural forests or agricultural systems, but also......This dissertation research contributes to the emerging body of knowledge on the economic contributions of natural resources to rural livelihoods, including their role in household shock coping, in the humid tropics. Data from one of the first comprehensive household income quantifications...

Impacts of Public-Private Partnership on Local Livelihoods and Natural Resource Dynamics: Perceptions from Eastern Zambia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Muleba Nshimbi

2014-06-01

Full Text Available This study evaluated the long-term implications of a Public-Private Partnership (PPP on livelihoods and natural resource (NR dynamics under a market-oriented approach to conservation. Drawing examples from the Luangwa Valley in eastern Zambia, the study sought to answer questions on two closely interrelated aspects. These included the contribution of PPP to sustainable livelihoods in and around Protected Areas (PAs and its impacts on natural resources in Game Management Areas (GMAs. Quantitative data were collected from PPP participating and non-PPP households using standardized structured interviews, while qualitative data were obtained from three chiefdoms using semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions. Taking the case of Community Markets for Conservation (COMACO in eastern Zambia, results of this study showed that PPP contributed to sustainable livelihoods and overall natural resources management through varied ways. These include promotion of conservation farming, agroforestry, poacher transformation (individuals who have given up poaching due to PPP interventions and provision of markets for the produce of participating households. Further, impacts of PPP on soil fertility, crop, and honey yields were statistically significant (p ˂ 0.05. A combination of increased crop productivity and household incomes has seen a 40-fold increase in poacher transformation. The results of this study suggest that PPPs, if well-structured, have the potential to address both livelihoods and enterprise needs with an ultimate benefit of promoting both sustainable livelihoods and natural resources management around PAs in tropical Africa.

The realities of Lagos urban development vision on livelihoods of the urban poor

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Oluwafemi Ayodeji Olajide

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Similar to many other cities in sub-Saharan African countries, the struggle between urban development policies and the livelihoods of the urban poor is one of the urban development challenges facing Lagos. This paper examines the realities of the Lagos urban development policies and intiatives on the livelihoods of the urban poor. The state government embarked on series of what it calls sustainable urban transformation policies towards making Lagos ‘an African model megacity’ and a global economic and financial hub that is safe, secure, functional and productive, with a view to achieving poverty alleviation and sustainable development. This paper, through the lens of theoretical and analytical underpinnings of Sustainable Livelihoods Framework, however, argues that the actions of the state government contradict the whole essence of sustainable urban development and poverty alleviation, but reflect an agenda deliberately targeted to further impoverish the poor. While the Sustainable Livelihood was used as the theoretical and analytical framework, this paper essentially focuses on the Policies, Institutions and Processes component of the framework. This provides a unique entry point for understanding the implications of the Lagos urban development aspirations on the livelihoods of the urban poor. The research uses mixed methods research design with a broad range of data-collection methods, including household surveys, interviews, direct observation and photography, documentary review and policy document analysis. The study reveals that there is a disconnection between urban development policies and realities of the poor. The implementation of urban development projects and policies works against the urban poor and resulted in more hardship, through reduction in livelihood opportunities or complete loss of livelihoods. This study, therefore, suggests that one important element in reducing poverty in Lagos’ informal settlements is a policy

Negotiating TVET for Sustainable Livelihoods

Science.gov (United States)

von Kotze, Astrid

2008-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the adequacy of UNESCO policy in the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. People working in the informal economy in the Global South are looked at as a starting point. Design/methodology/approach: The paper examines UNESCO/UNEVOC documents, the UNIFEM report on the "Progress…

“Rejecting the inevitability of poverty”: Empower women for sustainable rural livelihoods through community-based employment intensive rural infrastructure maintenance projects

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Mashiri, M

2008-11-01

Full Text Available This paper discuses the extent to which employment-intensive rural infrastructure maintenance projects can be used as a tool to empower women to achieve sustainable rural livelihoods using Siyatentela rural road maintenance program in Mpumalanga...

Quantification of rural livelihood dynamics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Walelign, Solomon Zena

role in lifting poor out poverty which could be due to restricted access to more remunerative environmental resources, (ii) the developed approach for livelihood clustering (combining household income and asset variables using regression models) outperform both existing income and asset approaches (iii......Improved understanding of rural livelihoods is required to reduce rural poverty faster. To that end, this PhD study quantified rural livelihood dynamics emphasizing (i) the role of environmental resources use in helping rural households to escape poverty, (ii) development of a new approach...... households. Two groups of attrite households were identified: ‘movers’ (households that left their original location) and ‘non-movers’ (households that still resided in the same location but were not interviewed for different reasons). The findings revealed that (i) total environmental income had a limited...

Livelihood Vulnerability Assessment Of Farmers and Nomads in Eastern Ecotone of Tibetan Plateau

Science.gov (United States)

Yan, J.; Zhang, Y.

2011-12-01

Livelihood vulnerability assessment provides a scientific basis for anti-poverty of people and regional sustainable development in vulnerable area. Although there are massive discussions on concept of vulnerability, it is still difficult to make it quantitative and to carry out comprehensive appraise. Vulnerability assessments based on sustainable livelihood frame are widely accepted in case studies for attentions to vulnerable groups. However, these case studies are always on regional scale and never reflect how climate change affects people's livelihood and adaptive capability of people. It is necessary to seek vulnerable assessment index system and means based on livelihood process of local people. This paper develops a livelihood vulnerability assessment index system on the basis of sustainable livelihood framework and appraises livelihood vulnerability values of 11 townships, using data of 879 sample households. Livelihood vulnerability assessment index system reflects main risks, livelihood assets and adaptation strategies of local people and government. The results show that livelihood vulnerability level of plateau region is higher than that of mountain to plateau region and mountain gorge region. Manzhang Township in plateau region is the most vulnerable township and nomads there cannot cope with risks of climate change, meadow degeneration and herbs degradation. Upper part of mountain to plateau region and the whole plateau region have high livelihood vulnerability values and local nomads would not cope with risks if no measures are taken by government. The driving forces of livelihood vulnerability include strikes of risks and deficiency of livelihood assets and adaptive capability. Farmers and nomads in high mountain gorge region and lower part of mountain to plateau region can cope with these risks, meanwhile, there are more employment opportunities in second and tertiary industries are needed to help them realize livelihood diversification. Therefore

Livelihoods and Land Uses in Environmental Policy Approaches: The Case of PES and REDD+ in the Lam Dong Province of Vietnam

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Leif Tore Trædal

2017-02-01

Full Text Available This paper explores assumptions about the drivers of forest cover change in a Payments for Environmental Services (PES and Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+ context in the Lam Dong Province in Vietnam. In policy discourses, deforestation is often linked to ‘poor’ and ‘ethnic minority’ households and their unsustainable practices such as the expansion of coffee production (and other agricultural activities into forest areas. This paper applies a livelihood framework to discuss the links between livelihoods and land use amongst small-scale farmers in two communities. The findings of the livelihood survey demonstrate no clear linkages between poverty levels and unsustainable practices. In fact, the poorest segments were found to deforest the least. The ways in which current PES and REDD+ approaches are designed, do not provide appropriate solutions to address the underlying dimensions of issues at stake. The paper criticizes one-dimensional perspectives of the drivers behind deforestation and forest degradation often found in public policies and discourses. We suggest more comprehensive analyses of underlying factors encompassing the entire coffee production and land use system in this region. Addressing issues of land tenure and the scarcity of productive lands, and generating viable off-farm income alternatives seem to be crucial. Sustainable approaches for reducing deforestation and degradation could be possible through engaging with multiple stakeholders, including the business-oriented households in control of the coffee trade and of land transactions.

Multi-Stakeholder Process Strengthens Agricultural Innovations and Sustainable Livelihoods of Farmers in Southern Nigeria

Science.gov (United States)

Bisseleua, D. H. B.; Idrissou, L.; Olurotimi, P.; Ogunniyi, A.; Mignouna, D.; Bamire, S. A.

2018-01-01

Purpose: In this paper, we explore the strategic role of Multi-stakeholder processes (MSP) in agricultural innovations and how it has impacted livelihood assets' (LAs) capital dynamics of stakeholders in platforms in West Africa. Design/Methodology/Approach: We demonstrate how LA capitals and socio-economic dynamics induced by MSP can enhance…

Understanding the relationship between livelihood strategy and soil management

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Oumer, Ali Mohammed; Hjortsø, Carsten Nico Portefée; de Neergaard, Andreas

2013-01-01

help build livelihood strategies with high-economic return that in turn provide incentives to undertake improved soil management practices. The identified household types may guide entry points for development interventions targeting both food security and agricultural sustainability concerns......This paper aims to understand the relationship between households’ livelihood strategy and soil management using commonalities among rural households. We grouped households into four distinct types according to similar livelihood diversification strategies. For each household type, we identified...... the dominant income-generating strategies as well as the main agronomic activities pursued. The household types were: (I) households that pursue a cereal-based livelihood diversification strategy (23 %); (II) households predominantly engaged in casual off-farm-based strategy (15 %); (III) households...

The Effect of Payments for Ecosystem Services Programs on the Relationship of Livelihood Capital and Livelihood Strategy among Rural Communities in Northwestern China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fei Wang

2015-07-01

Full Text Available The security and quality of livelihoods for peasant households is the core issue for rural areas in China. A stable livelihood contributes to the harmonious development of related polices, poverty eradication and sustainable use of resources. In Qinghe County, located in the extremely arid zone of Northwest China, 238 validated surveys were conducted. The analysis focuses on the importance of livelihood capitals for the selection of on- or off-farm livelihood strategies among beneficiaries of different kinds of ecological compensation packages. The goal is to see if different groups of beneficiaries are better able to pursue off-farm livelihoods activity, which reduces pressure on the resource base, and whether specific capitals are especially effective in helping households pursue off-farm livelihoods, which benefits their well-being. The findings show that proportionally more herdsmen (who participated in a pastureland rehabilitation program were able to pursue off-farm livelihoods than farmers (who participated in the cultivated land reforestation program, and especially agro-pastoralists (who participated in both programs. Further, models of livelihood strategy show that human and financial capitals facilitate off-farm livelihoods, while productive capital tends to lead to on-farm livelihoods. These findings indicate that there is no single determinant of livelihood strategy, and future policies must consciously differentiate among beneficiaries to reach the desired result.

Managing Agricultural Biodiversity for Nutrition, Health, Livelihoods ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Managing Agricultural Biodiversity for Nutrition, Health, Livelihoods and ... on local ecosystems and human resources can provide sustainable solutions to ... and health among the rural and urban poor through increased dietary diversity.

Gender and sustainable livelihoods: linking gendered experiences of environment, community and self

NARCIS (Netherlands)

W. Harcourt (Wendy)

2016-01-01

textabstractIn this essay I explore the economic, social, environmental and cultural changes taking place in Bolsena, Italy, where agricultural livelihoods have rapidly diminished in the last two decades. I examine how gender dynamics have shifted with the changing values and livelihoods of

The Livelihoods of Micro and Small Enterprise Operators in a District ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The Sustainable Livelihoods Framework (SLF) presupposes the outcomes of any livelihood strategy, including working in micro and small enterprises, the results of interplay of context, access to and level of different sorts of assets, and policies and institutions. Targeting those MSE operators working in Woreda 1 of Lideta ...

Farmers’s perception and strategies for the development of sustainable livelihoods in disaster prone areas

Science.gov (United States)

Anantanyu, S.; Suwarto; Suminah

2018-03-01

Empowerment is a strategy to develop and build economy and community in both physically and mentally. One effort is to help generate a plan for community development in disaster-prone areas. For that, this study aims to develop farmers profile, to describe farmer perception towards farming effort and to formulate the empowerment strategies in the development of sustainable livelihoods in disaster prone areas. This study uses mixed methods. Farmers population use in this study were live in two villages of landslides prone areas, that are Beruk and Wonorejo which belongs Jatiyoso Subdistrict Karanganyar regency (Central Java). In depth structured interview was conducted to 150 farmers under Focus Group Discussion (FGD) followed with. data analysis using SWOT analysis. The results showed level of farm management is in anxiety level, perception of farmers toward the availability of agricultural inputs is at a reasonable level and the agricultural information becomes the reduction factors. The result of QSPM matrix calculation through SWOT analysis on livelihood of agricultural, resulting some strategy according to the priority level that are development of conservation farming, strengthening the farmers capacity in agricultural products processing, strengthening farmer groups and improving the performance of agriculture extensionist.

Peasant Livelihoods and Land Degradation

African Journals Online (AJOL)

J. A. Yaro

people to invest in more children as a source of economic and social security. ... for institutions of civil society and recognition of the influence of international factors in achieving sustainable .... the period when peasants have to make most of their livelihoods. On the .... Borrowing of land by relatives and friends only leads to ...

A democracy we can eat: a livelihoods approach to TVET policy and provision

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Astrid von Kotze

2010-09-01

Full Text Available In Southern Africa, theories of adult education have remained modelled on imported paradigms. The urgency of particularly the first of the Millennium Development Goals, ‘to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger’ generally translates into policy and provision of skills training based on purely economistic considerations. In practice, lifelong education and learning occurs most commonly as part of other social practices and in the guise of community development. This article outlines the livelihood approach as a conceptual and methodological tool for a locally grounded understanding of what constitutes ‘work’ particularly in the context of poverty and high-risk environments. It argues that the principles of interconnectedness, relationality and agency are central to understanding livelihood practices and that participatory processes of data collection, dialogue and analysis should inform education and training policy. Programmes and curricula that fit in with the livelihood strategies of people have a greater chance of being supported and the process that leads to such understanding could provide a democratic model for adult education elsewhere.

Oil and Gas Production, Environmental Health and Livelihood ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Oil and Gas Production, Environmental Health and Livelihood Vulnerability in the West Coast of Ghana. ... African Journal of Sustainable Development ... Respondents' level of education significantly influences their level of knowledge about ...

Dark Side of Development: Modernity, Disaster Risk and Sustainable Livelihoods in Two Coastal Communities in Fiji

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Per Becker

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The world is changing rapidly, as are the remotest rural communities. Modernity is spreading across the world under the guise of development and it is transforming disaster risk. This raises issues concerning how disaster risk is changing in such milieus. Using a sustainable livelihood approach, this article investigates access to different types of capital that central to the vulnerability of two coastal communities in Fiji that are affected by modernity to different extents. This comparative case study is based on semi-structured interviews, focus groups and observation. The results indicate that modernity transforms access to and use of key capitals (natural, physical, financial, human, and social capital on both community and household levels, increasing dependence on external resources that are unequally distributed, while undermining social cohesion and support. Although disaster risk might be of a similar magnitude across the board at the community level, modernity transforms vulnerability significantly and skews the distribution of disaster risk, to the detriment of the households left behind by development.

Examining the impacts of disaster resettlement from a livelihood perspective: a case study of Qinling Mountains, China.

Science.gov (United States)

Guo, Xuesong; Kapucu, Naim

2018-04-01

Disaster resettlement, as a mitigation and preparedness measure, entails significant economic, physical, and social impacts, which continue to challenge understanding of recovery from major events, especially regarding the extent of the context and environmental efforts to rebuild livelihoods. Based on a case study of Qinling Mountains, China, this research investigates the effects of disaster resettlement from a livelihoods perspective. Methodologically, it proposes a framework that combines the pressure-state-response framework and the sustainable livelihoods approach, and it employs a structural equation model to examine how specific factors affect disaster resettlement. The results indicate that conflicts may occur during and after resettlement owing to the difference or disparity between the concerns of resettled peasants and those of the government. Consequently, the risks related to livelihoods need to be taken seriously. Effective risk communication is critical to bridge the gap between different stakeholders. The paper concludes with some practical and policy recommendations. © 2018 The Author(s). Disasters © Overseas Development Institute, 2018.

Shifting livelihood strategies in northern Nigeria - extensified production and livelihood diversification amongst Fulani pastoralists.

Science.gov (United States)

Majekodunmi, Ayodele O; Dongkum, Charles; Langs, Tok; Shaw, Alexandra P M; Welburn, Susan C

2017-01-01

This paper presents an in-depth investigation of the livelihood strategies of Fulani pastoralists in north central Nigeria. Results show a diversified crop-livestock system aimed at spreading risk and reducing cattle offtake, adapted to natural resource competition and insecurity by extensification, with further diversification into off-farm activities to spread risk, increase livelihood security and capture opportunities. However, significant costs were associated with extensification, and integration of crop and livestock enterprises was limited. Mean total income per capita in the study area was $554 or $1.52/person/day with 42% of households earning less than 1.25/person/day. Income levels were positively correlated with income diversity and price received per animal sold, rather than herd size. The outcomes of this livelihood strategy were favourable across the whole community, but when individual households are considered, there was evidence of moderate economic inequality in total income, cash income and herd size (Gini coefficient 0.32, 0.35 and 0.43 respectively). The poorest households were quite vulnerable, with low assets, income and income diversity. Implications for sustainability are discussed given the likelihood that the negative trends of reduced access to natural resources and insecurity will continue.

Combining Sustainable Land Management Technologies to Combat Land Degradation and Improve Rural Livelihoods in Semi-arid Lands in Kenya

Science.gov (United States)

Mganga, K. Z.; Musimba, N. K. R.; Nyariki, D. M.

2015-12-01

Drylands occupy more than 80 % of Kenya's total land mass and contribute immensely to the national economy and society through agriculture, livestock production, tourism, and wild product harvesting. Dryland ecosystems are areas of high climate variability making them vulnerable to the threats of land degradation. Consequently, agropastoralists inhabiting these ecosystems develop mechanisms and technologies to cope with the impacts of climate variability. This study is aimed to; (1) determine what agropastoralists inhabiting a semi-arid ecosystem in Kenya attribute to be the causes and indicators of land degradation, (2) document sustainable land management (SLM) technologies being undertaken to combat land degradation, and (3) identify the factors that influence the choice of these SLM technologies. Vegetation change from preferred indigenous forage grass species to woody vegetation was cited as the main indicator of land degradation. Land degradation was attributed to recurrent droughts and low amounts of rainfall, overgrazing, and unsustainable harvesting of trees for fuelwood production. However, despite the challenges posed by climate variability and recurrent droughts, the local community is engaging in simple SLM technologies including grass reseeding, rainwater harvesting and soil conservation, and dryland agroforestry as a holistic approach combating land degradation and improving their rural livelihoods. The choice of these SLM technologies was mainly driven by their additional benefits to combating land degradation. In conclusion, promoting such simple SLM technologies can help reverse the land degradation trend, improve agricultural production, food security including access to food, and subsequently improve livelihoods of communities inhabiting dryland ecosystems.

Combining Sustainable Land Management Technologies to Combat Land Degradation and Improve Rural Livelihoods in Semi-arid Lands in Kenya.

Science.gov (United States)

Mganga, K Z; Musimba, N K R; Nyariki, D M

2015-12-01

Drylands occupy more than 80% of Kenya's total land mass and contribute immensely to the national economy and society through agriculture, livestock production, tourism, and wild product harvesting. Dryland ecosystems are areas of high climate variability making them vulnerable to the threats of land degradation. Consequently, agropastoralists inhabiting these ecosystems develop mechanisms and technologies to cope with the impacts of climate variability. This study is aimed to; (1) determine what agropastoralists inhabiting a semi-arid ecosystem in Kenya attribute to be the causes and indicators of land degradation, (2) document sustainable land management (SLM) technologies being undertaken to combat land degradation, and (3) identify the factors that influence the choice of these SLM technologies. Vegetation change from preferred indigenous forage grass species to woody vegetation was cited as the main indicator of land degradation. Land degradation was attributed to recurrent droughts and low amounts of rainfall, overgrazing, and unsustainable harvesting of trees for fuelwood production. However, despite the challenges posed by climate variability and recurrent droughts, the local community is engaging in simple SLM technologies including grass reseeding, rainwater harvesting and soil conservation, and dryland agroforestry as a holistic approach combating land degradation and improving their rural livelihoods. The choice of these SLM technologies was mainly driven by their additional benefits to combating land degradation. In conclusion, promoting such simple SLM technologies can help reverse the land degradation trend, improve agricultural production, food security including access to food, and subsequently improve livelihoods of communities inhabiting dryland ecosystems.

Sustainable value chains for bamboo working communities : Integrating the tenets of sustainability through the Rhizome Approach

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Reubens, R.R.R.; Brezet, J.C.; Christiaans, H.H.C.M.

2010-01-01

There is a growing demand globally for products which impact sustainability positively. Bamboo fulfills these criteria, since it is a highly renewable timber replacement material which does not cause deforestation. It simultaneously has the potential to create livelihood opportunities for both the

The Influence of Farmers’ Livelihood Strategies on Household Energy Consumption in the Eastern Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xueyan Zhao

2018-05-01

Full Text Available As an essential factor for sustainable development, energy plays a very important role in sustaining a modern lifestyle, particularly in poor rural areas. Considering that farmers’ livelihood in such areas is enormously dependent on services provided by environmental resources, it makes sense to investigate the relationships and interactions between farming households’ livelihood strategies and their energy consumption. The findings and outcomes would be expected to contribute to the body of knowledge and benefit local policy-making toward sustainable transformation in the long run. Taking Gannan as an example, this study employed a participatory rural appraisal approach, with first-hand data mainly from field surveys, using a stratified random sampling method to illustrate the influence of farmers’ livelihood strategies for household energy consumption in the eastern Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, China. Seven townships in Gannan were covered, three of them in pure pastoral areas, two in farming-pastoral areas, and two in farming areas. From these, 230 households were selected as study samples, with a valid return of 217 questionnaires, among which 78 came from pure pastoral areas, 60 from farming-pastoral areas, and 79 from farming areas. The results show that livelihood has a significant impact on farmers’ household energy consumption patterns, and increasing family income level and education level and improving the availability of commodity energy resources will help farmers reduce the proportion of biomass energy consumption and increase the proportion of commodity energy consumption. Furthermore, measures such as developing nonagricultural industries, improving the energy infrastructure, and enhancing farmers’ energy-saving awareness should be seriously considered to optimize farmers’ living energy consumption patterns in these poverty-stricken and eco-frangible regions.

Impacts and responses to environmental change in coastal livelihoods of south-west Bangladesh.

Science.gov (United States)

Hossain, Mostafa A R; Ahmed, Munir; Ojea, Elena; Fernandes, Jose A

2018-05-12

Aquatic ecosystems are of global importance for maintaining high levels of biodiversity and ecosystem services, and for the number of livelihoods dependent on them. In Bangladesh, coastal and delta communities rely on these systems for a livelihood, and the sustainability of the productivity is seriously threatened by both climate change and unsustainable management. These multiple drivers of change shape the livelihood dependence and adaptation responses, where a better understanding is needed to achieve sustainable management in these systems, while maintaining and improving dependent livelihoods. This need has been addressed in this study in the region of Satkhira, in the southwest coast of Bangladesh, where livelihoods are highly dependent on aquatic systems for food supply and income. Traditional wild fish harvest in the rivers and aquaculture systems, including ghers, ponds, and crab points have been changing in terms of the uses and intensity of management, and suffering from climate change impacts as well. By means of six focus groups with 50 participants total, and validated by expert consultations, we conduct an analysis to understand the main perceived impacts from climate and human activities; and the adaptation responses from the aquatic system livelihoods. We find that biodiversity has decreased drastically, while farmed species have increased and shrimp gher farming turned more intensive becoming the main source of income. All these changes have important implications for food supply in the region and environmental sustainability. Dramatic responses taken in the communities include exit the fisheries and migration, and more adaptive responses include species diversification, crab fattening and working more on the pond and gher infrastructure. This study evidences the results of the combination of multiple stressors in productive systems and the barriers to adaptation in aquatic ecosystem dependent communities. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All

Assessment of Sustainable Livelihood and Geographic Detection of Settlement Sites in Ethnically Contiguous Poverty-Stricken Areas in the Aba Prefecture, China

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Yanguo Liu

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The Chinese government aims to deal with poverty by 2020 for people living in ethnic and rural regions, including mountainous ethnic regions with the highest concentration of poverty and chronic poverty. Based on a sustainable livelihood Framework, five capitals and 33 evaluation indices of livelihood were built, and 13 counties’ resources of the Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture were compared in order to calculate the degree of poverty. Topographic factors index of settlement sites (TFIS were constructed by eight topographic factors, and diagnoses of the dominant factors of differentiation of 2699 settlements were calculated by using the geographical detector model to establish the poverty alleviation policies and models for different regions. The results showed that the livelihood capital evaluation indices were different (0.56–1.88, and natural capitals (mean value 1.56 had obvious advantages, but physical (mean value 0.56, financial (mean value 0.78, and human capital were lower (mean value 0.93, limiting the rate of transforming the ecological resources advantage into the economy. In the TFIS, the settlement points indicate topographic factors of natural breakpoint classification superposition, including elevation, slope, relief amplitude, surface incision, variance coefficient in elevation, surface roughness, distance to roads, and distance to rivers. These are within the 8–34 range, and their power determinant value to TFIS are 0.02, 0.70, 0.77, 0.76, 0.51, 0.66, 0.06, and 0.09. Livelihood capital evaluation indices and TFIS classification one (8–14 are positively correlated, and negative correlation (22–26 and 27–34 is at the 0.05 level. The county's poverty alleviation measures and development under different livelihood indices and TFIS indicate that the ecotourism industry has become the inevitable choice for promoting rapid and coordinated development of economy, society, and the environment in ethnic regions.

Regional Approach for Linking Ecosystem Services and Livelihood Strategies Under Climate Change of Pastoral Communities in the Mongolian Steppe Ecosystem

Science.gov (United States)

Ojima, D. S.; Galvin, K.; Togtohyn, C.

2012-12-01

Dramatic changes due to climate and land use dynamics in the Mongolian Plateau affecting ecosystem services and agro-pastoral systems in Mongolia. Recently, market forces and development strategies are affecting land and water resources of the pastoral communities which are being further stressed due to climatic changes. Evaluation of pastoral systems, where humans depend on livestock and grassland ecosystem services, have demonstrated the vulnerability of the social-ecological system to climate change. Current social-ecological changes in ecosystem services are affecting land productivity and carrying capacity, land-atmosphere interactions, water resources, and livelihood strategies. The general trend involves greater intensification of resource exploitation at the expense of traditional patterns of extensive range utilization. Thus we expect climate-land use-land cover relationships to be crucially modified by the social-economic forces. The analysis incorporates information about the social-economic transitions taking place in the region which affect land-use, food security, and ecosystem dynamics. The region of study extends from the Mongolian plateau in Mongolia. Our research indicate that sustainability of pastoral systems in the region needs to integrate the impact of climate change on ecosystem services with socio-economic changes shaping the livelihood strategies of pastoral systems in the region. Adaptation strategies which incorporate integrated analysis of landscape management and livelihood strategies provides a framework which links ecosystem services to critical resource assets. Analysis of the available livelihood assets provides insights to the adaptive capacity of various agents in a region or in a community. Sustainable development pathways which enable the development of these adaptive capacity elements will lead to more effective adaptive management strategies for pastoral land use and herder's living standards. Pastoralists will have the

The Impacts of Land Use Changes on Livelihood of the Maasai ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

It was found that practices such as deforestation and use of fertilizers are increasing the environmental degradation and further perpetuating challenges related to environmental conservation that greatly affect their livelihoods. Therefore, these practices are not sustainable and changes must be made to new sustainable and ...

Trading off natural resources and rural livelihoods. A framework for sustainability assessment of small-scale food production in water-limited regions

Science.gov (United States)

Recanati, Francesca; Castelletti, Andrea; Dotelli, Giovanni; Melià, Paco

2017-12-01

Enhancing local production is key to promoting food security, especially in rural households of low-income countries, but may conflict with limited natural resources and ecosystems preservation. We propose a framework integrating the water-food nexus and a sustainable livelihoods perspective to assess small-scale food production in water-poor regions. We demonstrate it by assessing alternative production scenarios in the Gaza Strip at different spatial scales. At the scale of a single farm, there is a clear conflict among objectives: while cash crops ensure good incomes but contribute scarcely to domestic protein supply, crops performing well from the nutritional and environmental viewpoint are among the worst from the economic one. At the regional scale, domestic production might cover an important fraction of nutritional needs while contributing to household income, but water scarcity impairs the satisfaction of food demand by domestic production alone. Pursuing food security under multiple constraints thus requires a holistic perspective: we discuss how a multidimensional approach can promote the engagement of different stakeholders and allow the exploration of trade-offs between food security, sustainable exploitation of natural resources and economic viability.

Integrating place-specific livelihood and equity outcomes into global assessments of bioenergy deployment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Creutzig, Felix; Corbera, Esteve; Bolwig, Simon; Hunsberger, Carol

2013-01-01

Integrated assessment models suggest that the large-scale deployment of bioenergy could contribute to ambitious climate change mitigation efforts. However, such a shift would intensify the global competition for land, with possible consequences for 1.5 billion smallholder livelihoods that these models do not consider. Maintaining and enhancing robust livelihoods upon bioenergy deployment is an equally important sustainability goal that warrants greater attention. The social implications of biofuel production are complex, varied and place-specific, difficult to model, operationalize and quantify. However, a rapidly developing body of social science literature is advancing the understanding of these interactions. In this letter we link human geography research on the interaction between biofuel crops and livelihoods in developing countries to integrated assessments on biofuels. We review case-study research focused on first-generation biofuel crops to demonstrate that food, income, land and other assets such as health are key livelihood dimensions that can be impacted by such crops and we highlight how place-specific and global dynamics influence both aggregate and distributional outcomes across these livelihood dimensions. We argue that place-specific production models and land tenure regimes mediate livelihood outcomes, which are also in turn affected by global and regional markets and their resulting equilibrium dynamics. The place-specific perspective suggests that distributional consequences are a crucial complement to aggregate outcomes; this has not been given enough weight in comprehensive assessments to date. By narrowing the gap between place-specific case studies and global models, our discussion offers a route towards integrating livelihood and equity considerations into scenarios of future bioenergy deployment, thus contributing to a key challenge in sustainability sciences. (letter)

Integrating place-specific livelihood and equity outcomes into global assessments of bioenergy deployment

Science.gov (United States)

Creutzig, Felix; Corbera, Esteve; Bolwig, Simon; Hunsberger, Carol

2013-09-01

Integrated assessment models suggest that the large-scale deployment of bioenergy could contribute to ambitious climate change mitigation efforts. However, such a shift would intensify the global competition for land, with possible consequences for 1.5 billion smallholder livelihoods that these models do not consider. Maintaining and enhancing robust livelihoods upon bioenergy deployment is an equally important sustainability goal that warrants greater attention. The social implications of biofuel production are complex, varied and place-specific, difficult to model, operationalize and quantify. However, a rapidly developing body of social science literature is advancing the understanding of these interactions. In this letter we link human geography research on the interaction between biofuel crops and livelihoods in developing countries to integrated assessments on biofuels. We review case-study research focused on first-generation biofuel crops to demonstrate that food, income, land and other assets such as health are key livelihood dimensions that can be impacted by such crops and we highlight how place-specific and global dynamics influence both aggregate and distributional outcomes across these livelihood dimensions. We argue that place-specific production models and land tenure regimes mediate livelihood outcomes, which are also in turn affected by global and regional markets and their resulting equilibrium dynamics. The place-specific perspective suggests that distributional consequences are a crucial complement to aggregate outcomes; this has not been given enough weight in comprehensive assessments to date. By narrowing the gap between place-specific case studies and global models, our discussion offers a route towards integrating livelihood and equity considerations into scenarios of future bioenergy deployment, thus contributing to a key challenge in sustainability sciences.

Sustainability of marine artisanal fishing as a livelihood and the ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The study aims to assess the livelihoods activities of marine fisher folks and their activities on the environment. Ten marine fishing communities in Lagos State were selected using two stage stratified sampling system. Data were collected from 60 households (50 male headed and 10 female headed households).

Grasslands in India: Problems and perspectives for sustaining livestock and rural livelihoods

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ajoy K. Roy

2013-12-01

Full Text Available In India, grazing-based livestock husbandry plays an important role in the rural economy as around 50% of animals depend on grazing. Pasturelands over an area of 12 Mha constitute the main grazing resources that are available. Temperate/alpine pastures are spread across elevations higher than 2000 m in the Eastern and Western Himalayas including the Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim states. Nearly 30 pastoral communities in hilly or arid/semi-arid regions in northern and western parts of India, as well as 20 in temperate/hilly regions, depend on grazing-based livestock production. Due to overgrazing coupled with poor management and care, these grazing lands have deteriorated to a large extent and need amelioration or rehabilitation. Appropriate technologies have been developed, refined and tested in various research and academic institutions. These technologies need to be implemented on a large scale in different parts of the country for augmenting forage resources, enhancing livestock production and sustaining livelihood options in an eco-friendly manner.

An integrated approach to improving rural livelihoods: examples from India and Bangladesh

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

B. Croke

2018-02-01

Full Text Available This paper presents an overview of work in West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and SW Bangladesh through a series of projects from 2005 to the present, considering the impact of farming systems, water shed development and/or agricultural intensification on livelihoods in selected rural areas of India and Bangladesh. The projects spanned a range of scales spanning from the village scale (∼  1 km2 to the meso-scale (∼  100 km2, and considered social as well as biophysical aspects. They focused mainly on the food and water part of the food-water-energy nexus. These projects were in collaboration with a range of organisations in India and Bangladesh, including NGOs, universities, and government research organisations and departments. The projects were part funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, and built on other projects that have been undertaken within the region. An element of each of these projects was to understand how the hydrological cycle could be managed sustainably to improve agricultural systems and livelihoods of marginal groups. As such, they evaluated appropriate technology that is generally not dependent on high-energy inputs (mechanisation. This includes assessing the availability of water, and identifying potential water resources that have not been developed; understanding current agricultural systems and investigating ways of improving water use efficiency; and understanding social dynamics of the affected communities including the potential opportunities and negative impacts of watershed development and agricultural development.

An integrated approach to improving rural livelihoods: examples from India and Bangladesh

Science.gov (United States)

Croke, Barry; Merritt, Wendy; Cornish, Peter; Syme, Geoffrey J.; Roth, Christian H.

2018-02-01

This paper presents an overview of work in West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and SW Bangladesh through a series of projects from 2005 to the present, considering the impact of farming systems, water shed development and/or agricultural intensification on livelihoods in selected rural areas of India and Bangladesh. The projects spanned a range of scales spanning from the village scale (˜ 1 km2) to the meso-scale (˜ 100 km2), and considered social as well as biophysical aspects. They focused mainly on the food and water part of the food-water-energy nexus. These projects were in collaboration with a range of organisations in India and Bangladesh, including NGOs, universities, and government research organisations and departments. The projects were part funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, and built on other projects that have been undertaken within the region. An element of each of these projects was to understand how the hydrological cycle could be managed sustainably to improve agricultural systems and livelihoods of marginal groups. As such, they evaluated appropriate technology that is generally not dependent on high-energy inputs (mechanisation). This includes assessing the availability of water, and identifying potential water resources that have not been developed; understanding current agricultural systems and investigating ways of improving water use efficiency; and understanding social dynamics of the affected communities including the potential opportunities and negative impacts of watershed development and agricultural development.

Rural Household Demographics, Livelihoods and the Environment

OpenAIRE

de Sherbinin, Alex; VanWey, Leah; McSweeney, Kendra; Aggarwal, Rimjhim; Barbieri, Alisson; Henry, Sabina; Hunter, Lori M.; Twine, Wayne

2008-01-01

This paper reviews and synthesizes findings from scholarly work on linkages among rural household demographics, livelihoods and the environment. Using the livelihood approach as an organizing framework, we examine evidence on the multiple pathways linking environmental variables and the following demographic variables: fertility, migration, morbidity and mortality, and lifecycles. Although the review draws on studies from the entire developing world, we find the majority of micro-level studie...

Navigating challenges and opportunities of land degradation and sustainable livelihood development in dryland social-ecological systems: a case study from Mexico.

Science.gov (United States)

Huber-Sannwald, Elisabeth; Palacios, Mónica Ribeiro; Moreno, José Tulio Arredondo; Braasch, Marco; Peña, Ruth Magnolia Martínez; Verduzco, Javier García de Alba; Santos, Karina Monzalvo

2012-11-19

Drylands are one of the most diverse yet highly vulnerable social-ecological systems on Earth. Water scarcity has contributed to high levels of heterogeneity, variability and unpredictability, which together have shaped the long coadaptative process of coupling humans and nature. Land degradation and desertification in drylands are some of the largest and most far-reaching global environmental and social change problems, and thus are a daunting challenge for science and society. In this study, we merged the Drylands Development Paradigm, Holling's adaptive cycle metaphor and resilience theory to assess the challenges and opportunities for livelihood development in the Amapola dryland social-ecological system (DSES), a small isolated village in the semi-arid region of Mexico. After 450 years of local social-ecological evolution, external drivers (neoliberal policies, change in land reform legislation) have become the most dominant force in livelihood development, at the cost of loss of natural and cultural capital and an increasingly dysfunctional landscape. Local DSESs have become increasingly coupled to dynamic larger-scale drivers. Hence, cross-scale connectedness feeds back on and transforms local self-sustaining subsistence farming conditions, causing loss of livelihood resilience and diversification in a globally changing world. Effective efforts to combat desertification and improve livelihood security in DSESs need to consider their cyclical rhythms. Hence, we advocate novel dryland stewardship strategies, which foster adaptive capacity, and continuous evaluation and social learning at all levels. Finally, we call for an effective, flexible and viable policy framework that enhances local biotic and cultural diversity of drylands to transform global drylands into a resilient biome in the context of global environmental and social change.

Navigating challenges and opportunities of land degradation and sustainable livelihood development in dryland social–ecological systems: a case study from Mexico

Science.gov (United States)

Huber-Sannwald, Elisabeth; Ribeiro Palacios, Mónica; Arredondo Moreno, José Tulio; Braasch, Marco; Martínez Peña, Ruth Magnolia; de Alba Verduzco, Javier García; Monzalvo Santos, Karina

2012-01-01

Drylands are one of the most diverse yet highly vulnerable social–ecological systems on Earth. Water scarcity has contributed to high levels of heterogeneity, variability and unpredictability, which together have shaped the long coadaptative process of coupling humans and nature. Land degradation and desertification in drylands are some of the largest and most far-reaching global environmental and social change problems, and thus are a daunting challenge for science and society. In this study, we merged the Drylands Development Paradigm, Holling's adaptive cycle metaphor and resilience theory to assess the challenges and opportunities for livelihood development in the Amapola dryland social–ecological system (DSES), a small isolated village in the semi-arid region of Mexico. After 450 years of local social–ecological evolution, external drivers (neoliberal policies, change in land reform legislation) have become the most dominant force in livelihood development, at the cost of loss of natural and cultural capital and an increasingly dysfunctional landscape. Local DSESs have become increasingly coupled to dynamic larger-scale drivers. Hence, cross-scale connectedness feeds back on and transforms local self-sustaining subsistence farming conditions, causing loss of livelihood resilience and diversification in a globally changing world. Effective efforts to combat desertification and improve livelihood security in DSESs need to consider their cyclical rhythms. Hence, we advocate novel dryland stewardship strategies, which foster adaptive capacity, and continuous evaluation and social learning at all levels. Finally, we call for an effective, flexible and viable policy framework that enhances local biotic and cultural diversity of drylands to transform global drylands into a resilient biome in the context of global environmental and social change. PMID:23045713

Livelihoods and climate change : combining disaster risk reduction, natural resource management and climate change adaptation in a new approach to the reduction of vulnerability and poverty

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Burton, I.; Soussan, J.; Hammill, A.

2003-01-01

This paper provides a framework for researchers and policy-makers that are taking action on climate change adaptation. It presents innovative and sustainable ways to respond to the changing global climate. It focuses, in particular, on international research and policy initiatives on climate change, vulnerable communities and adaptation. The international and multi-disciplinary task force that put the framework together includes experts from the fields of disaster risk reduction, climate change, conservation and poverty reduction. The report emphasizes that successful climate change adaptation should be accomplished through actions that reduce the vulnerabilities of poor people and poor countries because people's livelihoods shape poverty and their ability to move out of poverty. The task force identifies the need to integrate a climate change adaptation approach based on the livelihoods of vulnerable communities in different parts of the world. The examples cited in this report include: (1) mangrove rehabilitation in Vietnam, (2) community-based rang eland rehabilitation for carbon sequestration in Sudan, (3) agro-ecological roots of resilience in Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala, and (4) watershed restoration and development in Maharashtra State, India. refs., figs

A Livelihood Asset Status Tracking Method for the Assessment of the Effects of a Development Programme on Agricultural Productivity and Poverty Reduction: Evidence from the Ejisu-Juaben District, Ghana

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Peter Kojo Boateng

2013-12-01

Full Text Available This paper advances and discusses an innovative Livelihood Asset Status Tracking (LAST computational method based on the sustainable livelihoods analytical framework. It then uses the method to offer a theoretically informed empirical assessment of the effects of Ghana’s Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy II (GPRS II – 2006-2009 on smallholder farmers’ ability to develop sustainable livelihoods in the face of changing environmental and socio-economic conditions of production. Often, variability in climatic conditions interacts with adverse socio-economic conditions such as disadvantageous terms of trade and poor agricultural infrastructure to undermine agricultural productivity and by extension, Ghanaian smallholder farmers’ livelihoods (Sagoe, 2006. In this study, developing sustainable livelihoods is defined by a quantitative assessment of the development of 5 key livelihood capital assets – financial capital, social capital, natural capital, physical capital and human capital. Among others, the LAST analysis reveals that although a few smallholder farmers were able to develop productive capital assets and to build viable and sustainable livelihoods through the activities of the GPRS II, a greater majority of smallholder farmers in the municipality have not been able to adequately develop capital assets for more productivity, hence maintaining extremely poor and vulnerable livelihoods.

Impact of AIDS on rural livelihoods in Benue State, Nigeria

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Journal of Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS. VOL. 3 NO. ... Erosive coping strategies that undermined the sustainability of livelihoods were used by more ..... related symptom in the present analysis. .... support networks for home-based care in Benue. .... elaborate and costly. ..... resulting from more effective prevention campaigns.

Conserving agrobiodiversity amid global change, migration, and nontraditional livelihood networks: the dynamic uses of cultural landscape knowledge

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Karl S. Zimmerer

2014-06-01

Full Text Available I examined agrobiodiversity in smallholder cultural landscapes with the goal of offering new insights into management and policy options for the resilience-based in situ conservation and social-ecological sustainability of local, food-producing crop types, i.e., landraces. I built a general, integrative approach to focus on both land use and livelihood functions of crop landraces in the context of nontraditional, migration-related livelihoods amid global change. The research involved a multimethod, case-study design focused on a cultural landscape of maize, i.e., corn, growing in the Andes of central Bolivia, which is a global hot spot for this crop's agrobiodiversity. Central questions included the following: (1 What are major agroecological functions and food-related services of the agrobiodiversity of Andean maize landraces, and how are they related to cultural landscapes and associated knowledge systems? (2 What are new migration-related livelihood groups, and how are their dynamic livelihoods propelled through global change, in particular international and national migration, linked to the use and cultural landscapes of agrobiodiversity? (3 What are management and policy options derived from the previous questions? Combined social-ecological services as both cultivation and food resources are found to function in relation to the cultural landscape. Results demonstrated major variations of maturation-based, phenologic traits and food-use properties that are cornerstones of the landrace-level agrobiodiversity of Andean maize. Knowledge of these parameters is widespread. Linkage of these production and consumption functions yields a major insight into dynamics of Andean maize agrobiodiversity. Concurrently, this smallholder cultural landscape has become increasingly dependent on new rural conditions, especially increased livelihood diversification and migration amid growing peri-urban influences. Viability of landrace-level maize

Impact of Natural Disasters on Livelihood Resilience of Sichuan Rural Residents and Policy Implementation

Science.gov (United States)

Fang, Yiping

2017-04-01

Livelihood resilience is defined as the capacity of all people across generations to sustain and improve their livelihood opportunities and well-being despite environmental, economic, social and political disturbances. Livelihood resilience has become a popular research and policy concept in the context of climate change. In this paper, we employ the structural dynamics method to describe livelihood resilience of Sichuan rural residents based on four components of livelihood quality, livelihood promotion, livelihood provision, and natural disasters pressure. Results indicate that: (i) The livelihood resilience of rural residents was significantly positively correlated with livelihood quality, livelihood promotion and livelihood provision, but there was a strong negative correlation with the natural disaster pressure. In the past 30 years, both livelihood promotion and livelihood provision declined, and the increase in disasters pressure offset the significant increase in the quality of livelihoods in Sichuan Province. The change curve of the livelihood resilience of rural residents showed the characteristics of first rising and then descending. (ii) The impact of different natural disasters on the resilience of livelihood is different. The contribution rates of earthquake, drought and flood disaster to the resilience of livelihood were -0.9 percent, -0.8 percent, and -0.3percent respectively. Due to the fact that the research area is not divided into earthquake-stricken area, non-earthquake-stricken area, heavy stricken area and light stricken area, to a certain extent, this has weakened the negative effect of earthquake disaster on the livelihood resilience of rural residents. (iii) From central government perspective, the reform of income distribution, tax system, and to change the reality of the income growth of rural residents behind national economic development are shown to be associated with highly significant and positive impact on livelihood resilience of

Combining household income and asset data to identify livelihood strategies and their dynamics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Walelign, Solomon Zena; Pouliot, Mariéve; Larsen, Helle Overgaard

2017-01-01

Current approaches to identifying and describing rural livelihood strategies, and household movements between strategies over time, in developing countries are imprecise. Here we: (i) present a new statistical quantitative approach combining income and asset data to identify household activity...... of livelihood strategies and household movements between strategies over time than using only income or asset data. Most households changed livelihood strategy at least once over the two three-year periods. A common pathway out of poverty included an intermediate step during which households accumulate assets...

Livelihood impacts of forest carbon project and its implications for ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This study examines the impacts of forest carbon project on the livelihoods of rural households and its implications for the sustainability of forest by focusing on a regenerated forest in Humbo district of Southwestern Ethiopia. The methods through which primary data were gathered are a triangulation of household survey, ...

Livelihood asset maps: a multidimensional approach to measuring risk-management capacity and adaptation policy targeting—a case study in Bhutan

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jakobsen, Kristian Thor

2013-01-01

to the fact that some areas facing increased level of climate-related risks lack access to productive and human capital, while other areas facing a similar situation have relatively insufficient access to financial assets. This again shows that any non-targeted policy aiming at improving households’ risk-management......The application of a livelihood asset-based approach to adaptation policy targeting is presented through the creation of maps highlighting the spatial contrasts of access to various types of livelihood assets utilizing primary household data. Thus, the livelihood maps provide policy......-makers with a tool to quickly identify areas with limited access to certain types of assets, making the latter less able to react to a changing level of climaterelated risks. In the case of Bhutan, distinct spatial patterns of asset endowments is identified using five different asset indicators drawing attention...

Schooling, Generation, and Transformations in Livelihoods

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jordt Jørgensen, Nanna

2016-01-01

In northern Kenya, sustainable pastoral livelihoods are under strain. While climate changes implicating more frequent and prolonged drought periods reduce pasture productivity, new political and economic interests in the region are generating a growing pressure on land. In Laikipia North subcounty...... people’s attempts to carefully balance competing moral expectations and generational positions of autonomy and dependency. The chapter contributes to debates about young people’s learning and laboring in Africa by pointing to the ways in which embodied laboring practices and environmental learning...

Conservation as a Core Asset for Livelihood Security in East Africa ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

It will do so by documenting lessons learned by rural communities on the linkages between conservation and improvements in livelihood and human security, and ... Workshop for Building Capacity and Strengthening Policies for Coastal Communities to Sustainably Manage Marine Resources in Kenya, Titanic Hotel, Kilifi, ...

Local Perception of Risk to Livelihoods in the Semi-Arid Landscape of Southern Africa

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Erin Bunting

2013-05-01

Full Text Available The United Nations and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change deem many regions of southern Africa as vulnerable landscapes due to changing climatic regimes, ecological conditions, and low adaptive capacity. Typically in highly vulnerable regions, multiple livelihood strategies are employed to enable sustainable development. In Botswana, livelihood strategies have diversified over time to include tourism and other non-agricultural activities. While such diversification and development have been studied, little is known about how locals perceive livelihood risks. This article analyzes perceptions of risk through a risk hazards framework. During the summer of 2010, 330 surveys were completed within seven villages in northern Botswana and the Caprivi Strip of Namibia. During the survey respondents were asked to list the biggest threats/challenges to their livelihoods. Responses were grouped into categories of risk according to the capital assets on which livelihoods depend: natural, physical, financial, human, and social. A risk mapping procedure was utilized, for which indices of severity, incidence, and risk were calculated. It is hypothesized that people’s perception of risk is directly dependent on environmental conditions and employment status of the household. Results indicate that problems related to natural and financial assets are the greatest source of risk to livelihoods. Furthermore, flood, drought, and other measures of climate variability are perceived as influential, typically negatively, to livelihood strategies.

Integrating Reflexivity in Livelihoods Research

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Prowse, Martin

2010-01-01

Much poverty and development research is not explicit about its methodology or philosophical foundations. Based on the extended case method of Burawoy and the epistemological standpoint of critical realism, this paper discusses a methodological approach for reflexive inductive livelihoods research...... that overcomes the unproductive social science dualism of positivism and social constructivism. The approach is linked to a conceptual framework and a menu of research methods that can be sequenced and iterated in light of research questions....

Locating and extending livelihoods research

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Prowse, Martin

2008-01-01

Much poverty and development research is not explicit about its methodology or philosophical foundations. Based on the extended case method of Burawoy and the epistemological standpoint of critical realism, this paper discusses a methodological approach for reflexive inductive livelihoods researc...... that overcomes the unproductive social science dualism of positivism and social constructivism. The approach is linked to a conceptual framework and a menu of research methods that can be sequenced and iterated in light of research questions....

Rural livelihoods and household adaptation to extreme flooding in the Okavango Delta, Botswana

Science.gov (United States)

Motsholapheko, M. R.; Kgathi, D. L.; Vanderpost, C.

Adaptation to flooding is now widely adopted as an appropriate policy option since flood mitigation measures largely exceed the capability of most developing countries. In wetlands, such as the Okavango Delta, adaptation is more appropriate as these systems serve as natural flood control mechanisms. The Okavango Delta system is subject to annual variability in flooding with extreme floods resulting in adverse impacts on rural livelihoods. This study therefore seeks to improve the general understanding of rural household livelihood adaptation to extreme flooding in the Okavango Delta. Specific objectives are: (1) to assess household access to forms of capital necessary for enhanced capacity to adapt, (2) to assess the impacts of extreme flooding on household livelihoods, and (3) to identify and assess household livelihood responses to extreme flooding. The study uses the sustainable livelihood and the socio-ecological frameworks to analyse the livelihood patterns and resilience to extreme flooding. Results from a survey of 623 households in five villages, key informant interviews, focus group discussions and review of literature, indicate that access to natural capital was generally high, but low for financial, physical, human and social capital. Households mainly relied on farm-based livelihood activities, some non-farm activities, limited rural trade and public transfers. In 2004 and 2009, extreme flooding resulted in livelihood disruptions in the study areas. The main impacts included crop damage, household displacement, destruction of household property, livestock drowning and mud-trapping, the destruction of public infrastructure and disruption of services. The main household coping strategies were labour switching to other livelihood activities, temporary relocation to less affected areas, use of canoes for early harvesting or evacuation and government assistance, particularly for the most vulnerable households. Household adaptive strategies included

A sustainable livelihood framework to implement CSR project in coal mining sector

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sapna A. Narula

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Corporate social responsibility (CSR in mining areas has increased momentum especially in countries like India where it has been made mandatory. The primary objective of this paper is to document actual social challenges of mining in field areas and find out how companies in the coal sector can work in a systematic manner to achieve uplift of affected communities. The first part of the paper draws evidence from three different bodies of literature, i.e. CSR and coal mining, capacity building and livelihood generation in mining areas. We try to converge the literature to propose a novel framework for livelihood generation work through capacity building with the help of CSR investments. The paper also documents a live case of planning and the implementation of capacity building activities in Muriadih coal mines in the Jharkhand state of India and offers lessons to both business and policy makers. The proposed framework has only been experimented in a local context, yet has the potential to be replicated in other mining areas.

Walking the village: LiveDiverse – Sustainable livelihoods and biodiversity in developing countries

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Nortje, Karen

2011-01-01

Full Text Available LiveDiverse is a multi-year, multi-country collaborative research project that focuses on the interface between livelihoods and biodiversity of people in rural communities who live in or in the vicinity of a biodiversity ‘hotspot’. Five villages...

Researching Pacific island livelihoods:

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Egelund Christensen, Andreas; Mertz, Ole

2010-01-01

on contemporary theories of nissology and conceptual analytical frameworks for island research. Through a review of selected case-study-based island literature on changing livelihoods coming out of the South Pacific, we wish to illustrate and discuss advantages of finding common grounds for small island studies....... The focus is on two dimensions of island livelihood, migration and natural resource management, both of which are significant contributors in making island livelihoods and shaping Pacific seascapes. We argue that there is still a substantial lack of studies targeting small island dynamics that are empirical...

Soil and water conservation strategies and impact on sustainable livelihood in Cape Verde - Case study of Ribeira Seca watershed

Science.gov (United States)

Baptista, I.; Ferreira, A. D.; Tavares, J.; Querido, A. L. E.; Reis, A. E. A.; Geissen, V.; Ritsema, C.; Varela, A.

2012-04-01

Cape Verde, located off the coast of Senegal in western Africa, is a volcanic archipelago where a combination of human, climatic, geomorphologic and pedologic factors has led to extensive degradation of the soils. Like other Sahelian countries, Cape Verde has suffered the effects of desertification through the years, threatening the livelihood of the islands population and its fragile environment. In fact, the steep slopes in the ore agricultural islands, together with semi-arid and arid environments, characterized by an irregular and poorly distributed rainy season, with high intensity rainfall events, make dryland production a challenge. To survive in these fragile conditions, the stabilization of the farming systems and the maintenance of sustainable yields have become absolute priorities, making the islands an erosion control laboratory. Soil and water conservation strategies have been a centerpiece of the government's agricultural policies for the last half century. Aiming to maintain the soil in place and the water inside the soil, the successive governments of Cape Verde have implemented a number of soil and water conservation techniques, the most common ones being terraces, half moons, live barriers, contour rock walls, contour furrows and microcatchments, check dams and reforestation with drought resistant species. The soil and water conservation techniques implemented have contributed to the improvement of the economical and environmental conditions of the treated landscape, making crop production possible, consequently, improving the livelihood of the people living on the islands. In this paper, we survey the existing soil and water conservation techniques, analyze their impact on the livelihood condition of the population through a thorough literature review and field monitoring using a semi-quantitative methodology and evaluate their effectiveness and impact on crop yield in the Ribeira Seca watershed. A brief discussion is given on the cost and

Livelihood strategies and dynamics in rural Cambodia

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jiao, Xi; Pouliot, Mariéve; Walelign, Solomon Zena

2017-01-01

This paper addresses one of the major challenges in rural livelihood analysis to quantitatively examine the dynamics of household livelihood strategies. It investigates the interactions between livelihood assets, activities, and outcomes, and captures the dynamics of long-term changes......, for latent class cluster analysis and regression estimation. In this paper, livelihood strategies are quantified based on allocation of available resources, which overcomes the limitations of income-based analysis. Our study identifies five household livelihood strategies pursued in the study areas...... and their underlying factors. The study aims to identify the classification of rural livelihood strategies, their transitions and factors influencing these processes and changes. We employ the dynamic livelihood strategy framework, and use panel data for 2008 and 2012 covering 464 households in 15 villages in Cambodia...

Social inclusion and sustainable livelihood trajectories of portuguese immigrants in Curaçao: From contracted oil-workers through agro-commercial entrepreneurship to business elite

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Bruijn, J.G.M.; do Rego, C.P.; de Haan, Leo

2017-01-01

This books aims to further develop theory and practice on people-centred development, in particular on the livelihood approach. It focuses on four contemporary thematic areas, where progress has been booked but also contestation is still apparent: power relations, power struggles and underlying

Livelihood strategies, environmental dependency and rural poverty

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Walelign, Solomon Zena

2016-01-01

This article attempts to explore the nexus between rural households’ environmental dependency, poverty and livelihood strategies. Households’ income from each livelihood activities formed the basis for categorizing households according to livelihood strategies. The principal component analysis...... of livelihood choice were analyzed using multinomial logit model. The results indicate the existence of marked differences in environmental dependency, rural poverty and asset endowments across the livelihood groups. Household’s total saving, access to credit, production implements, business cost, exposure...

Combining analytical frameworks to assess livelihood vulnerability to climate change and analyse adaptation options.

Science.gov (United States)

Reed, M S; Podesta, G; Fazey, I; Geeson, N; Hessel, R; Hubacek, K; Letson, D; Nainggolan, D; Prell, C; Rickenbach, M G; Ritsema, C; Schwilch, G; Stringer, L C; Thomas, A D

2013-10-01

Experts working on behalf of international development organisations need better tools to assist land managers in developing countries maintain their livelihoods, as climate change puts pressure on the ecosystem services that they depend upon. However, current understanding of livelihood vulnerability to climate change is based on a fractured and disparate set of theories and methods. This review therefore combines theoretical insights from sustainable livelihoods analysis with other analytical frameworks (including the ecosystem services framework, diffusion theory, social learning, adaptive management and transitions management) to assess the vulnerability of rural livelihoods to climate change. This integrated analytical framework helps diagnose vulnerability to climate change, whilst identifying and comparing adaptation options that could reduce vulnerability, following four broad steps: i) determine likely level of exposure to climate change, and how climate change might interact with existing stresses and other future drivers of change; ii) determine the sensitivity of stocks of capital assets and flows of ecosystem services to climate change; iii) identify factors influencing decisions to develop and/or adopt different adaptation strategies, based on innovation or the use/substitution of existing assets; and iv) identify and evaluate potential trade-offs between adaptation options. The paper concludes by identifying interdisciplinary research needs for assessing the vulnerability of livelihoods to climate change.

Mapping future changes in livelihood security and environmental sustainability based on perceptions of small farmers in the Brazilian Amazon.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Diniz, F.H.; Kok, K.; Hoogstra-Klein, M.A.; Arts, B.J.M.

2015-01-01

ABSTRACT Deforestation is a widely recognized problem in the Brazilian Amazon. Small farmers play a key role in this process in that they earn their livelihood by ranching and farming. Many studies have addressed the link between deforestation and livelihood strategies adopted by small farmers. Most

Strengthening Rural Livelihoods: The Impact of Information and ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

2011-09-20

Sep 20, 2011 ... ... social gains in linking geographically disparate households and social networks. Using a control trial approach in four out of the six project case studies, ... ICTs into rural livelihoods and more effectively measuring its effects.

Climate governance, rural livelihoods and social networks : Using the ecosystem service governance approach to analyse climate adaptation and resource conflict resolution in Kenya

OpenAIRE

Wambui Ngaruiya, G.

2014-01-01

No doubt impacts from climate change on natural resources threaten achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. But of more concern is the controversial “climate-conflicts nexus” theory which paints a grim future as resources become scarcer in Africa. Though some scientists believe that this popular theory is biased, there is an evident knowledge gap on successful adaptation strategies currently sustaining rural livelihoods across the Sub-Sahara. Moreover, poorly coordinated “adaptation e...

Livelihood Cycle and Vulnerability of Rural Households to Climate Change and Hazards in Bangladesh

Science.gov (United States)

Alam, G. M. Monirul

2017-05-01

Rural riverine households in Bangladesh are confronted with many climate-driven hazards, including riverbank erosion, which results in loss of productive land and other natural resources of the riverine households, and thus threatens their livelihoods and food security. This study assesses the main drivers of vulnerability and livelihood cycle of vulnerable riparian households in Bangladesh. The study utilises the IPCC framework of vulnerability and develops a weighted approach by employing the livelihood vulnerability index and the climate vulnerability index. The results reveal that the livelihood vulnerability index and the climate vulnerability index differ across locations, however, a high index value for both measures indicates the households' high livelihood vulnerability to climate change and hazards. The main drivers that influence the vulnerability dimensions are livelihood strategies and access to food, water and health facilities. These hazard-prone households are also vulnerable due to their existing low livelihood status that leads to a vicious cycle of poverty. The findings of this study are crucial for policymakers to formulate and implement effective strategies and programs to minimise vulnerability and to enhance the local adaptation processes in order to improve such households' livelihood across Bangladesh.

Livelihood Cycle and Vulnerability of Rural Households to Climate Change and Hazards in Bangladesh.

Science.gov (United States)

Alam, G M Monirul

2017-05-01

Rural riverine households in Bangladesh are confronted with many climate-driven hazards, including riverbank erosion, which results in loss of productive land and other natural resources of the riverine households, and thus threatens their livelihoods and food security. This study assesses the main drivers of vulnerability and livelihood cycle of vulnerable riparian households in Bangladesh. The study utilises the IPCC framework of vulnerability and develops a weighted approach by employing the livelihood vulnerability index and the climate vulnerability index. The results reveal that the livelihood vulnerability index and the climate vulnerability index differ across locations, however, a high index value for both measures indicates the households' high livelihood vulnerability to climate change and hazards. The main drivers that influence the vulnerability dimensions are livelihood strategies and access to food, water and health facilities. These hazard-prone households are also vulnerable due to their existing low livelihood status that leads to a vicious cycle of poverty. The findings of this study are crucial for policymakers to formulate and implement effective strategies and programs to minimise vulnerability and to enhance the local adaptation processes in order to improve such households' livelihood across Bangladesh.

Ecosystem services and livelihoods in deltaic environments

Science.gov (United States)

Nicholls, R. J.; Rahman, M. M.; Salehin, M.; Hutton, C.

2015-12-01

While overall, deltas account for only 1% of global land area, they are home to more than a half billion people or ca. 7% of the world's population. In many deltas, livelihoods and food security are strongly dependent on ecosystem services, which in turn are affected by various environmental change factors, including climate variability and change, modifications to upstream river, sediment and nutrient fluxes, evolving nearshore ecosystems, and delta-level change factors such as subsidence, changing land use and management interventions such as polders. Key limits include scarcity of fresh water, saline water intrusion and the impacts of extreme events (e.g. river floods, cyclones and storm surges), which constrain land use choices and livelihood opportunities for the deltaic populations. The ESPA Deltas project takes a systemic perspective of the interaction between the coupled bio-physical environment and the livelihoods of rural delta residents. The methods emphasise poverty reduction and use coastal Bangladesh as an example. This includes a set of consistent biophysical analyses of the delta and the upstream catchments and the downstream Bay of Bengal, as well as governance and policy analysis and socio-demographic analysis, including an innovative household survey on ecosystem utilization. These results are encapsulated in an integrated model that analyses ecosystem services and livelihood implications. This integrated approach is designed to support delta-level policy formulation. It allows the exploration of contrasting development trajectories, including issues such as robustness of different governance options on ecosystem services and livelihoods. The method is strongly participatory including an ongoing series of stakeholder workshops addressing issue identification, scenario development and consideration of policy responses. The methods presented are generic and transferable to other deltas. The paper will consider the overall ESPA Deltas project and

Assessing urban sustainability of slum settlements in Bangladesh: Evidence from Chittagong city

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Nasir Uddin

2018-04-01

Full Text Available This paper examines the sustainability of urban development through the livelihood conditions of slum dwellers in Bangladesh. The empirical data were collected through interview schedule and FGD from 97 respondents in two slum areas of Bangladesh. The respondents were selected purposively from the second largest city of Bangladesh namely, Chittagong. The results clearly indicate that there exist significant diversity and differences of sustainability indicators, particularly household and housing characteristics, health, drinking water, waste disposal system and security. More specifically, the finding shows that slum dwellers have been experiencing with a wide range of substandard, overcrowded and unhealthy housing conditions in one hand. On the other hand, they have scarce and insufficient health, sanitation, water and waste disposal services which are unswervingly impeding to sustainable development in urban areas. Although the majority of slum dwellers have access to electricity, they are still threatened by the insecurities of women, drug dealing, eviction and natural disaster. Therefore, the findings suggest a holistic approach to address the multi-faceted sustainability issues that affect the livelihoods of slum dwellers within the framework of context-driven development policy of the country. Keywords: Sustainability, Urban slum, Sustainable development, Chittagong city, Bangladesh

Opportunism and diversification : entrepreneurship and livelihood strategies in uncertain times

OpenAIRE

Knight, Daniel Martyn

2015-01-01

As economic crisis deepens across Europe people are forced to find innovative strategies to accommodate circumstances of chronic uncertainty. Even with a second multi-billion euro bailout package secured for Greece, the prospects of a sustainable recovery in the near future look bleak. However, crisis has also created dynamic spaces for entrepreneurial opportunism and diversification resulting in social mobility, relocation, shifts in livelihood strategy and a burgeoning informal economy. Alt...

When nature frowns: A comprehensive impact assessment of the 2012 Babessi floods on people’s livelihoods in rural Cameroon

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Roland A. Balgah

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Floods are the most common natural disasters worldwide. Much of the growing literature on the impact of floods, especially in developed countries, and to a lesser extent in rural areas of developing countries, concentrates on economic rather than a comprehensive assessment of combined effects on people’s livelihoods. Holistic floods impact assessments are often done long after the shock, raising problems of data reliability following long recall periods, although post-disaster needs assessments when carried out earlier can facilitate appropriate disaster recovery, relief and reconstruction activities. We applied the sustainable livelihoods framework as a comprehensive approach to assess the impacts of the Babessi floods in 2012 on livelihoods in rural (north western region of Cameroon 6 weeks after the floods. Using a structured questionnaire, data was collected from victims before and after the floods, using recall methods. A matched sample of nonvictims randomly selected from the same village as the victims was used to assess vulnerability to the floods by household type. Floods were found to have serious economic, social, human and food security impacts on victims. Both government and nongovernmental support were jointly crucial for household recovery. Comparatively observed high levels of recovery were attributed to the low loss of human lives. The article concludes with the need for comprehensive approaches to floods impact assessments. The need for combining formal and informal instruments in post-disaster management in rural areas is also emphasised.

Can minor fruit cultivation change the livelihood of the marginal peasants? A case study from Bangladesh

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Kabir M.S.

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Lemon (lebu cultivation, a minor fruit production activity, is increasingly becoming popular among the marginal peasants. The present study aimed at exploring the potentials of lemon production and its impact on the changes in the livelihood pattern of the rural farmers as well as its impact on women empowerment. Based on qualitative and quantitative data collected from Mymensingh district in Bangladesh in 2015, this paper argues that life and livelihood of the citrus producer has significantly changed over the last decade. Income from the sale of lemon is the principal livelihood means and gender non-differentiated participation in the production process further enhanced the sustainability of the livelihoods. It also contributed to employment generation for those who are not directly involved in the lemon cultivation such as power tiller driver, irrigation pump driver, fertilizer & pesticide retailer, small lemon collector, lemon supplier in the study area. Moreover, increased participation of women in the citrus cultivation has changed not only their economic well-being but also social status, honor, planning and decision making power, and self-esteem. This study also shows that marginal and vulnerable poor women including landless women, female member of women headed household and widows significantly benefited from citrus cultivation. Yet, lack of cooperative society, financial support, credit facility, technical support, storage facility and marketing support are identified as the potential problems to achieve a sustainable growth of lemon production activity.

SUSTAINABLE FARMS: INTEGRATION OF AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS

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Manolo Muñoz-Espinosa

2016-08-01

Full Text Available The inappropriate use of agrochemicals and technologies in farming systems can cause an accelerated deterioration of agricultural and soil pollution. Thus, agriculture and livestock are becoming an environmental problem in the world, which implies the need to assess the efficiency of agricultural production systems related to sustainability. The traditional peasant system is apparently unsustainable, while farm with an integral production approach have better opportunities for development over time as they tend to sustainability. This type of farms incorporate productive alternatives that improve as a whole, the system and the livelihood of the peasants. The trends towards sustainability of farms are mainly due to a better land use. As well as, implementing systems adapted to each soil and production type to ensure profitability and persistence, achieving the highest possible agricultural productivity. The urgency to produce food for a growing population is almost a paradigm that reinforces the imperative for maximum yield per unit area, and creates a vision of the rural world aimed at increasing profit at the expense of the attributes and core values of livelihood in rural areas. It can be concluded that the integrated farming articulate various subsystems, which working together could allow higher sustainability of agricultural production practices, environmentally friendly, safeguarding the food sovereignty of the population and improving the quality of life of farmers

Coastal livelihood transitions under globalization with implications for trans-ecosystem interactions.

Science.gov (United States)

Kramer, Daniel B; Stevens, Kara; Williams, Nicholas E; Sistla, Seeta A; Roddy, Adam B; Urquhart, Gerald R

2017-01-01

Anthropogenic threats to natural systems can be exacerbated due to connectivity between marine, freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems, complicating the already daunting task of governance across the land-sea interface. Globalization, including new access to markets, can change social-ecological, land-sea linkages via livelihood responses and adaptations by local people. As a first step in understanding these trans-ecosystem effects, we examined exit and entry decisions of artisanal fishers and smallholder farmers on the rapidly globalizing Caribbean coast of Nicaragua. We found that exit and entry decisions demonstrated clear temporal and spatial patterns and that these decisions differed by livelihood. In addition to household characteristics, livelihood exit and entry decisions were strongly affected by new access to regional and global markets. The natural resource implications of these livelihood decisions are potentially profound as they provide novel linkages and spatially-explicit feedbacks between terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Our findings support the need for more scientific inquiry in understanding trans-ecosystem tradeoffs due to linked-livelihood transitions as well as the need for a trans-ecosystem approach to natural resource management and development policy in rapidly changing coastal regions.

Coastal livelihood transitions under globalization with implications for trans-ecosystem interactions.

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Daniel B Kramer

Full Text Available Anthropogenic threats to natural systems can be exacerbated due to connectivity between marine, freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems, complicating the already daunting task of governance across the land-sea interface. Globalization, including new access to markets, can change social-ecological, land-sea linkages via livelihood responses and adaptations by local people. As a first step in understanding these trans-ecosystem effects, we examined exit and entry decisions of artisanal fishers and smallholder farmers on the rapidly globalizing Caribbean coast of Nicaragua. We found that exit and entry decisions demonstrated clear temporal and spatial patterns and that these decisions differed by livelihood. In addition to household characteristics, livelihood exit and entry decisions were strongly affected by new access to regional and global markets. The natural resource implications of these livelihood decisions are potentially profound as they provide novel linkages and spatially-explicit feedbacks between terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Our findings support the need for more scientific inquiry in understanding trans-ecosystem tradeoffs due to linked-livelihood transitions as well as the need for a trans-ecosystem approach to natural resource management and development policy in rapidly changing coastal regions.

Social acceptability urban form and sustainability in urban neighborhoods in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua

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Claudia Gabriela Vargas Fernández

2016-11-01

Full Text Available In the field of urban planning, questioning around sustainability and the possibility of sustainable urban planning has led to a new set of approaches and discussions that impact studies on urban form and sustainable livelihoods. This approach characterized the work presented by Mike Jenks and Colin Jones (2010, Dimensions of the Sustainable City, where a set of variables are presented about urban sustainability from the neighbourhood level of analysis. In that sense, this article proposes the analysis of three social housing neighborhoods in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, México, integrating aspects of urban form and social acceptability, in order to understand the relationship between the physical and sociocultural dimensions of the concept of urban sustainability.

Alcohol production as an adaptive livelihood strategy for women farmers in Tanzania and its potential for unintended consequences on women's reproductive health.

Science.gov (United States)

McCoy, Sandra I; Ralph, Lauren J; Wilson, Wema; Padian, Nancy S

2013-01-01

Although women occupy a central position in agriculture in many developing countries, they face numerous constraints to achieving their full potential including unequal access to assets and limited decision-making authority. We explore the intersection of agricultural livelihoods, food and economic security, and women's sexual and reproductive health in Iringa Region, Tanzania. Our goal was to understand whether the benefits of supporting women in the agricultural sector might also extend to more distal outcomes, including sexual and reproductive health. Using the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework to guide data collection, we conducted 13 focus group discussions (FGD) with female (n = 11) and male farmers (n = 2) and 20 in-depth interviews with agricultural extension officers (n = 10) and village agro-dealers (n = 10). Despite providing the majority of agricultural labor, women have limited control over land and earned income and have little bargaining power. In response to these constraints, women adopt adaptive livelihood strategies, such as alcohol production, that allow them to retain control over income and support their households. However, women's central role in alcohol production, in concert with the ubiquitous nature of alcohol consumption, places them at risk by enhancing their vulnerability to unsafe or transactional sex. This represents a dangerous confluence of risk for female farmers, in which alcohol plays an important role in income generation and also facilitates high-risk sexual behavior. Alcohol production and consumption has the potential to both directly and indirectly place women at risk for undesirable sexual and reproductive health outcomes. Group formation, better access to finance, and engaging with agricultural extension officers were identified as potential interventions for supporting women farmers and challenging harmful gender norms. In addition, joint, multi-sectoral approaches from health and agriculture and

Vulnerability Assessment of the Livelihoods in Tanzania’s Semi-Arid Agro-Ecological Zone under Climate Change Scenarios

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Msafiri Y. Mkonda

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Despite the established literature on the vulnerability to climate change in various parts of Tanzania, it is worthwhile to assess the extent of this vulnerability of the peoples’ livelihoods and predict its future outcome. This is particularly important in the vulnerable ecosystems, that is, the semi-arid zones of Tanzania where the people’s livelihoods are highly attached to the declining local condition. The present study aims to assess the livelihoods vulnerability in Kongwa District, the semi-arid zone of Central Tanzania. In doing so, a wide range of methods were employed during data collection and analyses including surveys, informative interviews, discussions and observation. The study sampled 400 (≤10% respondents during a survey. The Mann-Kendall Test with SPSS V20, Microsoft Excel and Theme content techniques were used for data analyses. The results indicate that climate stress has adversely impacted the quality of soil, vegetation, crop yields and intensified environmental degradation. Since most people depend upon the mentioned affected aspects, it is expected that also the level of livelihood vulnerability has elevated. Further, this situation has greatly contributed to increased poverty and thus, propagates the “tragedy of the common” to the available environmental resources. As a response to increased vulnerability, some farmers have abandoned thousands of hectares of agricultural farms that seemed to be less productive. Despite this, slight measures have been taken by both the government and other key stakeholders to limit vulnerability. The findings of this study provide a theoretical and practical basis for coordinating a sustainable man-environment relationship, ensuring the sustainability of the environment which is the major source of peoples’ livelihoods.

Community Development to Feed the Family in Northern Manitoba Communities: Evaluating Food Activities based on Their Food Sovereighnty, Food Security, and Sustainable Livelihood Outcomes

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Mohammad Ashraful Alam

2012-12-01

Full Text Available This article explores food-related activities and their impacts on sustainable livelihood assets, food sovereignty, and food security, and provides insight for future food-related community development. Analysis is based on community food assessments conducted in 14 Northern Manitoba communities and included a food security survey, price survey, and interviews. The lack of community control over development in First Nation and other Northern remote and rural communities in Northern Manitoba is found to undermine both food sovereignty and sustainable livelihoods, while creating high levels of food insecurity. According to logit models, sharing country foods increases food sovereignty and sustainable livelihoods, and has a stronger relationship to food security than either road access to retail stores in urban centres or increased competition between stores. The model predicts that rates of food insecurity for a community with a country foods program and with access to public transit and roads at 95% would be lower than the Canadian average of 92%.RÉSUMÉCet article explore les activités relatives à l’alimentation et leur impact sur les biens durables ainsi que sur la souveraineté et la sécurité alimentaires tout en ouvrant des perspectives sur le développement communautaire futur relatif à l’alimentation. L’analyse se fonde sur une recherche menée dans quatorze communautés du nord du Manitoba et comprend un premier sondage sur la sécurité alimentaire, un second sondage sur les prix, et des entrevues. Le manque de contrôle du développement dans les communautés reculées du nord du Manitoba, tant autochtones que non-autochtones, mine à la fois la souveraineté alimentaire et les moyens d’existence durables tout en provoquant de hauts niveaux d’insécurité alimentaire. Selon un modèle Logit, le partage d’aliments locaux permet une souveraineté alimentaire et une autonomie durable tout en ayant un meilleur impact sur la

Nutrient budgets, soil fertility management and livelihood analysis in Northeast Thailand: a basis for integrated rural development strategies in developing countries

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wijnhoud, J.D.

2007-01-01

Keywords:  Rainfed lowland rice-based systems, Northeast Thailand, nutrient balance analyses, sustainability assessment, sustainable natural resource management, integrated rural development strategies, livelihood

Post-colonial agricultural participation in livelihood strengthening

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Chigozie Azunna

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Post-colonial agricultural initiatives, programmes and models in Nigeria are aimed at empowering rural farmers to better yields and productivity while creating employment at community level. It necessitates food security, quality domestic food production and improvement in general welfare and livelihood and the farmers. The post-colonial era in Nigeria has witnessed numerous agricultural programmes. Example includes but not the least, the National Accelerated Food Production Project (NAFPP 1972, Agricultural Development Projects, ADPs 1975, the Accelerated Development Area Project ADAP 1982, and the Multi-state Agricultural Development Projects MSADP 1986. The application of PEA in AVM ensures that positive outcomes and productions are expected through increase in farmers' awareness of modern technologies and practices. AVM is a multidisciplinary and multidimensional approach to improve the livelihood of rice farmers. Structured questionnaire and face to face interview were used to collect the data and SPSS was used to analyse the data. Human livelihood capital is characterized as a two-way thing, that is, it is concerned with both environmental influence on human life and human influences on the environment, focusing on the nature and quality of the relationship that exists between human communities and the ecosystem and how the environment provides the resource base for human existence. AVM prompted a shift from the usual way of financing farm projects to government involvement and providing farmers with information on how to secure loans, credit and financial incentives. Therefore, the study conclude that the introduction and adoption of AVM brought about substantial changes to the farmers livelihood capitals.

APPROACHES FOR SUSTAINABLE MANUFACTURING

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

G(U)NTHER Seliger; SEBASTIAN Kernbaum; MARCO Zettl

2007-01-01

Sustainable development is a holistic approach harmonizing ecological, economical and socio-political needs with respect to the superior objective of enhancing human living standards. Thereby the availability of natural resources and the conservation of the ecosystems have to be considered that future generations have the possibility to meet their own needs. A long-term economical development demands the transition from a source-sink economy to a cycle economy as a result of limited resources, limited environmental capacities to absorb waste and emissions as well as increasing needs of a growing population. A reference model for sustainability in manufacturing is presented and used to illustrate sustainable approaches with respect to management, technology, process and product. Adaptation of products and components is a vital element for supporting efficient reuse of products and components. Consequently adaptation contributes to the ambitious goals of sustainability. Technological enablers for adaptation as modularity, information and communication technology are exemplarily introduced. Moreover, approaches for disseminating knowledge in sustainability are given.

Quality of life of the population as an indicator of sustainable development of rural territories

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Larisa Alexandrovna Tretiakova

2012-09-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study is theoretical justification of socio-economic foundations of sustainable livelihoods in rural areas and development of practical recommendations for evaluating and improving quality of life in rural areas. The subject of this study is a system of socio-economic relations that defines processes and patterns of sustainable livelihoods in rural areas. Methodological basis is a systematic approach and method of dialectical cognition, which examine processes of development of rural territories in relationship and complementarity. The results described in this paper are: the degree of differentiation of rural population under qualitative levels of well-being was studied; the authors’ system of indicators of regional socio-economic development on a basis of detailed hierarchical structure was presented; priority areas for improving standards and quality of life of the rural population were identified. A scope of results was developed and science-based recommendations and suggestions for sustainable development of rural territories based on authors’ methodology for evaluating quality life in rural areas may be subject to legislative and executive authorities in development socio-economic projects and programmes aimed at enhancing rural employment and income were made. The conclusions are: sustainable development of rural territories involves not only increase of efficiency of rural economy, but, above all, increasing and improving the quality of life of the rural population; on a system of complementarities, the evaluation of sustainability of livelihood strategies should take into account the economic, environmental, social and institutional factors

Mapping regional livelihood benefits from local ecosystem services assessments in rural Sahel.

Science.gov (United States)

Malmborg, Katja; Sinare, Hanna; Enfors Kautsky, Elin; Ouedraogo, Issa; Gordon, Line J

2018-01-01

Most current approaches to landscape scale ecosystem service assessments rely on detailed secondary data. This type of data is seldom available in regions with high levels of poverty and strong local dependence on provisioning ecosystem services for livelihoods. We develop a method to extrapolate results from a previously published village scale ecosystem services assessment to a higher administrative level, relevant for land use decision making. The method combines remote sensing (using a hybrid classification method) and interviews with community members. The resulting landscape scale maps show the spatial distribution of five different livelihood benefits (nutritional diversity, income, insurance/saving, material assets and energy, and crops for consumption) that illustrate the strong multifunctionality of the Sahelian landscapes. The maps highlight the importance of a diverse set of sub-units of the landscape in supporting Sahelian livelihoods. We see a large potential in using the resulting type of livelihood benefit maps for guiding future land use decisions in the Sahel.

Mapping regional livelihood benefits from local ecosystem services assessments in rural Sahel

Science.gov (United States)

Sinare, Hanna; Enfors Kautsky, Elin; Ouedraogo, Issa; Gordon, Line J.

2018-01-01

Most current approaches to landscape scale ecosystem service assessments rely on detailed secondary data. This type of data is seldom available in regions with high levels of poverty and strong local dependence on provisioning ecosystem services for livelihoods. We develop a method to extrapolate results from a previously published village scale ecosystem services assessment to a higher administrative level, relevant for land use decision making. The method combines remote sensing (using a hybrid classification method) and interviews with community members. The resulting landscape scale maps show the spatial distribution of five different livelihood benefits (nutritional diversity, income, insurance/saving, material assets and energy, and crops for consumption) that illustrate the strong multifunctionality of the Sahelian landscapes. The maps highlight the importance of a diverse set of sub-units of the landscape in supporting Sahelian livelihoods. We see a large potential in using the resulting type of livelihood benefit maps for guiding future land use decisions in the Sahel. PMID:29389965

Mapping regional livelihood benefits from local ecosystem services assessments in rural Sahel.

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Katja Malmborg

Full Text Available Most current approaches to landscape scale ecosystem service assessments rely on detailed secondary data. This type of data is seldom available in regions with high levels of poverty and strong local dependence on provisioning ecosystem services for livelihoods. We develop a method to extrapolate results from a previously published village scale ecosystem services assessment to a higher administrative level, relevant for land use decision making. The method combines remote sensing (using a hybrid classification method and interviews with community members. The resulting landscape scale maps show the spatial distribution of five different livelihood benefits (nutritional diversity, income, insurance/saving, material assets and energy, and crops for consumption that illustrate the strong multifunctionality of the Sahelian landscapes. The maps highlight the importance of a diverse set of sub-units of the landscape in supporting Sahelian livelihoods. We see a large potential in using the resulting type of livelihood benefit maps for guiding future land use decisions in the Sahel.

Farmer-managed natural regeneration enhances rural livelihoods in dryland west Africa.

Science.gov (United States)

Weston, Peter; Hong, Reaksmey; Kaboré, Carolyn; Kull, Christian A

2015-06-01

Declining agricultural productivity, land clearance and climate change are compounding the vulnerability of already marginal rural populations in West Africa. 'Farmer-Managed Natural Regeneration' (FMNR) is an approach to arable land restoration and reforestation that seeks to reconcile sustained food production, conservation of soils, and protection of biodiversity. It involves selecting and protecting the most vigorous stems regrowing from live stumps of felled trees, pruning off all other stems, and pollarding the chosen stems to grow into straight trunks. Despite widespread enthusiasm and application of FMNR by environmental management and development projects, to date, no research has provided a measure of the aggregate livelihood impact of community adoption of FMNR. This paper places FMNR in the context of other agroforestry initiatives, then seeks to quantify the value of livelihood outcomes of FMNR. We review published and unpublished evidence about the impacts of FMNR, and present a new case study that addresses gaps in the evidence-base. The case study focuses on a FMNR project in the district of Talensi in the semi-arid Upper East Region in Ghana. The case study employs a social return on investment analysis, which identifies proxy financial values for non-economic as well as economic benefits. The results demonstrate income and agricultural benefits, but also show that asset creation, increased consumption of wild resources, health improvements, and psycho-social benefits created more value in FMNR-adopting households during the period of the study than increases in income and agricultural yields.

Balancing urban and peri-urban exchange: water geography of rural livelihoods in Mexico.

Science.gov (United States)

Díaz-Caravantes, Rolando E

2012-01-01

The peri-urban area is the region where there is a more dynamic interaction between the urban and rural. The peri-urban area supplies natural resources, such as land for urban expansion and agricultural products to feed the urban population. In arid and semi-arid lands, such as northern Mexico, these areas may also be the source of water for the city's domestic demand. In addition, scholars argue that peri-urban residents may have a more advantageous geographical position for selling their labour and agricultural products in cities and, by doing so, sustaining their livelihoods. A considerable number of studies have examined the peri-urban to urban natural resources transfer in terms of land annexation, housing construction, and infrastructure issues; however, the study of the effects of the reallocation of peri-urban water resources to serve urban needs is critical as well because the livelihoods of peri-urban residents, such as those based on agriculture and livestock, depend on water availability. In the case of Hermosillo there is a tremendous pressure on the water resources of peri-urban small farm communities or ejidos because of urban demand. Based on interviews and structured surveys with producers and water managers, this paper examines how peri-urban livelihoods have been reshaped by the reallocation of the city's natural resources in many cases caused some ejido members or ejidatarios to lose livelihoods.

Droughts and debts: The domestic tea value chain and vulnerable livelihoods in Girimukti village, West Java, Indonesia

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Widyawati Sumadio

2017-04-01

Full Text Available This article is concerned with the linkages between the livelihoods of tea smallholders and domestic value chains in Indonesia. Theoretically, our empirical inquiry is informed by an integration of the sustainable livelihoods approach and value chain analyses. This enables a better investigation of micro (livelihoods — meso (industry — macro (national and international trends and political economy interdependencies and interactions. In addition to value chains and socioeconomic challenges, tea smallholders in Indonesia are also confronted with droughts due to climate change and the 2015–2016 El Niño. The empirical work consisted of 36 semi-structured interviews in Girimukti village in West Java; a remote village relatively far from urban markets. Overall, our analysis demonstrates that tea smallholders are not poor, but are in a vulnerable position and remain far below the level of a stable lower-middle class. The smallholders lack human and financial capital and growing tea is not supported by horizontal coordination/social capital. In contrast, a few wealthy tea agripreneurs have established themselves as providers of inputs, intermediaries, tea drying factories, informal rural banks and village philanthropists. In other words, Girimukti is host to a process of increasing rural inequality driven by endogenous actors who are able to accumulate and concentrate tea assets and position themselves as essential nodes within the domestic tea value chain. The adaptive strategy of rural-urban migration from Girimukti to escape rural marginalisation is unattractive because of relatively low human capital levels.

The impact of Thaba-Bosiu Centre alternative livelihoods ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This paper is based on a study that was conducted in March 2009 aimed at assessing the impact of alternative livelihoods programme on the social and economic lives of Ha Mothae residents. A case study approach was used and a purposeful sampling technique was used in selecting respondents, while data were ...

Ecosystem Service Changes and Livelihood Impacts in the Maguri-Motapung Wetlands of Assam, India

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Laxmi D. Bhatta

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Wetlands provide a diverse range of ecosystem services supporting livelihoods of many people. Despite their value, wetlands are continuously being degraded. There is scant information on individual wetlands, people’s dependency and their exploitation at a local scale. We therefore assessed wetland ecosystem services, the drivers of change and impacts of those drivers on ecosystem services and people’s dependency through a case study of the Maguri-Motapung Beel wetlands of Assam, India. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected through household surveys, focus group discussions, key informant interviews and community workshops. The analyses showed a total of 29 ecosystem services, and high dependency on these with five out of seven livelihood strategies sourced from ecosystem services. Over-exploitation of wetland resources and siltation were reported as the major direct drivers of change with impacts on both ecosystem services and people’s livelihoods. Drastic decreases in availability of thatch, fish stocks, fodder and tourism were observed. This suggests that there is an urgent need for a comprehensive participatory management plan. Actions are needed to maintain the Maguri-Motapung Beel wetlands and the flow of services in order to sustain people’s livelihoods in the area. With an estimated 50% global loss of wetlands in the last century and the loss of 5,000 square kilometers a year in Asia alone, the loss of ecosystem services and livelihood impacts shown in our study may be typical of what is occurring in the region and perhaps globally.

Marketing's contribution of the sustainability of pastoralism: evidence from Ethiopia

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tessema, W.K.

2012-01-01

Pastoralists are people who, for their livelihood, depend on livestock raising using the natural pasture. Sustainability of pastoralist production is important for their livelihood as well as to the supply of animal-based protein. However, concerns with the pastoralist production system have

Studies in African Livelihoods: Current Issues and Future Prospects

NARCIS (Netherlands)

L.J. de Haan (Leo)

2007-01-01

textabstractIntroduction: In the 1990s, the analysis of poverty in Africa became susceptible to a livelihood approach, with an actor-oriented perspective of putting people at the centre and pointing out their agency in order to explore opportunities and to cope with constraints. It was opposed

Livelihood Vulnerability Approach to Assess Climate Change Impacts to Mixed Agro-Livestock Smallholders Around the Gandaki River Basin of Nepal

Science.gov (United States)

Panthi, J., Sr.

2014-12-01

Climate change vulnerability depends upon various factors and differs between places, sectors and communities. People in developing countries whose subsistence livelihood depends upon agriculture and livestock are identified as particularly vulnerable. Nepal, where the majority of people are in a mixed agro-livestock system, is identified as the world's fourth most vulnerable country to climate change. However, there are few studies on how vulnerable mixed agro-livestock smallholders are and how their vulnerability differs across different ecological regions. This study aims to test two vulnerability assessment indices, livelihood vulnerability index (LVI) and IPCC vulnerability index (VI-IPCC), around the Gandaki river basin of Nepal. A total of 543 households practicing mixed agro-livestock were surveyed from three districts (Dhading, Syangja and Kapilvastu) representing the mountain, mid-hill and lowland altitudinal belts respectively. Data on socio-demographics, livelihoods, social networks, health, food and water security, natural disasters and climate variability were collected. Both indices differed across the three districts, with mixed agro-livestock smallholders of Dhading district found to be the most vulnerable and that of Syangja least vulnerable. This vulnerability index approach may be used to monitor rural vulnerability and/or evaluate potential program/policy effectiveness in poor countries like Nepal. The present findings are intended to help in designing intervention strategies to reduce vulnerability of mixed agro-livestock smallholders and other rural people in developing countries to climate change.

Alcohol production as an adaptive livelihood strategy for women farmers in Tanzania and its potential for unintended consequences on women's reproductive health.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sandra I McCoy

Full Text Available Although women occupy a central position in agriculture in many developing countries, they face numerous constraints to achieving their full potential including unequal access to assets and limited decision-making authority. We explore the intersection of agricultural livelihoods, food and economic security, and women's sexual and reproductive health in Iringa Region, Tanzania. Our goal was to understand whether the benefits of supporting women in the agricultural sector might also extend to more distal outcomes, including sexual and reproductive health.Using the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework to guide data collection, we conducted 13 focus group discussions (FGD with female (n = 11 and male farmers (n = 2 and 20 in-depth interviews with agricultural extension officers (n = 10 and village agro-dealers (n = 10.Despite providing the majority of agricultural labor, women have limited control over land and earned income and have little bargaining power. In response to these constraints, women adopt adaptive livelihood strategies, such as alcohol production, that allow them to retain control over income and support their households. However, women's central role in alcohol production, in concert with the ubiquitous nature of alcohol consumption, places them at risk by enhancing their vulnerability to unsafe or transactional sex. This represents a dangerous confluence of risk for female farmers, in which alcohol plays an important role in income generation and also facilitates high-risk sexual behavior.Alcohol production and consumption has the potential to both directly and indirectly place women at risk for undesirable sexual and reproductive health outcomes. Group formation, better access to finance, and engaging with agricultural extension officers were identified as potential interventions for supporting women farmers and challenging harmful gender norms. In addition, joint, multi-sectoral approaches from health and agriculture

Integrated analysis of land use changes and their impacts on agrarian livelihoods in the western highlands of Kenya

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mutoko, M.C.; Hein, L.G.; Bartholomeus, H.

2014-01-01

Land degradation is affecting rural livelihoods across sub-Saharan Africa. Promoting sustainable land management requires a thorough understanding of land use change drivers, processes and effects. However, in most African countries reliable data for such investigations are missing. We therefore

Effectiveness of community-based mangrove management for sustainable resource use and livelihood support

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Damastuti, Ekaningrum; Groot, de Dolf

2017-01-01

Community-Based Mangrove Management (CBMM) is implemented with different approaches and outcomes. This study examined the effectiveness of various CBMM practices to achieve sustainable management of mangrove resources. We analyzed local mangrove resource management strategies in four coastal

Regional Approach for Managing for Resilience Linking Ecosystem Services and Livelihood Strategies for Agro-Pastoral Communities in the Mongolian Steppe Ecosystem

Science.gov (United States)

Ojima, D. S.; Togtohyn, C.; Qi, J.; Galvin, K.

2011-12-01

Dramatic changes due to climate and land use dynamics in the Mongolian Plateau are affecting ecosystem services and agro-pastoral livelihoods in Mongolia and China. Recently, evaluation of pastoral systems, where humans depend on livestock and grassland ecosystem services, have demonstrated the vulnerability of the social-ecological system to climate change. Current social-ecological changes in ecosystem services are affecting land productivity and carrying capacity, land-atmosphere interactions, water resources, and livelihood strategies. Regional dust events, changes in hydrological cycle, and land use changes contribute to changing interactions between ecosystem and landscape processes which then affect social-ecological systems. The general trend involves greater intensification of resource exploitation at the expense of traditional patterns of extensive range utilization. Thus we expect climate-land use-land cover relationships to be crucially modified by the socio-economic forces. The analysis incorporates information of the socio-economic transitions taking place in the region which affect land-use, food security, and ecosystem dynamics. The region of study extends from the Mongolian plateau in Mongolia and China to the fertile northeast China plain. Sustainability of agro-pastoral systems in the region needs to integrate the impact of climate change on ecosystem services with socio-economic changes shaping the livelihood strategies of pastoral systems in the region. Adaptation strategies which incorporate landscape management provides a potential framework to link ecosystem services across space and time more effectively to meet the needs of agro-pastoral land use, herd quality, and herder's living standards. Under appropriate adaptation strategies agro-pastoralists will have the opportunity to utilize seasonal resources and enhance their ability to process and manufacture products from the available ecosystem services in these dynamic social

The emerging threats of climate change on tropical coastal ecosystem services, public health, local economies and livelihood sustainability of small islands: Cumulative impacts and synergies.

Science.gov (United States)

Hernández-Delgado, E A

2015-12-15

Climate change has significantly impacted tropical ecosystems critical for sustaining local economies and community livelihoods at global scales. Coastal ecosystems have largely declined, threatening the principal source of protein, building materials, tourism-based revenue, and the first line of defense against storm swells and sea level rise (SLR) for small tropical islands. Climate change has also impacted public health (i.e., altered distribution and increased prevalence of allergies, water-borne, and vector-borne diseases). Rapid human population growth has exacerbated pressure over coupled social-ecological systems, with concomitant non-sustainable impacts on natural resources, water availability, food security and sovereignty, public health, and quality of life, which should increase vulnerability and erode adaptation and mitigation capacity. This paper examines cumulative and synergistic impacts of climate change in the challenging context of highly vulnerable small tropical islands. Multiple adaptive strategies of coupled social-ecological ecosystems are discussed. Multi-level, multi-sectorial responses are necessary for adaptation to be successful. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sustainable Eco Coastal Development Through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Program

Science.gov (United States)

Rakhmanissazly, Arsi; Mursito Ardy, Yong; Abdullah

2017-02-01

Besides technical problems the company’s operational constraints that may effect high deficiency for the company is the company - community conflicts. Company - community conflict can also arise depends on the geographic conditions and characteristics of the community itself. Some studies has show that coastal community have higher level of social risk when compared to non-coastal community. Also, the coastal community ussually only rely on what sea provides as their main livelihood. Because of the level of education still contemtible the community couldn’t optimized the potential of their own area. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) har emerged as an important approach for addressing the social and environmental impact of company activities. Through CSR program, PT Pertamina EP Asset 3 Tambun Field (PEP) try to form value integration by utilizing resources from the community and the company by making sustainable eco - coastal living in Desa Tambaksari, Karawang, one of PEP working area. Using sustainable livelihood approach begin with compiling data by doing social mapping PEP has initiate the area to becoming Fish Processing Industry Centre. By implementing PDCA in every steps of the program, PEP has multiplied some other programs such as Organic Fish Feed Processing, Seaweed Farming and Waste Bank for Green Coastal Village. These program is PEP’s effort to create a sustainability environment by enhancing the community’s potentials as well as resolving social problems around Tambaksari. The most important result besides getting our license to operate from the community, is the community itself can grow into an eco coastal sustainable system.

Food availability and livelihood strategies among rural households across Uganda

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wichern, Jannike; Wijk, van Mark T.; Descheemaeker, Katrien; Frelat, Romain; Asten, van Piet J.A.; Giller, Ken E.

2017-01-01

Despite continuing economic growth, Uganda faces persistent challenges to achieve food security. The effectiveness of policy and development strategies to help rural households achieve food security must improve. We present a novel approach to relate spatial patterns of food security to livelihood

Navigating the sustainability landscape: a systematic review of sustainability approaches in healthcare.

Science.gov (United States)

Lennox, L; Maher, L; Reed, J

2018-02-09

Improvement initiatives offer a valuable mechanism for delivering and testing innovations in healthcare settings. Many of these initiatives deliver meaningful and necessary changes to patient care and outcomes. However, many improvement initiatives fail to sustain to a point where their full benefits can be realised. This has led many researchers and healthcare practitioners to develop frameworks, models and tools to support and monitor sustainability. This work aimed to identify what approaches are available to assess and influence sustainability in healthcare and to describe the different perspectives, applications and constructs within these approaches to guide their future use. A systematic review was carried out following PRISMA guidelines to identify publications that reported approaches to support or influence sustainability in healthcare. Eligibility criteria were defined through an iterative process in which two reviewers independently assessed 20% of articles to test the objectivity of the selection criteria. Data were extracted from the identified articles, and a template analysis was undertaken to identify and assess the sustainability constructs within each reported approach. The search strategy identified 1748 publications with 227 articles retrieved in full text for full documentary analysis. In total, 62 publications identifying a sustainability approach were included in this review (32 frameworks, 16 models, 8 tools, 4 strategies, 1 checklist and 1 process). Constructs across approaches were compared and 40 individual constructs for sustainability were found. Comparison across approaches demonstrated consistent constructs were seen regardless of proposed interventions, setting or level of application with 6 constructs included in 75% of the approaches. Although similarities were found, no approaches contained the same combination of the constructs nor did any single approach capture all identified constructs. From these results, a consolidated

Alcohol Production as an Adaptive Livelihood Strategy for Women Farmers in Tanzania and Its Potential for Unintended Consequences on Women’s Reproductive Health

Science.gov (United States)

McCoy, Sandra I.; Ralph, Lauren J.; Wilson, Wema; Padian, Nancy S.

2013-01-01

-sectoral approaches from health and agriculture and alternative income-generating strategies for women might better address the complexities of achieving safe and sustainable livelihoods for women in this context. PMID:23527167

Institutional challenges for mining and sustainability in Peru

Science.gov (United States)

Bebbington, Anthony J.; Bury, Jeffrey T.

2009-01-01

Global consumption continues to generate growth in mining. In lesser developed economies, this growth offers the potential to generate new resources for development, but also creates challenges to sustainability in the regions in which extraction occurs. This context leads to debate on the institutional arrangements most likely to build synergies between mining, livelihoods, and development, and on the socio-political conditions under which such institutions can emerge. Building from a multiyear, three-country program of research projects, Peru, a global center of mining expansion, serves as an exemplar for analyzing the effects of extractive industry on livelihoods and the conditions under which arrangements favoring local sustainability might emerge. This program is guided by three emergent hypotheses in human-environmental sciences regarding the relationships among institutions, knowledge, learning, and sustainability. The research combines in-depth and comparative case study analysis, and uses mapping and spatial analysis, surveys, in-depth interviews, participant observation, and our own direct participation in public debates on the regulation of mining for development. The findings demonstrate the pressures that mining expansion has placed on water resources, livelihood assets, and social relationships. These pressures are a result of institutional conditions that separate the governance of mineral expansion, water resources, and local development, and of relationships of power that prioritize large scale investment over livelihood and environment. A further problem is the poor communication between mining sector knowledge systems and those of local populations. These results are consistent with themes recently elaborated in sustainability science. PMID:19805172

Changing Livelihoods and Landscapes in the Rural Eastern Cape, South Africa: Past Influences and Future Trajectories

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sheona Shackleton

2015-11-01

Full Text Available This paper seeks to understand the drivers and pathways of local livelihood change and the prospects for transformation towards a more sustainable future. Data are used from several studies, and a participatory social learning process, which formed part of a larger project in two sites in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Secondary information from a wealth of related work is used to place our results within the historic context and more general trends in the country. Findings indicate that livelihoods in the rural Eastern Cape are on new trajectories. Agricultural production has declined markedly, at a time when the need for diversification of livelihoods and food security seems to be at a premium. This decline is driven by a suite of drivers that interact with, and are influenced by, other changes and stresses affecting local livelihoods. We distil out the factors, ranging from historical processes to national policies and local dynamics, that hamper peoples’ motivation and ability to respond to locally identified vulnerabilities and, which, when taken together, could drive households into a trap. We end by considering the transformations required to help local people evade traps and progress towards a more promising future in a context of increasing uncertainty.

Approaches for assessing sustainable remediation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Søndergaard, Gitte Lemming; Binning, Philip John; Bjerg, Poul Løgstrup

Sustainable remediation seeks to reduce direct contaminant point source impacts on the environment, while minimizing the indirect cost of remediation to the environment, society and economy. This paper presents an overview of available approaches for assessing the sustainability of alternative...... remediation strategies for a contaminated site. Most approaches use multi-criteria assessment methods (MCA) to structure a decision support process. Different combinations of environmental, social and economic criteria are employed, and are assessed either in qualitative or quantitative forms with various...... tools such as life cycle assessment and cost benefit analysis. Stakeholder involvement, which is a key component of sustainable remediation, is conducted in various ways. Some approaches involve stakeholders directly in the evaluation or weighting of criteria, whereas other approaches only indirectly...

Citizens and the planning of sustainability of mining

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hoffmann, Birgitte

2014-01-01

will have a large impact on the citizen’s everyday life through the ongoing changes of settlement patterns and livelihoods. The key question of this paper is how the citizens may inform and influence the sustainability of planning and implementation of local raw material projects and urban planning. Further...... that the social, economic and environmental sustainability will depend on the degree to which the citizens are engaged in both local developments of specific mining projects, as well as in societal planning where multiple and complex issues are at stake such as urban settlement patterns, cultures, livelihood...

Tranquilidad and hardship in the forest : livelihoods and perceptions of Camba forest dwellers in the northern Bolivian Amazon

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Henkemans, A.B.

2001-01-01

Sustainable management of tropical forests relies largely on the interest of forest dwelling people in long-term forest extraction and their capacity to prevent forest degradation by other forest users. This study discusses the role of the forest in the livelihoods and perceptions of Camba

More than Target 6.3: A Systems Approach to Rethinking Sustainable Development Goals in a Resource-Scarce World

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Qiong Zhang

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development outlines 17 individual Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs that guide the needs of practice for many professional disciplines around the world, including engineering, research, policy, and development. The SDGs represent commitments to reduce poverty, hunger, ill health, gender inequality, environmental degradation, and lack of access to clean water and sanitation. If a typical reductionist approach is employed to address and optimize individual goals, it may lead to a failure in technological, policy, or managerial development interventions through unintended consequences in other goals. This study uses a systems approach to understand the fundamental dynamics between the SDGs in order to identify potential synergies and antagonisms. A conceptual system model was constructed to illustrate the causal relationships between SDGs, examine system structures using generic system archetypes, and identify leverage points to effectively influence intentional and minimize unintentional changes in the system. The structure of interactions among the SDGs reflects three archetypes of system behavior: Reinforcing Growth, Limits to Growth, and Growth and Underinvestment. The leverage points identified from the conceptual model are gender equality, sustainable management of water and sanitation, alternative resources, sustainable livelihood standards, and global partnerships. Such a conceptual system analysis of SDGs can enhance the likelihood that the development community will broaden its understanding of the potential synergistic benefits of their projects on resource management, environmental sustainability, and climate change. By linking the interactions and feedbacks of those projects with economic gains, women’s empowerment, and educational equality, stakeholders can recognize holistic improvements that can be made to the quality of life of many of the world’s poor.

Cricket farming as a livelihood strategy in Thailand

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Halloran, Afton Marina Szasz; Roos, Nanna; Hanboonsong, Yupa

2017-01-01

While many important aspects of wild and farmed insects have been discussed by scholars, such as nutritional value, conservation and farming techniques, no study has addressed how insect farming contributes to rural livelihoods. Furthermore, the roles that interactions between insect farmers......, their peers and institutions play in insect farming as a livelihood strategy are even less well understood. This paper presents a preliminary assessment of cricket farming as a livelihood strategy in Thailand. Fortynine cricket farmers participated in in-depth interviews designed to gain insight into how...... capital. As such, further empirical data and case study analyses are needed in order to advance our understanding of this particular livelihood strategy....

Farming Approaches for Greater Biodiversity, Livelihoods, and Food Security.

Science.gov (United States)

Garibaldi, Lucas A; Gemmill-Herren, Barbara; D'Annolfo, Raffaele; Graeub, Benjamin E; Cunningham, Saul A; Breeze, Tom D

2017-01-01

Scientists and policy-makers globally are calling for alternative approaches to conventional intensification of agriculture that enhance ecosystem services provided by biodiversity. The evidence reviewed here suggests that alternative approaches can achieve high crop yields and profits, but the performance of other socioeconomic indicators (as well as long-term trends) is surprisingly poorly documented. Consequently, the implementation of conventional intensification and the discussion of alternative approaches are not based on quantitative evidence of their simultaneous ecological and socioeconomic impacts across the globe. To close this knowledge gap, we propose a participatory assessment framework. Given the impacts of conventional intensification on biodiversity loss and greenhouse gas emissions, such evidence is urgently needed to direct science-policy initiatives, such as the United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Evaluating Successful Livelihood Adaptation to Climate Variability and Change in Southern Africa

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Henny Osbahr

2010-06-01

Full Text Available This paper examines the success of small-scale farming livelihoods in adapting to climate variability and change. We represent adaptation actions as choices within a response space that includes coping but also longer-term adaptation actions, and define success as those actions which promote system resilience, promote legitimate institutional change, and hence generate and sustain collective action. We explore data on social responses from four regions across South Africa and Mozambique facing a variety of climate risks. The analysis suggests that some collective adaptation actions enhance livelihood resilience to climate change and variability but others have negative spillover effects to other scales. Any assessment of successful adaptation is, however, constrained by the scale of analysis in terms of the temporal and spatial boundaries on the system being investigated. In addition, the diversity of mechanisms by which rural communities in southern Africa adapt to risks suggests that external interventions to assist adaptation will need to be sensitive to the location-specific nature of adaptation.

Analysis of the role of strategic products in sustainable rural livelihoods (Case study: saffron production in the Roshtkhar rural district

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Sadegh Asghari Lafmejani

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Saffron is the most expensive agricultural and pharmaceutical product in the world. It is significant for several reasons such as having high water productivity compared to other crops. It is providing rural employment and preventing their migration, having high medicinal and spice values, ease of maintenance and transportation. Most importantly, it is producing a high revenue compared to other agricultural products. On this basis, due to the suitability of some parts of Iran to saffron production and the role of this product in the livelihood of rural households, assessment of the sustenance impacts of saffron production in the active villages seems absolutely necessary. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to assess the status of saffron production and its role in the livelihood of rural households of the Roshtkhar Rural District. This research was done based on a descriptive-analytic approach. In this regard, the role of saffron cultivation in 355 households living in 13 villages with over 100 households in the study rural district was investigated. To this goal, after conducting documentary studies and initial field visits, a wide range of measures proportional to the circumstances of the study villages were adopted. Then, data collection was performed based on the selected indices and questionnaires were distributed to be filled by villagers and households... To analyze the data, the relevant statistical and spatial analyses were done through the application of Expert choice, SPSS, and ArcGIS software packages. The research findings indicated that the annual revenues derived from saffron production in 43.9% of the households under study were more than they obtained from other sources of income. Through the analysis of the study data, it can be concluded that saffron production has a significant effect on the improvement of the residents’ livelihood in the Roshtkhar Rural District and this fact has reinforced the households�

Forests, timber and rural livelihoods

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Christian Pilegaard; Pouliot, Mariève; Marfo, Emmanuel

2015-01-01

Based on detailed income data of 478 rural households, the nexus between forest, trees and rural livelihoods in Ghana is investigated and applied to assess implications of the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) between the EU and Ghana on illegal logging. It is found that, after crops...... and benefits to trees on farm and fallow land to those occupying and cultivating the land. Such efforts would provide incentive for timber production and thus enhance rural livelihoods, while combatting illegal logging, deforestation and forest degradation....

Decentralizing conservation and diversifying livelihoods within Kanchenjunga Conservation Area, Nepal.

Science.gov (United States)

Parker, Pete; Thapa, Brijesh; Jacob, Aerin

2015-12-01

To alleviate poverty and enhance conservation in resource dependent communities, managers must identify existing livelihood strategies and the associated factors that impede household access to livelihood assets. Researchers increasingly advocate reallocating management power from exclusionary central institutions to a decentralized system of management based on local and inclusive participation. However, it is yet to be shown if decentralizing conservation leads to diversified livelihoods within a protected area. The purpose of this study was to identify and assess factors affecting household livelihood diversification within Nepal's Kanchenjunga Conservation Area Project, the first protected area in Asia to decentralize conservation. We randomly surveyed 25% of Kanchenjunga households to assess household socioeconomic and demographic characteristics and access to livelihood assets. We used a cluster analysis with the ten most common income generating activities (both on- and off-farm) to group the strategies households use to diversify livelihoods, and a multinomial logistic regression to identify predictors of livelihood diversification. We found four distinct groups of household livelihood strategies with a range of diversification that directly corresponded to household income. The predictors of livelihood diversification were more related to pre-existing socioeconomic and demographic factors (e.g., more landholdings and livestock, fewer dependents, receiving remittances) than activities sponsored by decentralizing conservation (e.g., microcredit, training, education, interaction with project staff). Taken together, our findings indicate that without direct policies to target marginalized groups, decentralized conservation in Kanchenjunga will continue to exclude marginalized groups, limiting a household's ability to diversify their livelihood and perpetuating their dependence on natural resources. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Communities, Livelihoods and Natural Resources : Action Research ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Communities, Livelihoods and Natural Resources : Action Research and Policy Change in Asia. Couverture du livre Communities, Livelihoods and Natural Resources: Action Research and Policy Change in. Directeur(s) : Stephen R. Tyler. Maison(s) d'édition : Practical Action Publishing, CRDI. 1 janvier 2006. ISBN :.

Livelihood diversification and implications on poverty and ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This paper on livelihood diversification is based on an ongoing study under VicRes programme being undertaken in the Lake Victoria Basin, in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. We examine how changing socio-economic and environmental conditions contribute to livelihood diversification, land-use changes, poverty ...

Applied Mycology Can Contribute to Sustainable Rural Livelihoods: Building upon China's Matsutake Management Initiatives

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, Madeline; McLellan, Timothy; Li, Huili; Karunarathna, Samantha C.

2018-02-01

Matsutake mushrooms are an important part of rural livelihoods and forest ecosystems across large parts of China, as well as elsewhere in East Asia, Northern Europe and North America. Mushroom harvesters have developed sophisticated understandings of matsutake ecology and production, and are applying this knowledge in various innovative management strategies. At the same time, Chinese government agencies and scientists are promoting matsutake-based livelihoods to support development and conservation goals. We collaborated with matsutake harvesters in one Yunnan community to carry out a systematic experiment on a popular shiro-level management technique: covering matsutake shiros with either plastic or leaf litter. Our experimental results suggest that although leaf litter coverings are superior to plastic coverings, shiros that are left uncovered may produce the highest yields. Complementing our experimental work is a multi-sited household survey of existing matsutake management practices across Yunnan, which shows that a high proportion of harvesters are already engaged in a broad range of potentially beneficial management strategies. Though both findings highlight limitations of previous initiatives led by government and research actors in China, this existing body of work is an important foundation and opportunity for developing applied mycology in the region. In and beyond China, working with communities to develop site-specific management strategies through rigorous and participatory scientific inquiry can provide salient benefits for both scientists and resource users.

Strategies For Sustainable Conservation And Use Of Legume ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Strategies For Sustainable Conservation And Use Of Legume Genetic Resources In Ghana. ... Ghana Journal of Science ... Strategic development of conservation technologies in plant genetic resources (PGR) is the backbone for agricultural development, food security and sustainable livelihood, now and for the future.

Factors Influencing Livelihood Diversification among Rural Farmers ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This research study was set out to analyze factors influencing rural farmer's engagement in livelihood diversification in the study area. The specific objectives were; to identify the different levels of farmers' engagement in livelihood diversification, determine the socio-demographic factors or forces that influence farmers' ...

Perception-based analysis of climate change effect on forest-based livelihood: The case of Vhembe District in South Africa

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Chidiebere Ofoegbu

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Forests are vulnerable to climate change and are also major sources of livelihood for many rural households in Africa. This study examines rural people’s perceptions of climate change impacts on forest-based livelihoods using rural communities of Vhembe District in South Africa as a case study. The study was based on the principles of perceived impact-based assessment, and sustainable livelihoods framework. Using the stratified proportionate random sampling procedure in combination with weighted Enumeration Area for the selected communities, 366 households were chosen and interviewed. Data analysis involved computing frequencies and conducting the Chi-square, binomial tests and binary logistic regression analysis. The respondents identified erratic rainfall, extreme temperature, extreme drought and flooding as key climatic events in their community. But not all identified key climatic events were perceived to constitute risk to forest products and forest-based livelihood. Only extreme drought was indicated to constitute risk to availability of forest products. In addition, the binary logistic regression showed a significant difference (p < 0.05 in the perceived risk of climate change to the availability of essential forest products across the three municipalities. Hence the need for forest development initiatives that target vulnerable forest products per community as a means of enhancing resilience of forest-based livelihood to climate change impacts in rural community development in South Africa.

Effects of Government Grassland Conservation Policy on Household Livelihoods and Dependence on Local Grasslands: Evidence from Inner Mongolia, China

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Bingzhen Du

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Grassland degradation intensifies human-environment conflicts and adversely affects local residents’ livelihoods. To reduce grassland degradation in Inner Mongolia, China, the government has enforced (since 1998 a series of grassland conservation and management policies that restrict the use of grasslands. To ease the impact on the residents’ livelihoods, the national and regional governments have offered a series of top-down arrangements to stimulate sustainable use of the grasslands. Simultaneously, local households spontaneously developed bottom-up countermeasures. To determine the effects of these processes, we interviewed members of 135 households using a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods. We analyzed the effects on household dependence on local grasslands and on perceptions of the future of grassland use. Our findings show that the implementation of the grassland conservation policies significantly affected household livelihoods, which in turn affected household use of natural assets (primarily the land, their agricultural assets (farming and grazing activities and their financial assets (income and consumption, resulting in fundamental transformation of their lifestyles. The households developed adaptation measures to account for the dependence of their livelihood on local ecosystems by initializing strategies, such as seeking off-farm work, leasing pasture land, increasing purchases of fodder for stall-fed animals and altering their diet and fuel consumption to compensate for their changing livelihoods.

Peace, Human Security and Sustainable Development in Africa ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Peace, Human Security and Sustainable Development in Africa ... into a sustainable livelihood for some of the poorest communities in Africa. ... Project status ... IDRC congratulates first cohort of Women in Climate Change Science Fellows ... titled “Climate change and adaptive water management: Innovative solutions from ...

Riparian ecosystem resilience and livelihood strategies under test: lessons from Lake Chilwa in Malawi and other lakes in Africa.

Science.gov (United States)

Kafumbata, Dalitso; Jamu, Daniel; Chiotha, Sosten

2014-04-05

This paper reviews the importance of African lakes and their management challenges. African inland lakes contribute significantly to food security, livelihoods and national economies through direct exploitation of fisheries, water resources for irrigation and hydropower generation. Because of these key contributions, the ecosystem services provided are under significant stress mainly owing to high demand by increasing populations, negative anthropogenic impacts on lake catchments and high levels of poverty which result in unsustainable use. Climate variability exacerbates the stress on these ecosystems. Current research findings show that the lakes cannot sustain further development activities on the scale seen over the past few decades. Millions of people are at risk of losing livelihoods through impacts on livestock and wildlife. The review further shows that the problems facing these lakes are beyond the purview of current management practices. A much better understanding of the interactions and feedbacks between different components of the lake socio-ecological systems is needed to address the complex challenges of managing these ecosystem services. This review suggests that the three small wetlands of Chad, Chilwa and Naivasha provide an opportunity for testing novel ideas that integrate sustainability of natural resource management with livelihoods in order to inform policy on how future land use and climatic variability will affect both food security and the ecosystem services associated with it.

The walk out of the rural kitchen : towards planning energy services for sustainable rural livelihoods in Sudan

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ahmed, Nouralla

2008-01-01

This thesis is about rural energy services, the problems with accessibility and the consequences of their inaccessibility on rural livelihoods in the traditional rural areas of Sudan. The thesis is organised in six chapters. Chapter 1 starts by providing a background to the political and economic

When global environmentalism meets local livelihoods: policy and management lessons

Science.gov (United States)

John Schelhas; Max J. Pfeffer

2009-01-01

Creation of national parks often imposes immediate livelihood costs on local people, and tensions between park managers and local people are common. Park managers have tried different approaches to managing relationships with local people, but nearly all include efforts to promote environmental values and behaviors. These efforts have had uneven results, and there is a...

Sustainable operations management: A typological approach

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Lawrence Michael Corbett

2009-07-01

Full Text Available This paper discusses the nature of sustainability and sustainable development as they relate to operations management. It proposes a typology for sustainable operations management that is based on the life cycle stages of a product and the three dimensions of corporate social responsibility. The aim is to show how this typology development could provide a useful approach to integrating the diverse strands of sustainability in operations, using industrial ecology and carbon neutrality as examples. It does this by providing a focused subset of environmental concerns for an industrial ecology approach, and some research propositions for the issue of carbon neutrality.

Integrating indigenous livelihood and lifestyle objectives in managing a natural resource.

Science.gov (United States)

Plagányi, Éva Elizabeth; van Putten, Ingrid; Hutton, Trevor; Deng, Roy A; Dennis, Darren; Pascoe, Sean; Skewes, Tim; Campbell, Robert A

2013-02-26

Evaluating the success of natural resource management approaches requires methods to measure performance against biological, economic, social, and governance objectives. In fisheries, most research has focused on industrial sectors, with the contributions to global resource use by small-scale and indigenous hunters and fishers undervalued. Globally, the small-scale fisheries sector alone employs some 38 million people who share common challenges in balancing livelihood and lifestyle choices. We used as a case study a fishery with both traditional indigenous and commercial sectors to develop a framework to bridge the gap between quantitative bio-economic models and more qualitative social analyses. For many indigenous communities, communalism rather than capitalism underlies fishers' perspectives and aspirations, and we find there are complicated and often unanticipated trade-offs between economic and social objectives. Our results highlight that market-based management options might score highly in a capitalistic society, but have negative repercussions on community coherence and equity in societies with a strong communal ethic. There are complex trade-offs between economic indicators, such as profit, and social indicators, such as lifestyle preferences. Our approach makes explicit the "triple bottom line" sustainability objectives involving trade-offs between economic, social, and biological performance, and is thus directly applicable to most natural resource management decision-making situations.

Conflict, camps and coercion: the ongoing livelihoods crisis in Darfur.

Science.gov (United States)

Buchanan-Smith, Margie; Jaspars, Susanne

2007-03-01

This paper presents the findings of a study commissioned by World Food Programme (WFP) in early 2006 to enhance understanding of how the conflict in Darfur has affected livelihoods and markets, and of the effects of food aid. The livelihoods of many in Darfur were devastated early on in the conflict, principally through the widespread looting or destruction of assets and highly restricted population movements, which struck at the heart of pre-conflict livelihoods. Livelihood strategies for most people are now restricted, poorly remunerated and often associated with high risk of attack. Patterns of coercion and exploitation have also become entrenched; and markets and trade, the lifeblood of Da fur's economy pre-conflict, severely disrupted. Against this backdrop the impact of food aid on livelihoods in Darfur has been overwhelmingly positive. The paper proposes a number of preconditions for investment in recovery in Darfur, and recommends ways in which livelihoods can be supported in the current context of ongoing conflict.

Architectural design led approach to sustainable tourism for the waterfront development of Kunduchi in Tanzania

Science.gov (United States)

Leus, M.; Winkels, P.; Hannes, E.

2018-04-01

In Kunduchi, located in the Kinondoni district of the Dar es Salaam Region, it is of vital importance for the lives and livelihoods of the indigenous people to preserve the typical ecosystems and ensure the identity and economic resilience of these areas. The problem statement is as follows: In what way can sustainable tourism in Kunduchi serve as an engine for economic and social empowerment? How can Kunduchi be an inspiring example for the development of the coast of Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania that is threatened by large-scale tourist infrastructure? How to design sustainable solutions with respect for the local community and the local traditions? Firstly, a theoretical framework that connects sustainable tourism with the sustainable development of coastal areas is defined. Assumptions made on the basis of the literature review provide parameters that play an important role in the architectural concepts. Secondly, a research by design is presented in order to analyze and evaluate different scenarios to outline the opportunities of sustainable tourism on site of Kunduchi. Sustainable waterfront development is an obvious subtitle since the subtle spatial integration of these projects in the urban and water related context of Dares Salaam is of major importance.

Land access and livelihoods in post-conflict Timor-Leste: no magic bullets

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Simon P.J. Batterbury

2015-09-01

Full Text Available In Timor-Leste, customary institutions contribute to sustainable and equitable rural development and the establishment of improved access to and management of land, water and other natural resources. Drawing on multi-sited empirical research, we argue that the recognition and valorization of custom and common property management is a prerequisite for sustainable and equitable land tenure reform in Timor-Leste. In a four-community study of the relationship between land access and the practice of rural livelihoods in eastern and western districts of Timor-Leste, where customary management systems are dominant, we found different types of traditional dispute resolution, with deep roots in traditional forms of land management and with varying levels of conflict. The article shows how customary land tenure systems have already managed to create viable moral economies. Interviewees expressed a desire for the government to formalize its recognition and support for customary systems and to provide them with basic livelihood support and services. This was more important than instituting private landholding or state appropriation of community lands, which is perceived to be the focus of national draft land laws and an internationally supported project. We suggest ways in which diverse customary institutions can co-exist and work with state institutions to build collective political legitimacy in the rural hinterlands, within the context of upgrading the quality of rural life, promoting social and ecological harmony, and conflict management.

The role of food and nutrition system approaches in tackling hidden hunger.

Science.gov (United States)

Burchi, Francesco; Fanzo, Jessica; Frison, Emile

2011-02-01

One of the World's greatest challenges is to secure sufficient and healthy food for all, and to do so in an environmentally sustainable manner. This review explores the interrelationships of food, health, and environment, and their role in addressing chronic micronutrient deficiencies, also known as "hidden hunger", affecting over two billion people worldwide. While the complexity and underlying determinants of undernutrition have been well-understood for decades, the scaling of food and nutrition system approaches that combine sustainable agriculture aimed at improved diet diversity and livelihoods have been limited in their development and implementation. However, an integrated system approach to reduce hidden hunger could potentially serve as a sustainable opportunity.

Adding a soil fertility dimension to the global farming systems approach, with cases from Africa

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Smaling, E.M.A.; Dixon, J.

2006-01-01

The global farming systems (GFS) approach is extended by adding a soil fertility and nutrient management dimension for Africa's forest-based, maize mixed, cereal¿root crop mixed, and agro-pastoral millet/sorghum farming systems. Use is made of sustainable livelihood concepts, translated into farmer

Engineering students' sustainability approaches

Science.gov (United States)

Haase, S.

2014-05-01

Sustainability issues are increasingly important in engineering work all over the world. This article explores systematic differences in self-assessed competencies, interests, importance, engagement and practices of newly enrolled engineering students in Denmark in relation to environmental and non-environmental sustainability issues. The empirical base of the article is a nation-wide, web-based survey sent to all newly enrolled engineering students in Denmark commencing their education in the fall term 2010. The response rate was 46%. The survey focused on a variety of different aspects of what can be conceived as sustainability. By means of cluster analysis, three engineering student approaches to sustainability are identified and described. The article provides knowledge on the different prerequisites of engineering students in relation to the role of sustainability in engineering. This information is important input to educators trying to target new engineering students and contribute to the provision of engineers equipped to meet sustainability challenges.

Wastewater Use in Irrigated Agriculture : Confronting the Livelihood ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Wastewater Use in Irrigated Agriculture : Confronting the Livelihood and Environmental Realities. Couverture du livre Wastewater Use in Irrigated Agriculture: Confronting the Livelihood and Environmental Realities. Directeur(s) : Christopher Scott, Naser I. Faruqui et Liqa Raschid. Maison(s) d'édition : CABI, IWMI, CRDI.

Livelihood Diversification Sources of Female Household Heads in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Majority (65.8%) of FHH did not have external sources of financial assistance while 21.7% were supported by their children. The study concluded that livelihoods of FHH were diversified mainly within agriculture and trading enterprises. Key words: Livelihood diversification, Female household heads, Rural communities.

Impact of promoting sustainable agriculture project on livelihood ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This study on impact assessment of Promoting Sustainable Agriculture Project ... the Fisher Index, Focused Group Discussion and descriptive statistical analysis. ... The qualitative analysis showed that 30%, 45% and 10% of men, women and ...

Livelihood Activities And Wealth Ranking Among Rural Households ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Livelihood Activities And Wealth Ranking Among Rural Households In The Farming Systems Of Western Kenya. ... African Journal of Livestock Extension ... The study examined the relationship between the livelihood activities of rural households in the farming systems of Western Kenya in relation to their wealth. A stratified ...

Empty forests, empty stomachs? Bushmeat and livelihoods in the Congo and Amazon Basins

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nasi, R.; Taber, A.; van Vliet, Nathalie

2011-01-01

Protein from forest wildlife is crucial to rural food security and livelihoods across the tropics. The harvest of animals such as tapir, duikers, deer, pigs, peccaries, primates and larger rodents, birds and reptiles provides benefits to local people worth millions of USS annually and represents...... around 6 million tonnes of animals extracted yearly. Vulnerability to hunting varies, with some species sustaining populations in heavily hunted secondary habitats, while others require intact forests with minimal harvesting to maintain healthy populations. Some species or groups have been characterized...

Mitigating Drought Impacts in Drylands : Quantifying the Potential for Strengthening Crop- and Livestock-Based Livelihoods

OpenAIRE

Carfagna, Federica; Cervigni, Raffaello

2018-01-01

Drylands account for three-quarters of Sub-Saharan Africa's cropland, two-thirds of cereal production, and four-fifths of livestock holdings. Today frequent and severe shocks, especially droughts, limit the livelihood opportunities available to millions of households and undermine efforts to eradicate poverty in the drylands. Prospects for sustainable development of drylands are assessed in this book through the lens of resilience, understood here to mean the ability of people to withstand an...

Vegetation in Bangalore’s Slums: Boosting Livelihoods, Well-Being and Social Capital

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Divya Gopal

2014-04-01

Full Text Available Urban greenery provides ecosystem services that play an important role in the challenging context of urban deprivation and poverty. This study assesses the social importance of vegetation through empirical assessment of 44 urban slums in the rapidly developing southern city of Bangalore, India. Vegetation played a major role in supporting nutrition by its role in food consumption, and in promoting health through the planting of species with medicinal use. Trees in slums also formed nodes for social activities including conversing and playing, domestic activities such as cooking and washing dishes, and livelihood activities such as the manufacture of broomsticks and tyre repair. Innovative methods of gardening were widely adopted, with kitchen gardens found planted in plastic bags, paint cans, old kitchen utensils and buckets, indicating the importance given to planting in environments with limited finances. Short and narrow trunked trees with medium-sized canopies and high economic value, such as Pongamia, were preferred. A greater focus on greening in slums is needed, and can provide an invaluable, inexpensive and sustainable approach to improve lives in these congested, deprived environments.

Application of Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping in Livelihood Vulnerability Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chrispen Murungweni

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Feedback mechanisms are important in the analysis of vulnerability and resilience of social-ecological systems, as well as in the analysis of livelihoods, but how to evaluate systems with direct feedbacks has been a great challenge. We applied fuzzy cognitive mapping, a tool that allows analysis of both direct and indirect feedbacks and can be used to explore the vulnerabilities of livelihoods to identified hazards. We studied characteristics and drivers of rural livelihoods in the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area in southern Africa to assess the vulnerability of inhabitants to the different hazards they face. The process involved four steps: (1 surveys and interviews to identify the major livelihood types; (2 description of specific livelihood types in a system format using fuzzy cognitive maps (FCMs, a semi-quantitative tool that models systems based on people's knowledge; (3 linking variables and drivers in FCMs by attaching weights; and (4 defining and applying scenarios to visualize the effects of drought and changing park boundaries on cash and household food security. FCMs successfully gave information concerning the nature (increase or decrease and magnitude by which a livelihood system changed under different scenarios. However, they did not explain the recovery path in relation to time and pattern (e.g., how long it takes for cattle to return to desired numbers after a drought. Using FCMs revealed that issues of policy, such as changing situations at borders, can strongly aggravate effects of climate change such as drought. FCMs revealed hidden knowledge and gave insights that improved the understanding of the complexity of livelihood systems in a way that is better appreciated by stakeholders.

Evolution of Rural Livelihood Strategies in a Remote Sino-Mongolian Border Area: A Cross-Country Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Munkhnasan Tsvegemed

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Ecologically sound natural resources management is still the backbone of rural livelihoods in many regions of the world. The Altai-Dzungarian region between China and Mongolia constitutes an ideal site to study how political, economic, infrastructural, and cultural differences affect rural livelihoods. Structured semi-quantitative interviews were conducted with 483 households on both sides to characterise their current livelihood strategies and assess the importance of the various activities for the households’ current socio-economic situation by means of the categorical principal component and two-step cluster analysis. In total, four livelihood clusters were identified across both regions, whereby one cluster was only present in Mongolia. In general, all clusters mirrored the transition from almost pure pastoralist to agro-pastoralist livelihood strategies. While animal husbandry was more common in Mongolia and crop farming more common in China, most households in both countries pursued a rather mixed approach. The composition of the herds, as well as the richness and diversity of the livestock species, differed significantly between the countries and was generally higher in Mongolia. Supplementary feedstuff and pesticide and fertiliser use were higher in China, along with diversification of produces. Our analysis indicates that until very recently the livelihood strategies on both sides of the border were the same, manifesting in the fact that we can define three identical clusters across countries (environment factor even though there are slight differences in land, livestock and asset endowment.

Double Marginalized Livelihoods: Invisible Gender Inequality in Pastoral Societies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sileshi Mengistu

2013-02-01

Full Text Available Achieving gender equality is the Third Millennium Development Goal, and the major challenge to poverty reduction is the inability of governments to address this at grass root levels. This study is therefore aimed at assessing gender inequality as it pertains to socio-economic factors in (agro- pastoral societies. It tries to explain how “invisible” forces perpetuate gender inequality, based on data collected from male and female household heads and community representatives. The findings indicate that in comparison with men, women lack access to control rights over livestock, land, and income, which are critical to securing a sustainable livelihood. However, this inequality remains invisible to women who appear to readily submit to local customs, and to the community at large due to a lack of public awareness and gender based interventions. In addition, violence against women is perpetuated through traditional beliefs and sustained by tourists to the area. As a result, (agro- pastoral woman face double marginalization, for being pastoralist, and for being a woman.

Environmental Degradation, Livelihood and Conflicts: A Focus on ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Environmental Degradation, Livelihood and Conflicts: A Focus on the Implications of the Diminishing Water Resources of Lake Chad for North-Eastern Nigeria. ... The impact of this depletion is being felt by Lake Chad basin population who depend on the lake for their means of livelihood. This paper focuses on the ...

African Journal of Sustainable Development - Vol 3, No 1 (2013)

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Local Knowledge and Livelihood Sustainability: The Role of Indigenous Institutions in Sustaining Rural Agriculture in North-eastern Ghana · EMAIL FULL TEXT ... Knowledge and Attitude of Mothers towards Risk Factors for Acute Respiratory Infections among Hospitalized Under-five Children in Ibadan, Nigeria · EMAIL ...

On the sustainability of inland fisheries: Finding a future for the forgotten

Science.gov (United States)

Cooke, Steven J.; Allison, Edward H.; Beard, Douglas; Arlinghaus, Robert; Arthington, Angela; Bartley, Devin; Cowx, Ian G.; Fuentevilla, Carlos; Léonard, Nancy J.; Lorenzen, Kai; Lynch, Abigail; Nguyen, Vivian M.; Youn, So-Jung; Tayor, William W.; Welcomme, Robin

2016-01-01

At present, inland fisheries are not often a national or regional governance priority and as a result, inland capture fisheries are undervalued and largely overlooked. As such they are threatened in both developing and developed countries. Indeed, due to lack of reliable data, inland fisheries have never been part of any high profile global fisheries assessment and are notably absent from the Sustainable Development Goals. The general public and policy makers are largely ignorant of the plight of freshwater ecosystems and the fish they support, as well as the ecosystem services generated by inland fisheries. This ignorance is particularly salient given that the current emphasis on the food-water-energy nexus often fails to include the important role that inland fish and fisheries play in food security and supporting livelihoods in low-income food deficit countries. Developing countries in Africa and Asia produce about 11 million tonnes of inland fish annually, 90 % of the global total. The role of inland fisheries goes beyond just kilocalories; fish provide important micronutrients and essentially fatty acids. In some regions, inland recreational fisheries are important, generating much wealth and supporting livelihoods. The following three key recommendations are necessary for action if inland fisheries are to become a part of the food-water-energy discussion: invest in improved valuation and assessment methods, build better methods to effectively govern inland fisheries (requires capacity building and incentives), and develop approaches to managing waters across sectors and scales. Moreover, if inland fisheries are recognized as important to food security, livelihoods, and human well-being, they can be more easily incorporated in regional, national, and global policies and agreements on water issues. Through these approaches, inland fisheries can be better evaluated and be more fully recognized in broader water resource and aquatic ecosystem planning and decision

The Role of Food and Nutrition System Approaches in Tackling Hidden Hunger

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Emile Frison

2011-01-01

Full Text Available One of the World’s greatest challenges is to secure sufficient and healthy food for all, and to do so in an environmentally sustainable manner. This review explores the interrelationships of food, health, and environment, and their role in addressing chronic micronutrient deficiencies, also known as “hidden hunger”, affecting over two billion people worldwide. While the complexity and underlying determinants of undernutrition have been well-understood for decades, the scaling of food and nutrition system approaches that combine sustainable agriculture aimed at improved diet diversity and livelihoods have been limited in their development and implementation. However, an integrated system approach to reduce hidden hunger could potentially serve as a sustainable opportunity.

Local Knowledge and Livelihood Sustainability: The Role of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This paper drew on new anthropological and social perspectives on institutions for exploring the nexus between local knowledge and the sustainability of rural agriculture in north-eastern Ghana. In particular, it analysed the role that tacit local knowledge, explicit in indigenous and non-indigenous institutions play in the ...

Reactive or proactive approach towards sustainability? A conceptual framework based on sustainable business models to increase stakeholders' sustainable value capture

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rosati, Francesco; Morioka, Sandra; Monteiro de Carvalho, Marly

2016-01-01

and challenging companies to seek for business opportunities with an entrepreneurial attitude to help solving sustainable development challenges. By combining both approaches, organizations have the opportunity to increase sustainable value capture by its stakeholders, acting on their institutional responsibility...... as instrument to help companies describe, analyze, manage and communicate their sustainable value proposition, creation, delivery and capture mechanism. In particular, this research focuses on value capture dynamics, aiming to explore how companies can increase their contribution to sustainable development...... sustainability. In this sense, a proactive approach to foster sustainable value capture can complement the reactive approach by delivering value beyond stakeholders' expectations. In this case, companies use their capabilities to identify opportunities to create and deliver sustainable value that stakeholders...

Smart sustainable energy for the rural built environment

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Szewczuk, S

2015-12-01

Full Text Available robust methodology to adapt innovative and renewable smart grid technologies to deliver real and sustainable decentralised energy solutions for remote and rural communities, thereby improving livelihoods and opportunities for inclusive growth...

Edible Insects in Sustainable Food Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Halloran, Afton; Flore, Roberto; Vantomme, Paul

This text provides an important overview of the contributions of edible insects to ecological sustainability, livelihoods, nutrition and health, food culture and food systems around the world. While insect farming for both food and feed is rapidly increasing in popularity around the world, the ro...

Climate change, land use and land cover change detection and its impact on hydrological hazards and sustainable development: a case study of Alaknanda river basin, Uttarakhand, India.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

ABHAY SHANKAR PRASAD

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Extreme climatic events impact on the natural ecosystems of Alaknanda river basin which affect the socio-economic condition of the rural communities, loss of life, livelihood and natural resources. They pose a serious threat to normal life as well as the process of sustainable development. Rivers are fragile ecosystems which are globally important as water tower of the earth, reservoirs of rich biodiversity, and a popular destination for recreation, tourism and culture heritage. Rivers provides direct life support base for humankind. The unique Geo-climatic condition of Garhwal Himalaya, Alaknanda River basin, Uttarakhand makes it one of the most vulnerable regions in the India. Hydrological hazards are sudden calamities, which involve loss of life, property and livelihood. This paper presents a methodological approach for the integration of extreme events, climatic vulnerability, land use scenario, and flood risk assessment. Anthropogenic activities are continuously disturbing the natural system of the Garhwal Himalaya and its impact on extreme hydrological events. Factors causing these changes have been attempted to be understood through the use of GIS and Geospatial techniques. Human interference, unscientific developmental activities, agriculture extension, tourism activity and road construction are creating the hydrological hazards. Soil erosion and landslide have been recognised as major hazards in the high altitude region of Himalaya. This paper has analysed and evaluates the climate and livelihood vulnerability assessment and its adaptation for sustainable development in the near district headquarter (NDH away district headquarter (ADH determined mainly by a weighted matrix index. The Geospatial technique is used to find out the land use/cover change detection and secondary data is taken to carry out the analysis work. Primary data from each hotspot has been collected through a questionnaire survey and a Participatory Research Approach

Sustainable Contract in the Bottled Tawalis Value Chain in Taal, Batangas, Philippines

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Almazan, C.V.; Trienekens, J.H.; Bijman, J.

2012-01-01

This research was conceptualized to investigate the potential impact of contracts on the sustainability of the bottled tawilis supply chain, i.e. sustainability in terms of environmental protection, well-being of the people whose livelihood depends on tawilis production, processing and marketing;

A Legitimate Freedom Approach to Sustainability

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Crabtree, Andrew

2012-01-01

Although the capability approach has had a tremendous impact on the development debate, it has had little to say about sustainable development. As several Human Development Reports have maintained, the last twenty years' gains in human development are not sustainable. The failure to include...... Index should be combined with the Ecological Footprint to reflect sustainability, and that the Human Development Reports should give way to Sustainable Development Reports...... an integrate sustainability into the Human Development Index would thus give the wrong policy message. Drawing on the works of Amartya Sen and Thomas Scanlon, this article argues that sustainable development can be seen as a process of increasing legitimate freedoms, the freedoms that others cannot reasonably...

The Role of Productive Water Use in Women’s Livelihoods: Evidence from Rural Senegal

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Emily van Houweling

2012-10-01

Full Text Available Enhancing livelihoods and promoting gender equity are primary goals of rural development programmes in Africa. This article explores the role of productive water use in relation to these goals based on 1860 household surveys and 15 women’s focus groups conducted in four regions of Senegal with small-scale piped water systems. The piped systems can be considered 'domestic plus' systems because they were designed primarily for domestic use, and also to accommodate small-scale productive uses including livestock-raising and community-gardening. This research focuses on the significance of productive water use in the livelihood diversification strategies of rural women. In Senegal, we find that access to water for productive purposes is a critical asset for expanding and diversifying rural livelihoods. The time savings associated with small piped systems and the increased water available allowed women to enhance existing activities and initiate new enterprises. Women’s livelihoods were found to depend on productive use activities, namely livestock-raising and gardening, and it is estimated that one half of women’s incomes is linked to productive water use. While these findings are largely positive, we find that water service and affordability constraints limit the potential benefits of productive water use for women and the poorest groups. Implications for targeting women and the poorest groups within the domestic plus approach are discussed.

"Health regains but livelihoods lag": findings from a study with people on ART in Zambia and Kenya.

Science.gov (United States)

Samuels, Fiona A; Rutenberg, Naomi

2011-06-01

Although ART is increasingly accessible and eases some stresses, it creates other challenges including the importance of food security to enhance ART-effectiveness. This paper explores the role livelihood strategies play in achieving food security and maintaining nutritional status among ART patients in Kenya and Zambia. Ongoing quantitative studies exploring adherence to ART in Mombasa, Kenya (n=118) and in Lusaka, Zambia (n=375) were used to identify the relationship between BMI and adherence; an additional set of in-depth interviews with people on ART (n=32) and members of their livelihood networks (n=64) were undertaken. Existing frameworks and scales for measuring food security and a positive deviance approach was used to analyse data. Findings show the majority of people on ART in Zambia are food insecure; similarly most respondents in both countries report missing meals. Snacking is important for dietary intake, especially in Kenya. Most food is purchased in both countries. Having assets is key for achieving livelihood security in both Kenya and Zambia. Food supplementation is critical to survival and for developing social capital since most is shared amongst family members and others. Whilst family and friends are key to an individual's livelihood network, often more significant for daily survival is proximity to people and the ability to act immediately, characteristics most often found amongst neighbours and tenants. In both countries findings show that with ART health has rebounded but livelihoods lag. Similarly, in both countries respondents with high adherence and high BMI are more self-reliant, have multiple income sources and assets; those with low adherence and low BMI have more tenuous livelihoods and were less likely to have farms/gardens. Food supplementation is, therefore, not a long-term solution. Building on existing livelihood strategies represents an alternative for programme managers and policy-makers as do other strategies including

Role of forest income in rural household livelihoods

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Misbahuzzaman, Khaled; Smith-Hall, Carsten

2015-01-01

as Village Common Forests (VCFs), which provide valuable resources for community use. An investigation was made of the role of forest income in livelihoods of selected VCF communities in Bandarban and Rangamati districts of the CHTs. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses were employed to examine...... the household livelihood system of the respondents selected at random from 7 villages. Data were collected through participatory rural appraisal and structured quarterly surveys. The contribution of all forest-related income was found to be much smaller (11.59 %) than that of agricultural income (77.......02 %) in average total household income. However, VCFs provide bamboos, which are the largest source of household forest income. Moreover, they harbour rich native tree diversity which is vital for maintaining perennial water sources upon which most household livelihood activities depend. Therefore, it seems...

Livelihood Strategies of Rural Women with Emphasis on Income ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This article explores some of the livelihood strategies of rural women with emphasis ... per annum, which leads to limited access to the scarce land and other resources. ... livelihood tragedy, about 27% of the rural women respondents began to limit the ... used to move away from home to look for employment opportunities.

Local disease-ecosystem-livelihood dynamics: reflections from comparative case studies in Africa.

Science.gov (United States)

Leach, Melissa; Bett, Bernard; Said, M; Bukachi, Salome; Sang, Rosemary; Anderson, Neil; Machila, Noreen; Kuleszo, Joanna; Schaten, Kathryn; Dzingirai, Vupenyu; Mangwanya, Lindiwe; Ntiamoa-Baidu, Yaa; Lawson, Elaine; Amponsah-Mensah, Kofi; Moses, Lina M; Wilkinson, Annie; Grant, Donald S; Koninga, James

2017-07-19

This article explores the implications for human health of local interactions between disease, ecosystems and livelihoods. Five interdisciplinary case studies addressed zoonotic diseases in African settings: Rift Valley fever (RVF) in Kenya, human African trypanosomiasis in Zambia and Zimbabwe, Lassa fever in Sierra Leone and henipaviruses in Ghana. Each explored how ecological changes and human-ecosystem interactions affect pathogen dynamics and hence the likelihood of zoonotic spillover and transmission, and how socially differentiated peoples' interactions with ecosystems and animals affect their exposure to disease. Cross-case analysis highlights how these dynamics vary by ecosystem type, across a range from humid forest to semi-arid savannah; the significance of interacting temporal and spatial scales; and the importance of mosaic and patch dynamics. Ecosystem interactions and services central to different people's livelihoods and well-being include pastoralism and agro-pastoralism, commercial and subsistence crop farming, hunting, collecting food, fuelwood and medicines, and cultural practices. There are synergies, but also tensions and trade-offs, between ecosystem changes that benefit livelihoods and affect disease. Understanding these can inform 'One Health' approaches towards managing ecosystems in ways that reduce disease risks and burdens.This article is part of the themed issue 'One Health for a changing world: zoonoses, ecosystems and human well-being'. © 2017 The Authors.

An equity- and sustainability-based policy response to global climate change

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Byrne, J.; Wang, Y.-D.; Kim, Jong-dall

1998-01-01

In the debate over policy options for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, two precautionary approaches, 'no regrets' and 'insurance' have been proposed. An alternative to these is put forward which adopts an equity and sustainability based approach. It will not be easy to meet the challenge which this approach demands. From wealthy countries it will require a strong commitment to a social policy at home and an economic policy abroad that aims at sharing the ability of humankind to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. In developing countries the necessary improvement in lives and livelihoods must be achieved without repeating the unsustainable environmental and social legacy of the industrial era. (UK)

Contribution of "Women's Gold" to West African livelihoods

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pouliot, Mariéve

2012-01-01

Contribution of ``Women's Gold'' to West African Livelihoods: The Case of Shea ( Vitellaria paradoxa ) in Burkina Faso. This paper (i) quantifies the contribution that Vitellaria paradoxa makes to the total income of rural households belonging to different economic groups in two areas of Burkina ...... not be considered as a remedy to poverty but instead as a way for households to diversify their livelihood strategy and decrease their vulnerability to food insecurity and climate variability....

Changes in Ecosystem Services and related Livelihoods in the Mekong Delta: vulnerabilities and adaptation strategies

Science.gov (United States)

Sebesvari, Z.; Renaud, F. G.

2014-12-01

The Mekong Delta (Vietnam) is highly vulnerable to the many impacts of global environmental change as well as to the accelerating anthropogenic changes in the catchment and in the delta itself. Today the delta is an agricultural landscape controlled by engineering structures such as channels, dykes, embankments, and sluice gates. These structures have been constructed gradually over the last 200 years mainly for irrigation and flood control in the upper part of the delta and to control saline intrusion in the coastal areas. Recent changes in the hydrology mainly driven by upstream hydropower development on the mainstream and the tributaries of the Mekong will likely have far reaching impacts on the delta´s social-ecological systems through changes in e.g. sedimentation processes, nutrient transport as well as the health of aquatic ecosystems. Further threats to the delta include sea level rise and an increase in seasonal rainfall variability leading to an increase in flood variability. These changes affect the lives of millions of low-income inhabitants who depend on the ecosystem services provided by the Mekong for their livelihoods and sustenance. Since the changes in ecosystem service provision are occurring relatively fast while the resource dependency of the delta population is very high, adaptation becomes a challenge. An assessment of livelihood dependencies on ecosystem services requires an understanding of ecosystem services affected by different drivers of change, as well as of the types of livelihoods likely to be jeopardized as a result of these changes. We will present main ecosystem services supporting specific livelihoods, discuss how they are threatened, and analyse the merits of potential solutions. Options based solely on grey infrastructure might be problematic on the long term while an integration of ecosystem based solution such as a (re)adaptation of agricultural production systems to floods in the upper delta might be a more sustainable

A service and value based approach to estimating environmental flows

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Korsgaard, Louise; Jensen, R.A.; Jønch-Clausen, Torkil

2008-01-01

at filling that gap by presenting a new environmental flows assessment approach that explicitly links environmental flows to (socio)-economic values by focusing on ecosystem services. This Service Provision Index (SPI) approach is a novel contribution to the existing field of environmental flows assessment...... of sustaining ecosystems but also a matter of supporting humankind/livelihoods. One reason for the marginalisation of environmental flows is the lack of operational methods to demonstrate the inherently multi-disciplinary link between environmental flows, ecosystem services and economic value. This paper aims...

Sustainability and meanings of farm-based bioenergy production in rural Finland

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Huttunen, S.

2013-06-01

Rural bioenergy production has accrued interest in recent years. EU pressure for climate change abatement and energy political concerns regarding the availability of fossil fuels, have increased bioenergy production objectives in Finland. In addition, rural regions in Finland have encountered structural changes following EU inclusion, including an emergent interest in auxiliary production lines of which bioenergy production is an example. Local bioenergy production has the potential to increase rural sustainability and provide a model for sustainable rural development and energy production. Focusing on the recent emergence of small-scale farm-related bioenergy production: heat provision from wood fuels and biogas and biodiesel production, this study aims to discover if and how farm-based bioenergy production contributes to sustainable rural development. The study derives from the field of rural studies and evaluates sustainable rural development via the concepts of multifunctionality, embeddedness, ecological modernization and sustainable livelihoods, with a particular focus on social sustainability. The empirical portion of the study is comprised of thematic qualitative interviews of bioenergy producing farmers, and on newspaper and periodical article material. The results demonstrate how rural small-scale bioenergy production can have important positive developmental effects that ameliorate and sustain livelihoods in remote areas. This occurs via the multifunctional benefits of bioenergy production to the producers and local communities. The positive effects include social, economical and environmental aspects and rural bioenergy production can present traits of sustainable rural development, predominantly manifested in the social aspects of increased capabilities and reinforced social networks. There are, however, important differences between the examined production models. As an example of achieving sustainable rural development and livelihoods, heat

Space - the essential dimension of sustainable development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Buch-Hansen, Mogens

, economic and social development and their impact on development of space. The structure of space or the territorial structure hereby plays an essential role in the options of further economic and social development and its sustainability. The focus is on support of livelihoods and enhancing human welfare...

Tea production characteristics of tea growers (plantations and smallholdings and livelihood dimensions of tea workers in Assam, India

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eloise M. Biggs

2018-04-01

Full Text Available This article provides summary data regarding tea production in Assam, India. Questionnaires were completed by tea producers and focus group discussions undertaken with tea workers. These data are presented for the four main tea growing regions of the state (Cachar, North Bank, South Bank and Upper Assam. Tables detail tea production characteristics of the tea plantations for both large- (> 10 ha and small- (< 10 ha holders. Figures provide supplementary information for research by Biggs et al. [1] regarding fertilizer application, landscape management strategies, healthcare provisioning and educational facilities within plantations, as well as detailing the livelihood dimensions of tea workers. The questions posed to producers are also included. For further context underpinning the research for which these data were collated, see ‘The tea landscape of Assam: multi-stakeholder insights into sustainable livelihoods under a changing climate’ by Biggs et al. [1].

Perceptions on climate change and its impact on livelihoods in Hwange district, Zimbabwe

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Charles Nhemachena

2014-12-01

Full Text Available This study investigated perceptions of rural communities on climate change and its impacts on livelihoods. The research was conducted in the semi-arid Hwange district in Matebelel and North province of Zimbabwe. The perceptions were compared with empirical evidence from climatic studies on trends on temperature and rainfall, and impacts on livelihoods in the country and region. The findings from the current study are generally in agreement with those of other studies that indicate changes in the climate, especially in terms of rainfall. This largely applies to short-term periods; however, for long-term periods it is difficult to accurately relate rural community perceptions to changes in rainfall over time. Despite perceived changes and impacts of climate change on local livelihood activities, mainly agriculture, there are multiple stressors that the communities face which also affect their livelihoods. Further evidence-based research is required to disentangle climate change impacts on livelihoods, including livelihood impacts arising from interactions of climate and non-climatic factors.

Sustainable malaria control: transdisciplinary approaches for translational applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Birkholtz Lyn-Marie

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract With the adoption of the Global Malaria Action Plan, several countries are moving from malaria control towards elimination and eradication. However, the sustainability of some of the approaches taken may be questionable. Here, an overview of malaria control and elimination strategies is provided and the sustainability of each in context of vector- and parasite control is assessed. From this, it can be concluded that transdisciplinary approaches are essential for sustained malaria control and elimination in malaria-endemic communities.

Sustainable malaria control: transdisciplinary approaches for translational applications

Science.gov (United States)

2012-01-01

With the adoption of the Global Malaria Action Plan, several countries are moving from malaria control towards elimination and eradication. However, the sustainability of some of the approaches taken may be questionable. Here, an overview of malaria control and elimination strategies is provided and the sustainability of each in context of vector- and parasite control is assessed. From this, it can be concluded that transdisciplinary approaches are essential for sustained malaria control and elimination in malaria-endemic communities. PMID:23268712

Natural resources and rural livelihoods: Differences between migrants and non-migrants in Madagascar

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Raphael Nawrotzki

2012-06-01

Full Text Available BACKGROUND Although natural resources play a central role in rural livelihoods across the globe, little research has explored the relationship between migration and natural capital use, particularly in combination with other livelihood capitals (i.e., human, social, financial and physical. OBJECTIVE Grounded in the rural livelihood framework, this paper explores the association between the livelihood capital availability, especially natural capital, for migrants and non-migrants in rural Madagascar. METHODS Data from the 2008/2009 Demographic and Health Survey are used in combination with satellite imagery of vegetation coverage (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, NDVI to proxy natural resources. Hierarchical multilevel models allow for inclusion of cross-level interactions between migrant status and proximate natural resources as determinants of the status of livelihood assets. RESULTS Three key findings emerge. First, higher levels of proximate natural resources are associated with greater financial, human, and social capital for both migrants and non-migrants. Second, migrants have, on average, greater financial, physical, human, and social capital than non-migrants, and urban-to-rural migrants do exceptionally well on all capital asset categories. Third, migrants residing in areas with higher levels of natural capital tend to have significantly higher levels of human capital (education. CONCLUSIONS Although we cannot examine livelihood strategies per se, the results suggest variation in livelihood potential among migrants and non-migrants in rural Madagascar, with migrants tending to have greater capital assets. In addition, access to natural resources is a central livelihood strategy.

[Agro-household livelihood vulnerability and influence factors of ethnic villages under different geomorphology backgrounds.

Science.gov (United States)

Han, Wen Wen; Liu, Xiao Peng; Pei, Yin Bao; An, Qiong; Li, Yong Hong

2016-04-22

The vulnerability and influence factors of agro-household livelihood in Haiyuan County, Ningxia were empirically analyzed utilizing set pair analysis and obstacle degree model, based on field survey data of impoverished agro-households in 2014. Results showed that vulnerability of agro-household livelihood in Haiyuan County was high in general while it exhibited geomorphological and ethnical differences. Vulnerability of agro-households livelihood in plain areas, valleys and intermountain depression areas were lower than that in earth-rock areas, loess ridge areas and moderately high mountain landform areas. Moreover, vulnerability of agro-household livelihood was higher in mixed Hui and Han ethnic villages than in mono Hui or Han ethnic villages. The villagers' lacking of necessities and the stress of sensitive external geographical environment were considered to be the fundamental reasons of vulnerability of agro-household livelihood. The unreasonable livelihood structure and the unvariant livelihood strategy caused the long-term accumulation of livelihood vulnerabi-lity. The nature of the local environment, which was not easy to change, decreased the accessibility of poverty alleviation resources. Building a clear village water rights allocation system, the implementation of counterpart-assistance to educate impoverished families, increasing investment in improving the diversities of means of living, developing the chains of comprehensive commodity market among villages, were necessary to improve the response capability of agro-household livelihood. The management of vulnerability of agro-household livelihood should put the 'Extending Roads to Every Village Project' on a more prominent position in the 'Extending Radio and TV Broadcasting Coverage to Every Village Project'. Furthermore, the combination of meteorological disaster prevention and insurance enterprise disaster reduction should be sought, and the agricultural production insurance system should be

Sustainability of Beekeeping as a Means of Economic ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This paper assessed the many ways bees and beekeeping contribute to sustainable livelihood. Beekeeping generates much more than honey; pollination of crops, maintenance of biodiversity, income generation, source of food and other valuable services are provided by bees. The economic viability and potential of ...

SUSTAINABLE DIVERSIFIED AGRICULTURE AND LAND MANAGEMENT IN THE HIMALAYA: IMPLICATIONS FOR CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION AND MITIGATION

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R. M. Bajracharya

2016-08-01

Full Text Available The soil and land resources play a vital role in sustaining the local livelihoods of rural communities in the Himalaya. Most of the arable land has already been brought under cultivation, hence the ever-increasing demand for food and fiber has left farmers with no choice but to intensify agriculture. However, producing more crops and greater quantities of food, fiber and other materials on the same parcel of land can to soil fertility and productivity decline with overall degradation of land quality. Therefore, ways and means to intensify agriculture to enhance productivity without degrading the soil and land resource base have become imperative. Agro-forestry, agro-slivi-pastoral systems, and the adoption of a variety of crop, soil and water management and conservation practices offer potential to deliver multiple benefits without sacrificing the very resource upon which the human population depends. Presented herein are findings on approaches to sustainable intensification of agriculture and land management related to soil OM management and C sequestration for multiple benefits, and, agro-forestry as a crop diversification strategy with both livelihood, and climate change adaptation/mitigation benefits. The results indicate that sustainable soil management practices could lead to significant SOC accumulations (4-8 t/ha over 6 yrs. SOC and soil C stocks tend to increase with elevation due to cooler climate and slow decomposition rates. Carbon stocks for the 3 LU types was in the order CF>AF/LH>AG, suggesting that diversified cropping practices including agro-forestry have good potential sequester C while providing livelihood opportunities and climate adaptive capacity for local farming communities. Biochar amendment increased growth of both coffee plants and radish with mixed grass/weed biochar being most effective. Biochar application also significantly decreased emission of GHGs, especially N2O.

Livelihood trends in Response to Climate Change in Forest Fringe ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

One of the forest fringe communities in Ghana where the rural livelihoods of the people have been compromised due to deforestation and climate change is the Offin basin. The removal of forests impacts on local climate, water availability, and livelihoods due to influence of forests on precipitation and water balance. Fluxes ...

Disequilibrial ecosystems and livelihood diversification among the Maasai of Northern Tanzania: Implications for conservation policy in Eastern Africa

OpenAIRE

McCabe, J.T.

2003-01-01

Metadata only record This paper looks at the challenges emerging when conservation objectives in the Ngorongoro district of northern Tanzania needs to be coordinated with the goal of creation of sustainable livelihoods by the pastoral people living in that area. The paper first gives brief review of pastoralism as it is seen by most ecologists, conservationists, and development practitioners prior to the 1990s. After then the paper examines the diversification of the livestock-based econom...

Livelihood opportunities amongst adults with and without disabilities in Cameroon and India: A case control study.

Science.gov (United States)

Mactaggart, Islay; Banks, Lena Morgon; Kuper, Hannah; Murthy, G V S; Sagar, Jayanthi; Oye, Joseph; Polack, Sarah

2018-01-01

Proven links between disability and poverty suggest that development programmes and policies that are not disability-inclusive will leave persons with disabilities behind. Despite this, there is limited quantitative evidence on livelihood opportunities amongst adults with disabilities in Low and Middle Income Countries. This study adds to the limited evidence base, contributing data from one African and one Asian Setting. We undertook a population-based case-control study of adults (18+) with and without disabilities in North-West Cameroon and in Telangana State, India. We found that adults with disabilities were five times less likely to be working compared to age-sex matched controls in both settings. Amongst adults with disabilities, current age, marital status and disability type were key predictors of working. Inclusive programmes are therefore needed to provide adequate opportunities to participate in livelihood prospects for adults with disabilities in Cameroon and India, on an equal basis as others. These findings are of crucial importance at this stage of the Sustainable Development Agenda, to ensure that the mandate of inclusive development is achieved.

Strategic Decision Making for Organizational Sustainability: The Implications of Servant Leadership and Sustainable Leadership Approaches

OpenAIRE

Judita Peterlin; Noel J. Pearse; Vlado Dimovski

2015-01-01

This conceptual paper explores the implications of servant leadership and sustainable leadership for strategic decision making by the top management of an organization. It is argued that a different type of leadership is required if effective strategic decisions are to be made in organizations striving to become more sustainable and that servant leadership and sustainable leadership approaches provide a sound basis to inform these decisions. The contributions of these two leadership approache...

Household Income Strategies and Natural Disasters: Dynamic Livelihoods in Rural Nicaragua

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Berg, van den M.M.

2010-01-01

This paper assesses the impact of hurricane Mitch on livelihood strategies of rural households in Nicaragua. Through destruction or distress sales of productive assets, a hurricane or another natural hazard could induce people with relatively remunerative livelihoods to choose more defensive

EU-Mercosur Trade Agreement: Potential Impacts on Rural Livelihoods and Gender (with Focus on Bio-fuels Feedstock Expansion

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Leonith Hinojosa

2009-11-01

Full Text Available The trade-sustainable impact assessment of the European Union-Mercosur trade agreement found that the economic impact of the trade liberalisation scenario could be positive in the agricultural sectors of Mercosur countries. However, it also found that the social and environmental impacts would be mixed and potentially detrimental. This paper addresses the likely effects on the livelihoods of vulnerable rural populations. It argues that the potential impacts can be analysed within a diversified livelihood strategies framework, which is expanded to include institutional and policy factors. It concludes that the negative expected impact responds to the highly uneven access to capital assets. On the other hand, the effects are not generalised to all Mercosur countries, nor to all regions in each of the member countries. Enhancing or mitigating measures refer to the importance of sequencing and regulation to improve disadvantaged groups‘ abilities to participate in trade-led agricultural intensification or industrialisation processes.

Assessing Sustainability Curriculum: From Transmissive to Transformative Approaches

Science.gov (United States)

Gaard, Greta C.; Blades, Jarod; Wright, Mary

2017-01-01

Purpose: This paper aims to describe a two-stage sustainability curriculum assessment, providing tools and strategies for other faculty to use in implementing their own sustainability assessments. Design/methodology/approach: In the first stage of the five-year curriculum assessment, the authors used an anonymous survey of sustainability faculty…

Seaweeds: an opportunity for wealth and sustainable livelihood for coastal communities.

Science.gov (United States)

Rebours, Céline; Marinho-Soriano, Eliane; Zertuche-González, José A; Hayashi, Leila; Vásquez, Julio A; Kradolfer, Paul; Soriano, Gonzalo; Ugarte, Raul; Abreu, Maria Helena; Bay-Larsen, Ingrid; Hovelsrud, Grete; Rødven, Rolf; Robledo, Daniel

2014-01-01

The European, Canadian, and Latin American seaweed industries rely on the sustainable harvesting of natural resources. As several countries wish to increase their activity, the harvest should be managed according to integrated and participatory governance regimes to ensure production within a long-term perspective. Development of regulations and directives enabling the sustainable exploitation of natural resources must therefore be brought to the national and international political agenda in order to ensure environmental, social, and economic values in the coastal areas around the world. In Europe, Portugal requires an appraisal of seaweed management plans while Norway and Canada have developed and implemented coastal management plans including well-established and sustainable exploitation of their natural seaweed resources. Whereas, in Latin America, different scenarios of seaweed exploitation can be observed; each country is however in need of long-term and ecosystem-based management plans to ensure that exploitation is sustainable. These plans are required particularly in Peru and Brazil, while Chile has succeeded in establishing a sustainable seaweed-harvesting plan for most of the economically important seaweeds. Furthermore, in both Europe and Latin America, seaweed aquaculture is at its infancy and development will have to overcome numerous challenges at different levels (i.e., technology, biology, policy). Thus, there is a need for regulations and establishment of "best practices" for seaweed harvesting, management, and cultivation. Trained human resources will also be required to provide information and education to the communities involved, to enable seaweed utilization to become a profitable business and provide better income opportunities to coastal communities.

Climate change and human health: Spatial modeling of water availability, malnutrition, and livelihoods in Mali, Africa

Science.gov (United States)

Jankowska, Marta M.; Lopez-Carr, David; Funk, Chris; Husak, Gregory J.; Chafe, Z.A.

2012-01-01

This study develops a novel approach for projecting climate trends in the Sahel in relation to shifting livelihood zones and health outcomes. Focusing on Mali, we explore baseline relationships between temperature, precipitation, livelihood, and malnutrition in 407 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) clusters with a total of 14,238 children, resulting in a thorough spatial analysis of coupled climate-health dynamics. Results suggest links between livelihoods and each measure of malnutrition, as well as a link between climate and stunting. A ‘front-line’ of vulnerability, related to the transition between agricultural and pastoral livelihoods, is identified as an area where mitigation efforts might be usefully targeted. Additionally, climate is projected to 2025 for the Sahel, and demographic trends are introduced to explore how the intersection of climate and demographics may shift the vulnerability ‘front-line’, potentially exposing an additional 6 million people in Mali, up to a million of them children, to heightened risk of malnutrition from climate and livelihood changes. Results indicate that, holding constant morbidity levels, approximately one quarter of a million children will suffer stunting, nearly two hundred thousand will be malnourished, and over one hundred thousand will become anemic in this expanding arid zone by 2025. Climate and health research conducted at finer spatial scales and within shorter projected time lines can identify vulnerability hot spots that are of the highest priority for adaptation interventions; such an analysis can also identify areas with similar characteristics that may be at heightened risk. Such meso-scale coupled human-environment research may facilitate appropriate policy interventions strategically located beyond today’s vulnerability front-line.

Examining Success Factors for Sustainable Rural Development ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

This collaborative project will examine the role the Integrated Co-operative Model can play in reducing poverty and promoting development in rural African communities. Specifically, it aims to add to the knowledge of how to improve livelihoods and reduce poverty in a sustainable way in rural communities. It will strive to: ...

Agricultural livelihoods in coastal Bangladesh under climate and environmental change--a model framework.

Science.gov (United States)

Lázár, Attila N; Clarke, Derek; Adams, Helen; Akanda, Abdur Razzaque; Szabo, Sylvia; Nicholls, Robert J; Matthews, Zoe; Begum, Dilruba; Saleh, Abul Fazal M; Abedin, Md Anwarul; Payo, Andres; Streatfield, Peter Kim; Hutton, Craig; Mondal, M Shahjahan; Moslehuddin, Abu Zofar Md

2015-06-01

Coastal Bangladesh experiences significant poverty and hazards today and is highly vulnerable to climate and environmental change over the coming decades. Coastal stakeholders are demanding information to assist in the decision making processes, including simulation models to explore how different interventions, under different plausible future socio-economic and environmental scenarios, could alleviate environmental risks and promote development. Many existing simulation models neglect the complex interdependencies between the socio-economic and environmental system of coastal Bangladesh. Here an integrated approach has been proposed to develop a simulation model to support agriculture and poverty-based analysis and decision-making in coastal Bangladesh. In particular, we show how a simulation model of farmer's livelihoods at the household level can be achieved. An extended version of the FAO's CROPWAT agriculture model has been integrated with a downscaled regional demography model to simulate net agriculture profit. This is used together with a household income-expenses balance and a loans logical tree to simulate the evolution of food security indicators and poverty levels. Modelling identifies salinity and temperature stress as limiting factors to crop productivity and fertilisation due to atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations as a reinforcing factor. The crop simulation results compare well with expected outcomes but also reveal some unexpected behaviours. For example, under current model assumptions, temperature is more important than salinity for crop production. The agriculture-based livelihood and poverty simulations highlight the critical significance of debt through informal and formal loans set at such levels as to persistently undermine the well-being of agriculture-dependent households. Simulations also indicate that progressive approaches to agriculture (i.e. diversification) might not provide the clear economic benefit from the perspective of

Local Sustainable Energy Assessment of Uttarakhand and West Bengal

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Jan; Lund, Søren

The publication reports a sustainable energy assessment at the local project site of the HighARCS project in Nainital, Uttarakhand and Buxa, West Bengal, India. The assessment has been made as a contribution to the elaboration of biodiversity conservation and livelihoods improvement action plans...

Natural capital and ecosystem services for sustainable livelihoods in Costa Vicentina, Portugal

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paula Antunes

2014-06-01

Full Text Available The OpenNESS project, funded by EC FP7, aims to translate the concepts of Natural Capital (NC and Ecosystem Services (ES into operational frameworks that provide tested, practical and tailored solutions for integrating ES into land, water and urban management and decision-making, while promoting local stakeholders well-being. Central to the project is a multi-scale case study approach, designed to ground concepts and theories on real world observations and analysis. This paper presents one of the project case studies, located in the Portuguese southwest coast – Costa Vicentina. This case study is focused on the use of NC and ES concepts to design instruments for sustainable management of living resources (algae, shellfish and fish and to promote a sustainable nature-based tourism. The research aims to (1 identify the linkages between marine natural capital stocks (e.g. bottom algae, shellfish populations,... with ES provision; (2 explore the perceptions and importance of ES to local stakeholders’ wellbeing and their economic value; and (3 evaluate the use of ES in land-use planning and conservation, and the potential of different policy instruments and governance arrangements to ensure the delivery of ES and to promote local stakeholders well-being. The combination of methods such as ES mapping, monetary and non-monetary valuation of ES, and system dynamics modelling, will ultimately be used to inform and support decision makers and policy instruments design. The research is rooted on a participatory process involving the main stakeholder groups, thus fostering dialogue and social learning.

Forest Transitions and Rural Livelihoods: Multiple Pathways of Smallholder Teak Expansion in Northern Laos

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Jonathan Newby

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Smallholder teak (Tectona grandis plantations have been identified as a potentially valuable component of upland farming systems in northern Laos that can contribute to a “livelihood transition” from subsistence-oriented swidden agriculture to a more commercially-oriented farming system, thereby bringing about a “forest transition” at the landscape scale. In recent years, teak smallholdings have become increasingly prominent in the province of Luang Prabang, especially in villages close to Luang Prabang City. In this paper, we draw on a household survey conducted in five teak-growing villages and case studies of different household types to explore the role that small-scale forestry has played in both livelihood and land-use transitions. Drawing on a classification of forest transitions, we identify three transition pathways that apply in the study villages—the “economic development” pathway, the “smallholder, tree-based, land-use intensification” pathway, and the “state forest policy” pathway. The ability of households to integrate teak into their farming system, manage the woodlots effectively, and maintain ownership until the plantation reaches maturity varies significantly between these pathways. Households with adequate land resources but scarce labor due to the effects of local economic development are better able to establish and hold onto teak woodlots, but less able to adopt beneficial management techniques. Households that are land-constrained are motivated to follow a path of land-used intensification, but need more productive agroforestry systems to sustain incomes over time. Households that are induced to plant teak mainly by land-use policies that threaten to deprive them of their land, struggle to efficiently manage or hold on to their woodlots in the long term. Thus, even when it is smallholders driving the process of forest transition via piecemeal land-use changes, there is potential for resource

How to Deliver Open Sustainable Innovation: An Integrated Approach for a Sustainable Marketable Product

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francesco Cappa

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The adoption of open innovation and peer production, powered by 3D printing technology, is transforming traditional manufacturing methods towards a “third industrial revolution”. The purpose of this research is to provide empirical evidence for an integrated approach, based on collaborative product development and peer production, combined with 3D printing, to deliver more sustainable, yet competitive, marketable products. In particular, this experimental study is conducted in the context of mobile forensics, an emerging market where limited expensive products exist and alternative solutions are needed. The technical viability and economic feasibility of the prototype developed in this research validate the proposed integrated approach, which could be a game-changer in the field of mobile forensics, as well as in other sectors. The sustainability improvements with this approach are a reduction of the total cost, thereby making it affordable for lower income users, and a decrease in energy consumption and pollutant emissions. The validated integrated approach offers start-up opportunities to develop and deliver more sustainable, marketable products, towards the paradigm of Open Sustainable Innovation. While the device developed and tested in this research has similar features to existing products, the methodology, implementation, and motivation are original.

Sustained-Paced Finger Tapping: A Novel Approach to Measure Internal Sustained Attention

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Marco A. Petilli

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Sustained attention is a fundamental prerequisite for all cognitive functions and its impairment is a common aftermath of both developmental and acquired neurological disorders. To date, all the sustained attention tasks rely heavily on selective attention to external stimuli. The interaction between selective and sustained attention represents a limit in the field of assessment and may mislead researchers or distort conclusions. The aim of the present perspective study was to propose a sustained version of the Paced Finger Tapping (S-PFT test as a novel approach to measure sustained attention that does not leverage external stimuli. Here, we administered S-PFT and other attentional tasks (visual sustained attention, visuospatial attention capacity, selective attention, and divided attention tasks to 85 adolescents. Thus, we provide evidence suggesting that S-PFT is effective in causing performance decrement over time, an important trademark of sustained attention tasks. We also present descriptive statistics showing the relationship between S-PFT and the other attentional tasks. These analyses show that, unlike visual sustained attention tests, performances to our task of internal sustained attention were not correlated to measures of selective attention and visuospatial attention capacity. Our results suggest that S-PFT could represent a promising and alternative tool both for empirical research and clinical assessment of sustained attention.

Sustainable Design Re-Examined: Integrated Approach to Knowledge Creation for Sustainable Interior Design

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Young S.

2014-01-01

The article focuses on a systematic approach to the instructional framework to incorporate three aspects of sustainable design. It also aims to provide an instruction model for sustainable design stressing a collective effort to advance knowledge creation as a community. It develops a framework conjoining the concept of integrated process in…

How is shrimp aquaculture transforming coastal livelihoods and lagoons in Estero Real, Nicaragua? The need to integrate social-ecological research and ecosystem-based approaches.

Science.gov (United States)

Benessaiah, Karina; Sengupta, Raja

2014-08-01

Ecosystem-based approaches to aquaculture integrate environmental concerns into planning. Social-ecological systems research can improve this approach by explicitly relating ecological and social dynamics of change at multiple scales. Doing so requires not only addressing direct effects of aquaculture but also considering indirect factors such as changes in livelihood strategies, governance dynamics, and power relations. We selected the community of Puerto Morazán, Nicaragua as a case study to demonstrate how the introduction of small-scale aquaculture radically transformed another key livelihood activity, lagoon shrimp fishing, and the effects that these changes have had on lagoons and the people that depend on them. We find that shrimp aquaculture played a key role in the collapse, in the 1990s, of an existing lagoon common-property management. Shrimp aquaculture-related capital enabled the adoption of a new fishing technique that not only degraded lagoons but also led to their gradual privatization. The existence of social ties between small-scale shrimp farmers and other community members mitigated the impacts of privatization, illustrating the importance of social capital. Since 2008, community members are seeking to communally manage the lagoons once again, in response to degraded environmental conditions and a consolidation of the shrimp industry at the expense of smaller actors. This research shows that shrimp aquaculture intersects with a complex set of drivers, affecting not only how ecosystems are managed but also how they are perceived and valued. Understanding these social-ecological dynamics is essential to implement realistic policies and management of mangrove ecosystems and address the needs of resource-dependent people.

The Strategically Oriented Approach to Studying the Economic Sustainability of Enterprises

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ponomarenko Tеtyana V.

2017-03-01

Full Text Available The article presents the constructive consideration of modern approaches to the study of the essence of economic sustainability. It is noted that they are focused on sustainability as a status of the economic system. It is actualized that such an approach does not correspond to the system-synergetic methodology, according to which sustainability has a dualistic nature: as a status and as a property of the system to be stable. The key provisions of the traditional approach to understanding the essence of economic sustainability are systematized. Based on the productive synthesis of the system-synergetic methodology and modern achievements of the theory of strategic management, there formed the author’s conceptual approach that extends the traditional content of economic sustainability exclusively as a status. The proposed approach extends the temporal context of sustainability from the provision of a momentary state to the formation of the possibilities for the permanent functioning of an enterprise. It is argued that these opportunities are determined by the organizational ability of companies to realize their functional purpose. This changes the priority of the managerial focus: from orientation to providing material, financial and labor resources (the traditional approach to the accumulation of resources that can not be the subject of market-based sales transactions (the strategically oriented approach.

Integrating place-specific livelihood and equity outcomes into global assessments of bioenergy deployment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Creutzig, Felix; Corbera, Esteve; Bolwig, Simon

2013-01-01

-study research focused on first-generation biofuel crops to demonstrate that food, income, land and other assets such as health are key livelihood dimensions that can be impacted by such crops and we highlight how place-specific and global dynamics influence both aggregate and distributional outcomes across......Integrated assessment models suggest that the large-scale deployment of bioenergy could contribute to ambitious climate change mitigation efforts. However, such a shift would intensify the global competition for land, with possible consequences for 1.5 billion smallholder livelihoods...... these livelihood dimensions. We argue that place-specific production models and land tenure regimes mediate livelihood outcomes, which are also in turn affected by global and regional markets and their resulting equilibrium dynamics. The place-specific perspective suggests that distributional consequences...

Effect of adoption of improved cassava varieties on the livelihoods of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Over the years, the use of local varieties of cassava by farmers especially in the study area had not appreciably improved the livelihood status of the farmers. This study, therefore, examined the effects of adoption of improved cassava varieties on the livelihoods of the rural farmers in Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu ...

Translating Sustainable Forest Management from the global to the domestic sphere

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mattei Faggin, Joana; Behagel, J.H.

2017-01-01

In the context of fragmented global forest governance, Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) has gained force as a strategy to improve forest conditions and livelihood outcomes. Accordingly, SFM related ideas and norms are translated across different environmental domains, levels of governance, and

Local Sustainable Energy Assessment Report of Quang Tri in Vietnam

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Jan; Lund, Søren

The publication reports a sustainable energy assessment at the local project site of the HighARCS project in Nainital, Uttarakhand and Buxa, West Bengal, India. The assessment has been made as a contribution to the elaboration of biodiversity conservation and livelihoods improvement action plans...

Strategic Decision Making for Organizational Sustainability: The Implications of Servant Leadership and Sustainable Leadership Approaches

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Judita Peterlin

2015-12-01

Full Text Available This conceptual paper explores the implications of servant leadership and sustainable leadership for strategic decision making by the top management of an organization. It is argued that a different type of leadership is required if effective strategic decisions are to be made in organizations striving to become more sustainable and that servant leadership and sustainable leadership approaches provide a sound basis to inform these decisions. The contributions of these two leadership approaches are explored, before considering the implications for leadership development. Particularly, the inclusion in leadership development programmes of values based leadership, and the development of integrative thinking, is discussed.

Sustainable supply chain design: a configurational approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Masoumik, S Maryam; Abdul-Rashid, Salwa Hanim; Olugu, Ezutah Udoncy; Raja Ghazilla, Raja Ariffin

2014-01-01

Designing the right supply chain that meets the requirements of sustainable development is a significant challenge. Although there are a considerable number of studies on issues relating to sustainable supply chain design (SSCD) in terms of designing the practices, processes, and structures, they have rarely demonstrated how these components can be aligned to form an effective sustainable supply chain (SSC). Considering this gap in the literature, this study adopts the configurational approach to develop a conceptual framework that could configure the components of a SSC. In this respect, a process-oriented approach is utilized to classify and harmonize the design components. A natural-resource-based view (NRBV) is adopted to determine the central theme to align the design components around. The proposed framework presents three types of SSC, namely, efficient SSC, innovative SSC, and reputed SSC. The study culminates with recommendations concerning the direction for future research.

Sustainable Supply Chain Design: A Configurational Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Masoumik, S. Maryam; Raja Ghazilla, Raja Ariffin

2014-01-01

Designing the right supply chain that meets the requirements of sustainable development is a significant challenge. Although there are a considerable number of studies on issues relating to sustainable supply chain design (SSCD) in terms of designing the practices, processes, and structures, they have rarely demonstrated how these components can be aligned to form an effective sustainable supply chain (SSC). Considering this gap in the literature, this study adopts the configurational approach to develop a conceptual framework that could configure the components of a SSC. In this respect, a process-oriented approach is utilized to classify and harmonize the design components. A natural-resource-based view (NRBV) is adopted to determine the central theme to align the design components around. The proposed framework presents three types of SSC, namely, efficient SSC, innovative SSC, and reputed SSC. The study culminates with recommendations concerning the direction for future research. PMID:24523652

The Livelihood Patterns of Iran's South-western Cities in Texts of Islamic Period (10th- 15th A.D

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mohammad ebrahim zarei

2016-06-01

Full Text Available The Urbanization of Islamic period, which affected by Islamic beliefs, differed from that in Sassanid period. This research endeavors to reveal the perspective of economic atmosphere of Islamic cities in region of study subject. Such perspective has been provided by employing the documents and written historical information in Muslim geographers' books based on historical approach. Furthermore, such research  investigates not only the effect of geographical elements on the inhabitant's livelihood from 10th to 15th century with geographical dispersion of  Iran's south- western zones but also the influence of governments on economical and livelihood perspective of such cities in Islamic period. The natural, political- cultural reasons, secure commercial roads and governmental policies had a significant impact on the means of livelihood. The available geographical and historical texts have offered credible evidence of the explanation of the elements such as urbanization, agricultural, gardening, industry, trade and urban services in such period with a social perspective of such cities.

The Ri chicken breed and livelihoods in North Vietnam: characterization and prospects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pascal Leroy

2011-06-01

Full Text Available For the last twenty years, the consumption of poultry meat has boomed in Vietnam as in the rest of the developing world. Capital-intensive production has grown rapidly to satisfy this demand. Based on a few numbers of genetically uniform strains, these systems threaten biodiversity. In Vietnam, both rural and urban households still keep indigenous chickens as part of a diversified livelihood portfolio. In line with the national in situ conservation strategy, this study approached the context of local poultry keeping in two rural and one suburban districts of Northern Vietnam. It aimed at understanding households’ willingness, constraints and opportunities for practice improvement, including breeds’ management. As the Ri chicken constitutes the large majority of backyard flocks, two particular objectives of this study are the morpho-biometric characterisation of phenotypic diversity among individuals classified as Ri by farmers and an assessment of their productive potential. Chicken was found to hold a different place in livelihoods of the three districts with consequences on the management of genetic resources. The most favourable conditions for improvement of the Ri breed was found in the rural district of Luong-Son, due to market integration. In the more remote district of Ky-Son, living standards were lower and much would be gained from Ri conservation. Ri breed was the most threatened in the suburban Gia-Lam district, where poultry was a minor side-activity, lacking incentive for genetic management. From motives and constraints, tracks about breeding goals are suggested. Further considerations about conservation, improvement, market integration and livelihoods are proposed.

Local Sustainable Energy Assessment Report of the Guandong Province in China

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Jan; Lund, Søren

The publication reports a sustainable energy assessment at the local project site of the HighARCS project in Shaoguan, Guangdong Province, China. The assessment has been made as a contribution to the elaboration of biodiversity conservation and livelihoods improvement action plans. It proposes...

Lighting up the villages: Livelihood impacts of decentralized stand-alone solar photovoltaic electrification in rural northern Ghana

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Naah John-Baptist Saabado Ngmaadaba

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The dynamics of solar photovoltaic (PV technology dissemination and utilization has taken center stage in recent years on a global scale, aiming to partly address prevailing rampant energy poverty situations particularly in developing countries. This paper evaluates a flagship electrification project called Ghana Energy Development and Access Project (GEDAP. We purposively sampled 250 solar users in 65 villages across 6 districts in the Upper West region which has the country’s lowest level of electricity access and possibly the highest proportion of abject poverty among its inhabitants compared to the rest of the country. Based on the survey, it can be said that the overall impact assessment of the GEDAP-sponsored off-grid solar PV systems on the quality of life of the local beneficiaries was found to be positively marginal. Among all livelihood assets considered, social capital was markedly enhanced by the provision of modern energy services via isolated solar PV systems. Bottlenecks were identified, including limited system wattage capacity, slight dysfunction of some balance of components, higher interest rates, low technical know-how and inadequate monitoring, all of which are negatively affecting the sustainability of the project. Our findings also indicate that satisfaction derived from solar PV electricity supply among local solar customers differed for varied reasons as follows: moderately satisfied (43%, satisfied (52%, and dissatisfied (5%. For a decisive enhancement of rural livelihoods, we strongly recommend up-scaling system wattage capacity and coverage to build up new or improve upon existing livelihood assets through diversification of the income sources of the local inhabitants.

Sustainability in product development: a proposal for classification of approaches

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Patrícia Flores Magnago

2012-06-01

Full Text Available The product development is a process that addresses sustainability issues inside companies. Many approaches have been discussed in academy concerning sustainability, as Natural Capitalism, Design for Environment (DfE and Life Cycle Analysis (LCA, but a question arises: which is indicated for what circumstance? This article aim is the proposition of a classification, based on a literature review, for 15 of these approaches. The criteria were: (i approach nature, (ii organization level, (iii integration level in Product Development Process (PDP, and (iv approach relevance for sustainability dimensions. Common terms allowed the establishment of connections among the approaches. As a result the researchers concluded that, despite they come from distinct knowledge areas they are not mutually excludent, on the contrary, the approaches may be used in a complementary way by managers. The combined use of complementary approaches is finally suggested in the paper.

Rights-Based Approach: The Hub of Sustainable Development

Science.gov (United States)

Choondassery, Yesudas

2017-01-01

A rights-based approach to the environmental issues has been gaining momentum since the United Nations' Environmental Agency proposed a new rights-based agenda for sustainable development in the document, "Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development" (UN, 2015). Our moral responsibility toward the environment is…

How the sustainable livelihoods framework can contribute towards sustainable social development: where are we going?

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Murambadoro, M

2009-08-01

Full Text Available The South African constitution seeks to secure ecological sustainable development and use of natural resources while promoting justifiable economic and social development. It is important to understand how society makes use of natural resources...

Sustainable Design Approach: A case study of BIM use

Science.gov (United States)

Abdelhameed, Wael

2017-11-01

Achieving sustainable design in areas such as energy-efficient design depends largely on the accuracy of the analysis performed after the design is completed with all its components and material details. There are different analysis approaches and methods that predict relevant values and metrics such as U value, energy use and energy savings. Although certain differences in the accuracy of these approaches and methods have been recorded, this research paper does not focus on such matter, where determining the reason for discrepancies between those approaches and methods is difficult, because all error sources act simultaneously. The research paper rather introduces an approach through which BIM, building information modelling, can be utilised during the initial phases of the designing process, by analysing the values and metrics of sustainable design before going into the design details of a building. Managing all of the project drawings in a single file, BIM -building information modelling- is well known as one digital platform that offers a multidisciplinary detailed design -AEC model (Barison and Santos, 2010, Welle et.al., 2011). The paper presents in general BIM use in the early phases of the design process, in order to achieve certain required areas of sustainable design. The paper proceeds to introduce BIM use in specific areas such as site selection, wind velocity and building orientation, in terms of reaching the farther possible sustainable solution. In the initial phases of designing, material details and building components are not fully specified or selected yet. The designer usually focuses on zoning, topology, circulations, and other design requirements. The proposed approach employs the strategies and analysis of BIM use during those initial design phases in order to have the analysis and results of each solution or alternative design. The stakeholders and designers would have a better effective decision making process with a full clarity of each

Capturing the Stakeholders’ View in Sustainability Reporting: A Novel Approach

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Nicola Bellantuono

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Sustainability reporting is the process by which companies describe how they deal with their own economic, environmental, and social impacts, thus making stakeholders able to recognize the value of sustainable practices. As stressed in the Global Reporting Initiative guidelines, which act as a de facto standard for sustainability reporting, sustainable reports should take into account the stakeholders’ view. In particular, engaging stakeholders is essential to carry out the materiality analysis, by which organizations can identify their own more relevant sustainability aspects. Yet, on the one hand, the existing guidelines do not provide specific indications on how to get stakeholders actually engaged; on the other hand, research on quantitative techniques to support stakeholder engagement in materiality analysis is scarce. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is the development of a quantitative structured approach based on multi-attribute group decision-making techniques to effectively and reliably support stakeholder engagement during materiality analysis in sustainability reporting. As it more strictly guides the reporting process, the proposed approach at the same time simplifies materiality analysis and makes it more reliable. Though any company can adopt the approach, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs are expected to particularly benefit from it, due to the quite limited implementation effort that is required. With this respect, the approach has been validated on a sample of Italian SMEs belonging to different sectors.

Transboundary water resources management and livelihoods: interactions in the Senegal river

Science.gov (United States)

Bruckmann, Laurent; Beltrando, Gérard

2016-04-01

In Sub-Saharan Africa, 90 % of wetlands provide ecosystem services to societies, especially for agriculture and fishing. However, tropical rivers are increasingly regulated to provide hydroelectricity and irrigated agriculture. Modifications of flows create new hydrological conditions that affect floodplains ecology and peoples' livelihoods. In the Senegal river valley, large dams were built during the 1980's to secure water resources after a decade of water scarcity in the 1970's: Manantali in the upper basin with a reservoir of 12km3 and Diama close to estuary to avoid saltwater intrusion during dry season. Senegal river water resources are known under the supervision of Senegal River Basin Development Organization (OMVS), which defines water allocation between different goals (electricity, irrigation, traditional activities). This study, based on the concept of socio-hydrology, analyses socio-ecological changes following thirty years of dam management. The work enlightens adaptation mechanisms of livelihoods from people living along the river floodplain and feedback on water ressources. The study uses a mixed method approach, combining hydrological analyses, literature review and data collection from surveys on stakeholders and key informants level in the middle Senegal valley. Our results suggest that in all the Senegal river valley, socio-ecological changes are driven by new hydrological conditions. If dam management benefit for peoples with electrification and development of an irrigated agriculture, it has also emphasized the floodplain degradation. Flooded area has decline and are more irregular, causing an erosion of floodplain supporting services (traditional activities as fishing, grazing and flood-recession agriculture). These conditions reduce peoples' livelihood possibilities and irrigation is the only regular activity. As a feedback, irrigated agriculture increases withdrawals in the river and, recently, in aquifers posing a new uncertainty on water

Institutional Sustainability Barriers of Community Conservation Agreement as a Collaboration Management in Lore Lindu National Park

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Sudirman Daeng Massiri

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The main problem of forest institutional arrangement is the issue of institutional sustainability in achieving sustainable forest ecosystem. This study aimed to explain the barriers of institutional sustainability Community Conservation Agreement (CCA designed in Lore Lindu National Park (LLNP, in Indonesia, as a collaborative management of national parks. This study is of descriptive which used qualitative approach, i.e. asking open-ended questions, reviewing documentation and analyzing textual of community conservation agreements. We found that the institutional sustainability barriers of CCA were the local decisions on collective-choice level and that the rules at operational level arranged in CCA were not in line with formal rules of national park management at the constitutional level. Furthermore, the low capacity of local institutions in heterogeneous villages with many migrants in controlling and regulating the forest use, especially in rehabilitation zone areas, also became a barrier to institutional sustainability of CCA. Therefore, institutional sustainability of CCA requires support of national park management policy that accommodates the sustainability of livelihoods of local communities in national parks, strengthening local institution's capacity, and ultimately integrating institution of CCA as part of LLNP management.

Researching Pacific island livelihoods: mobility, natural resource management and nissology.

Science.gov (United States)

Christensen, Andreas E; Mertz, Ole

2010-01-01

Small island literature is vast in focus and aim, and is rooted in many different disciplines. The challenge is to find common grounds for researching small islands conceptually and theoretically. The aim of this article is to comment on how to research small islands, including a discussion on contemporary theories of nissology and conceptual analytical frameworks for island research. Through a review of selected case-study-based island literature on changing livelihoods coming out of the South Pacific, we wish to illustrate and discuss advantages of finding common grounds for small island studies. The focus is on two dimensions of island livelihood, migration and natural resource management, both of which are significant contributors in making island livelihoods and shaping Pacific seascapes. We argue that there is still a substantial lack of studies targeting small island dynamics that are empirical and interdisciplinary in focus and link socio-economic and ecological processes of small island societies at temporal and analytical scales.

Effectiveness of sustainable land management measures in West Usambara highlands, Tanzania

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wickama, Juma; Okoba, Barrack; Sterk, Geert|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/157276465

2014-01-01

Soil erosion is a serious problem that affects food security and social livelihoods in the highlands of East Africa. Sustainable land management (SLM) measures have been widely promoted to reduce erosion and increase crop yield, but the adoption of SLM measures has remained low. In order to

Sense making of (Social) sustainability: A behavioral and knowledge approach

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Faber, N R; Peters, K; Maruster, L; Van Haren, R; Jorna, R

2010-01-01

Although sustainability is often discussed solely in ecological terms, it cannot be disconnected from the way humans behave in their social environment. This article presents a theoretical approach toward sustainability that takes a human behavior and knowledge view on sustainability as a starting

59 Poverty Eradication and Sustainability of Healthful Living in Nigeria

African Journals Online (AJOL)

User

2010-10-17

Oct 17, 2010 ... sustainable livelihoods; hunger, and malnutrition; ill health, limited or lack of ... poverty level has changed very little over the past two decades, poverty ... recent estimate of the food and Agriculture Organization of the United ... b) the food and energy price hikes in 2007-2008 increased the global poverty.

Trends in Urbanization and Implications for Peri-Urban Livelihoods in Accra, Ghana

Science.gov (United States)

Adom, Cynthia

Urbanization is a common occurrence in both developed and developing worlds. Similar to occurrences in other developing world cities, Accra's urbanization is marked by fast, unplanned and uneven growth into mostly peripheral lands (Grant and Yankson 2002; Yeboah 2001; Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) 2002). Such trends in urbanization in places where data on the urbanization process is seriously inadequate and infrequent, (Rakodi 1997a; Ohadika 1991; Fasona and Omojola 2004) pose a major challenge to urban planning and management (Henderson 2002), and affect the livelihood base of several peri-urban households. Properly monitoring the urbanization process in the developing world and understanding its effects on people's lives depends on the availability of useful and up-to- date data (Weber and Puissant 2003; Mundia and Aniya 2006) that could be obtained using new and robust analytical techniques (Yang 2003). In addition, in the urban environment, differences in rates of urbanization, income, employment status, and gender dynamics across neighborhoods suggest that the impacts of increasing urbanization on peri-urban livelihoods are likely to vary across peoples and places. Against this backdrop, this dissertation uses Accra as a case study to, first, measures the nature and extent of urban expansion using a non-conventional technique, and then analyzes neighborhood - and gender-differentiated impacts of increasing urbanization on household livelihoods in peri-urban Accra. Study findings reveal: 1) major conversion of vegetated land to urban lands uses and support the effectiveness of the Self-Organizing Map and Landsat data to map complex and hazy urban tropical environments; 2) that the impacts of urbanization on peri-urban livelihoods are structured along the lines of neighborhood-level urbanization; changes brought by a higher rate of urbanization are more beneficial than harmful to household livelihoods; 3) that positive livelihood outcomes in high

Policing men: militarised masculinity, youth livelihoods, and security in conflict-affected northern Uganda.

Science.gov (United States)

Tapscott, Rebecca

2018-01-01

Relations between militaries and masculinities-and hegemonic masculinity and the state-are well-established in the literature on gender and development. However, there is less research on how militarised masculinities relate to state governance strategies. This paper, based on qualitative research conducted in northern Uganda between 2014 and 2017, offers a gender analysis of youths participating in informal security arrangements. Civilian male youths accept poorly paid or unpaid work in the informal security sector in the hope of gaining access to livelihoods that will enable them to fulfil masculine ideal-types. However, this arrangement denies them the resources necessary to achieve the ideal-type of civilian masculinity, as well as the state's military masculinity, which produces young men as subjects of the ruling regime. To reconfigure this relationship between civilian and militarised masculinities, one should understand informal security organisations in the context of alternative livelihood arrangements and take a long-term approach to the demilitarisation of the Ugandan state. © 2018 The Author(s). Disasters © Overseas Development Institute, 2018.

Livelihood Strategies in Shaxi, Southwest China: Conceptualizing Mountain–Valley Interactions as a Human–Environment System

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Franz K. Huber

2015-03-01

Full Text Available This paper investigates the socio-ecological differences and interactions between upland and lowland areas in Shaxi Valley, Yunnan Province, Southwest China. As an analytical tool we used an extended Human–Environment System Framework by focusing particularly on the dynamics and sustainability of livelihood strategies and mountain–valley interactions. Drawing from household surveys conducted in two mountain and two valley communities in 2005 and 2009, we show that the distinct income gap between mountain and valley households in 2005 ceased to exist in 2009. The main drivers for this development are the local tourist industry, persistent demand for forest resources, as well as local off-farm and seasonal migrant employment.

Settlement patterns and sustainability

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hendriksen, Kåre

This paper discusses settlement patterns and sustainability. Generally urbanization is recognised as an inevitable development driven by job opportunities, better service supply, education, and health services, and it is argued that this is the main driver for centralisation. Research based...... on economic and demographic studies and a large series of interviews problematize this. In Greenland the historical correlation between settlement pattern and livelihood has been decoupled, so that distributions of jobs and potential earnings to a growing extend is a consequence of political and...

Climate change, livelihoods and the multiple determinants of water adequacy: two approaches at regional to global scale

Science.gov (United States)

Lissner, Tabea; Reusser, Dominik

2015-04-01

Inadequate access to water is already a problem in many regions of the world and processes of global change are expected to further exacerbate the situation. Many aspects determine the adequacy of water resources: beside actual physical water stress, where the resource itself is limited, economic and social water stress can be experienced if access to resource is limited by inadequate infrastructure, political or financial constraints. To assess the adequacy of water availability for human use, integrated approaches are needed that allow to view the multiple determinants in conjunction and provide sound results as a basis for informed decisions. This contribution proposes two parts of an integrated approach to look at the multiple dimensions of water scarcity at regional to global scale. These were developed in a joint project with the German Development Agency (GIZ). It first outlines the AHEAD approach to measure Adequate Human livelihood conditions for wEll-being And Development, implemented at global scale and at national resolution. This first approach allows viewing impacts of climate change, e.g. changes in water availability, within the wider context of AHEAD conditions. A specific focus lies on the uncertainties in projections of climate change and future water availability. As adequate water access is not determined by water availability alone, in a second step we develop an approach to assess the water requirements for different sectors in more detail, including aspects of quantity, quality as well as access, in an integrated way. This more detailed approach is exemplified at region-scale in Indonesia and South Africa. Our results show that in many regions of the world, water scarcity is a limitation to AHEAD conditions in many countries, regardless of differing modelling output. The more detailed assessments highlight the relevance of additional aspects to assess the adequacy of water for human use, showing that in many regions, quality and

Protecting livelihoods, boosting food security in Kenya | IDRC ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

2015-05-21

May 21, 2015 ... Protecting livelihoods, boosting food security in Kenya ... livestock fodder, with important outcomes for household food security. ... and all counties have since committed funding toward scaling up successful technologies.

Approaching Environmental Sustainability: Perceptions of Self-Efficacy and Changeability.

Science.gov (United States)

Schutte, Nicola S; Bhullar, Navjot

2017-04-03

This paper describes a model focused on the role of self-efficacy and belief in changeability of behavior in motivating environmentally sustainable behavior. The model was tested in two studies. The first study found that participants who had greater self-efficacy for sustainability behavior and a greater belief in their changeability of sustainability behavior had a higher level of approach motivation toward sustainability behavior and reported more such actual behavior. The second study investigated the effect of brief interventions intended to increase perception of self-efficacy for sustainability-related purchasing and changeability of sustainability-related purchasing. The intervention that focused on enhancing self-efficacy for making sustainability-related purchases had the strongest impact on intention to purchase. These findings have implications for interventions intended to change behavior related to environmental sustainability.

The Behavior of Information Seeking and Utilizing on Livelihood among Rural Poor People

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Pawit Muhammad Yusup

2017-06-01

Full Text Available This study aims to specifically assess the behavior of the rural poor people in seeking and utilizing information about livelihoods. This study focuses on the aspects of: the type of information sought and used by the rural poor people; and the way they seek and use information about livelihood for their survivability. The method used is Schutz’s qualitative tradition of phenomenology. Data collection used techniques of in-depth interviews and participatory observation of 22 rural poor people. The research location is in southern rural part of West Java. The research result shows that, the type of livelihood information sought and used by the rural poor people, referred to the kinds of unstable jobs with the limited scope of resources and channel/media. Their way to find and use livelihood information has active and passive pattern, but still refer to the resources of unstable jobs, limited scope of the search, pattern of interpersonal relationships, and informal.

Sri Lankan livelihoods after the tsunami: searching for entrepreneurs, unveiling relations of power.

Science.gov (United States)

Kapadia, Kamal

2015-01-01

This paper analyses the performance of aid-funded livelihoods recovery efforts in Sri Lanka following the Indian Ocean tsunami of 26 December 2004, with special attention paid to the effects on the rural poor. It argues that successful livelihoods recovery was hampered by an excessive focus by aid agencies on entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship, and by the lack of a politically informed understanding of the economy. Based on ethnographic and survey-based research, the study demonstrates that the category of 'entrepreneur' is misleading for large parts of the economy. Indeed, the desire to build an entrepreneurial economy actually hampered successful livelihoods recovery in Sri Lanka and, in some cases, reinforced inequitable relations of power. The paper concludes that for livelihoods recovery programmes to be effective, they must be founded on an understanding of the relations of power that constitute the economy; these relations operate across scales, and are historically and geographically specific. © 2014 The Author(s). Disasters © Overseas Development Institute, 2014.

Integrated agriculture enhances farm productivity and livelihoods in ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

2016-04-29

Apr 29, 2016 ... Farm productivity and Livelihoods in Agro Biodiversity. Farmers in Tamil Nadu adopted locally-adapted cassava, boosting agro-biodiversity while enhancing ... Reducing post-harvest losses in South Asia's mango orchards.

An approach towards sustainable groundwater development

African Journals Online (AJOL)

To address water availability problems in a semi-arid country like South Africa, the National Water Act (RSA, 1998) proposes that specialists adopt an approach that is strategic, deliberate and dictated by socio-political reforms and socioeconomic development needs on a programmatic basis for long-term sustainability.

Sustainability and Uncertainty: Bottom-Up and Top-Down Approaches

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K. Klint Jensen

2010-04-01

Full Text Available The widely used concept of sustainability is seldom precisely defined, and its clarification involves making up one’s mind about a range of difficult questions. One line of research (bottom-up takes sustaining a system over time as its starting point and then infers prescriptions from this requirement. Another line (top-down takes an economical interpretation of the Brundtland Commission’s suggestion that the present generation’s needsatisfaction should not compromise the need-satisfaction of future generations as its starting point. It then measures sustainability at the level of society and infers prescriptions from this requirement. These two approaches may conflict, and in this conflict the top-down approach has the upper hand, ethically speaking. However, the implicit goal in the top-down approach of justice between generations needs to be refined in several dimensions. But even given a clarified ethical goal, disagreements can arise. At present we do not know what substitutions will be possible in the future. This uncertainty clearly affects the prescriptions that follow from the measure of sustainability. Consequently, decisions about how to make future agriculture sustainable are decisions under uncertainty. There might be different judgments on likelihoods; but even given some set of probabilities, there might be disagreement on the right level of precaution in face of the uncertainty.

Economic Sustainability in International Business: Peculiarities, Methods and Approaches

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Otenko Iryna Pavlivna

2016-05-01

Full Text Available This article is intended as a contribution to the ongoing analysis of economic sustainability in international business. This study is presented with a view toward further understanding and agreement of the key concepts of sustainability. Approaches to sustainability are considered, important benchmarks and essential characteristics of sustainable development in international business are included. The article demonstrates how the concept of economic sustainability can be applied to the business level. The main ideas of the most widespread concepts on resource management are presented. Incorporation of ESG and financial factors in the concept of sustainable investing is considered. Emissions that are responsible for climate change, namely top emitters, key issues and figures are presented.

Sustainable Phosphorus Measures: Strategies and Technologies for Achieving Phosphorus Security

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Stuart White

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Phosphorus underpins the world’s food systems by ensuring soil fertility, maximising crop yields, supporting farmer livelihoods and ultimately food security. Yet increasing concerns around long-term availability and accessibility of the world’s main source of phosphorus—phosphate rock, means there is a need to investigate sustainable measures to buffer the world’s food systems against the long and short-term impacts of global phosphorus scarcity. While the timeline of phosphorus scarcity is contested, there is consensus that more efficient use and recycling of phosphorus is required. While the agricultural sector will be crucial in achieving this, sustainable phosphorus measures in sectors upstream and downstream of agriculture from mine to fork will also need to be addressed. This paper presents a comprehensive classification of all potential phosphorus supply- and demand-side measures to meet long-term phosphorus needs for food production. Examples range from increasing efficiency in the agricultural and mining sector, to technologies for recovering phosphorus from urine and food waste. Such measures are often undertaken in isolation from one another rather than linked in an integrated strategy. This integrated approach will enable scientists and policy-makers to take a systematic approach when identifying potential sustainable phosphorus measures. If a systematic approach is not taken, there is a risk of inappropriate investment in research and implementation of technologies and that will not ultimately ensure sufficient access to phosphorus to produce food in the future. The paper concludes by introducing a framework to assess and compare sustainable phosphorus measures and to determine the least cost options in a given context.

Combining analytiacal frameworks to assess livelihood vulnerability to climate change and analyse adaptiation option

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Reed, M.S.; Podesta, G.; Fazey, I.; Geeson, N.; Hessel, R.; Hubacek, K.; Letson, D.; Nainggolan, D.; Prell, C.; Rickenbach, M.G.; Ritsema, C.J.; Schwilch, G.; Springer, L.C.; Thomas, A.D.

2013-01-01

Experts working on behalf of international development organisations need better tools to assist land managers in developing countries maintain their livelihoods, as climate change puts pressure on the ecosystem services that they depend upon. However, current understanding of livelihood

Protecting livelihoods, boosting food security in Kenya | IDRC ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

2015-05-21

May 21, 2015 ... Protecting livelihoods, boosting food security in Kenya ... America, and the Caribbean with funds from the Government of Canada's fast-start financing. ... Water management and food security in vulnerable regions of China.

The Livelihood Analysis in Merapi Prone Area After 2010 Eruption

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Susy Nofrita

2014-12-01

Full Text Available As stated in Regent Regulation No. 20 Year 2011 about Merapi Volcano Disaster-Prone Area, Merapi eruption in 2010 affected larger area than before included Kalitengah Lor, Kalitengah Kidul and Srunen hamlet which was now categorized as prone area zone III or the most dangerous area related to Merapi volcano hazard and was forbidden to live at. But its local people agreed to oppose the regulation and this area had been 100% reoccupied. This research examined about the existing livelihood condition in Kalitengah Lor, Kalitengah Kidul and Srunen that had been changed and degraded after 2010 great eruption. The grounded based information found that 80% of households sample were at the middle level of welfare status, meanwhile the high and low were at 13% and 7% respectively. Each status represented different livelihood strategy in facing the life in prone area with no one considered the Merapi hazard, but more economic motivation and assets preservation. The diversity in strategy was found in diversification of livelihood resources which were dominated by sand mining, farming and dairy farming.

Adaptive livelihood strategies for coping with water scarcity in the drylands of central Tanzania

Science.gov (United States)

Liwenga, Emma T.

In this paper, it is argued that local knowledge for adapting to water scarcity is important for integrated resource management by taking into consideration both the natural and social constraints in a particular setting based on accumulated experience. The paper examines the relevance of local knowledge in sustaining agricultural production in the semiarid areas of central Tanzania. The paper specifically focuses on how water scarcity, as the major limiting factor, is addressed in the study area using local knowledge to sustain livelihoods of its people. The study was conducted in four villages; Mzula, Ilolo, Chanhumba and Ngahelezi, situation in Mvumi Division in Dodoma Region. The study mainly employed qualitative data collection techniques. Participatory methods provided a means of exploring perceptions and gaining deeper insights regarding natural resource utilization in terms of problems and opportunities. The main data sources drawn upon in this study were documentation, group interviews and field observations. Group interviews involved discussions with a group of 6-12 people selected on the basis of gender, age and socio-economic groups. Data analysis entailed structural and content analysis within the adaptive livelihood framework in relation to management of water scarcity using local knowledge. The findings confirm that rainfall is the main limiting factor for agricultural activities in the drylands of Central Tanzania. As such, local communities have developed, through time, indigenous knowledge to cope with such environments utilizing seasonality and diversity of landscapes. Use of this local knowledge is therefore effective in managing water scarcity by ensuring a continuous production of crops throughout the year. This practice implies increased food availability and accessibility through sales of such agricultural products. Local innovations for water management, such as cultivation in sandy rivers, appear to be very important means of accessing

Do we need sustainability as a new approach in human factors and ergonomics?

Science.gov (United States)

Zink, Klaus J; Fischer, Klaus

2013-01-01

The International Ergonomics Association Technical Committee 'Human Factors and Sustainable Development' was established to contribute to a broad discourse about opportunities and risks resulting from current societal 'mega-trends' and their impacts on the interactions among humans and other elements of a system, e.g. in work systems. This paper focuses on the underlying key issues: how do the sustainability paradigm and human factors/ergonomics interplay and interact, and is sustainability necessary as a new approach for our discipline? Based on a discussion of the sustainability concept, some general principles for designing new and enhancing existent approaches of human factors and ergonomics regarding their orientation towards sustainability are proposed. The increasing profile of sustainability on the international stage presents new opportunities for human factors/ergonomics. Positioning of the sustainability paradigm within human factors/ergonomics is discussed. Approaches to incorporating sustainability in the design of work systems are considered.

"I don't tell my husband about vegetable sales" : gender dynamics in urban agriculture in Eldoret, Kenya

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Simiyu, R.R.

2012-01-01

Drawing on the sustainable livelihood approach, this book explores gender dynamics in urban agriculture, which is an integral part of the diversified portfolio of livelihood strategies adopted by residents of Eldoret town to cope with hard economic times. It explores the motives, needs, preferences

"I don't tell my husband about vegetable sales" : Gender aspects of urban agriculture in Eldoret, Kenya

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Simiyu, Robert Romborah

2012-01-01

Drawing on the sustainable livelihood approach, this book explores gender dynamics in urban agriculture, which is an integral part of the diversified portfolio of livelihood strategies adopted by residents of Eldoret town to cope with hard economic times. It explores the motives, needs, preferences

Oil Extraction and Indigenous Livelihoods in the Northern Ecuadorian Amazon.

Science.gov (United States)

Bozigar, Matthew; Gray, Clark L; Bilsborrow, Richard E

2016-02-01

Globally, the extraction of minerals and fossil fuels is increasingly penetrating into isolated regions inhabited by indigenous peoples, potentially undermining their livelihoods and well-being. To provide new insight to this issue, we draw on a unique longitudinal dataset collected in the Ecuadorian Amazon over an 11-year period from 484 indigenous households with varying degrees of exposure to oil extraction. Fixed and random effects regression models of the consequences of oil activities for livelihood outcomes reveal mixed and multidimensional effects. These results challenge common assumptions about these processes and are only partly consistent with hypotheses drawn from the Dutch disease literature.

Livelihoods, conflict and aid programming: is the evidence base good enough?

Science.gov (United States)

Mallett, Richard; Slater, Rachel

2016-04-01

In conflict-affected situations, aid-funded livelihood interventions are often tasked with a dual imperative: to generate material welfare benefits and to contribute to peacebuilding outcomes. There may be some logic to such a transformative agenda, but does the reality square with the rhetoric? Through a review of the effectiveness of a range of livelihood promotion interventions--from job creation to microfinance--this paper finds that high quality empirical evidence is hard to come by in conflict-affected situations. Many evaluations appear to conflate outputs with impacts and numerous studies fail to include adequate information on their methodologies and datasets, making it difficult to appraise the reliability of their conclusions. Given the primary purpose of this literature--to provide policy guidance on effective ways to promote livelihoods--this silence is particularly concerning. As such, there is a strong case to be made for a restrained and nuanced handling of such interventions in conflict-affected settings. © 2016 The Author(s). Disasters © Overseas Development Institute, 2016.

Knowledge gaps and research needs concerning agroforestry's contribution to sustainable development goals in Africa

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mbow, C.; Noordwijk, van M.; Prabhu, R.; Simons, A.J.

2014-01-01

This review addresses the role of agroforestry in the links between food security and agricultural sustainability in Africa. We illustrate that the products and services flowing from the integration of trees within farming systems can contribute to food security, farmer livelihoods and environmental

Livelihood and Rural Tourism Development in Coastal Area North Maluku Province Indonesia

Science.gov (United States)

Afrianto Singgalen, Yerik; Maxwell Simange, Silvanus

2018-05-01

The livelihood of the people who live in the villages in coastal and remote areas can be developed into tourism area based on local wisdom to achieve sustainable tourism. Tunuo village is a village that has a wealth of Natural Resources and the Cultural Resources to support tourism. Nevertheless, Tunuo Village has problems related to Human Resources to support tourism. Meanwhile, the livelihood of Tunuo Village as producers of copra have constraints, namely access to economic capital. The gain from copra sale is erratic and prone to change, it encourages people to seek income from other options to meet their needs. These economic pressures encourage the development of environmentally damaging activities, such as fishing using homemade bombs so that reefs may be damaged. There are also other activities, such as the production, distribution, and consumption of traditional liquor made from palm tree sap, locally known as Saguer. Therefore, the present tourism as a sector that could provide opportunities for the villagers of Tunuo to earn extra income as well as efforts to preserve the environment, and culture. This research was conducted in the village of Tunuo, North Kao District, North Halmahera Regency, North Maluku province, Indonesia. The method is qualitative Participatory Action Research (PAR). The results indicate that people have a desire and a strong motivation to develop, so that the process of forming the Tourism Awareness Group (Pokdarwis) and its seven charms (saptapesona) can take place properly. As of the socialization of tourism awareness, as well as capacity building seminar for Pokdarwiswould be able to mobilize the community to clean up trash on the beach and to encourage communities to develop local knowledge into a leading tourism product.

Interdisciplinary Approaches and Methods for Sustainable Transformation and Innovation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sangkyun Kim

2015-04-01

Full Text Available To increase the likelihood of success and sustainability, organizations must fundamentally reposition themselves and try to change current processes or create new products and services. One of the most effective approaches to find a solution for transformation and innovation is to learn from other domains where a solution for similar problems is already available. This paper briefly introduces the definition of and approaches to convergence of academic disciplines and industries, and overviews several representative convergence cases focusing on gamification for sustainable education, environments, and business managements.

Trade-offs and synergies between carbon storage and livelihood benefits from forest commons.

Science.gov (United States)

Chhatre, Ashwini; Agrawal, Arun

2009-10-20

Forests provide multiple benefits at local to global scales. These include the global public good of carbon sequestration and local and national level contributions to livelihoods for more than half a billion users. Forest commons are a particularly important class of forests generating these multiple benefits. Institutional arrangements to govern forest commons are believed to substantially influence carbon storage and livelihood contributions, especially when they incorporate local knowledge and decentralized decision making. However, hypothesized relationships between institutional factors and multiple benefits have never been tested on data from multiple countries. By using original data on 80 forest commons in 10 countries across Asia, Africa, and Latin America, we show that larger forest size and greater rule-making autonomy at the local level are associated with high carbon storage and livelihood benefits; differences in ownership of forest commons are associated with trade-offs between livelihood benefits and carbon storage. We argue that local communities restrict their consumption of forest products when they own forest commons, thereby increasing carbon storage. In showing rule-making autonomy and ownership as distinct and important institutional influences on forest outcomes, our results are directly relevant to international climate change mitigation initiatives such as Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) and avoided deforestation. Transfer of ownership over larger forest commons patches to local communities, coupled with payments for improved carbon storage can contribute to climate change mitigation without adversely affecting local livelihoods.

Exploration of the Barriers to Implementing Different Types of Sustainability Approaches

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Stewart, Raphaëlle Marie Marianne; Bey, Niki; Boks, Casper

2016-01-01

Integrating sustainability into business is gaining increased attention. Yet, implementing long-lasting sustainability approaches remains a complex task. Many empirical studies have identified the barriers to such implementation but the variation in challenges faced by companies, depending...... on the focus of the approach being implemented, is not addressed. The aim of this paper is i) to explore the barriers related to implementing different types of sustainability approaches and ii) to look for indications of similarities and differences across types of approaches. The research builds on data...... about the barriers, collected from a sample of twenty-two empirical studies in academic research and additional reports. The findings show that performance measurement systems and access to industry-specific information, benchmark or reference cases are common areas of difficulty across all types...

Environmental goods & services and rural livelihoods in the Congo and Brazilian Amazon

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bakkegaard, Riyong Kim

alternatives exist. Evidence has also been provided on their ability to pull people out of poverty. However an array of conservation interventions have in the past attempted to bridge the gap in achieving poverty alleviation and conservation – two of the millenium’s top priorities. Conservation and development...... on livelihoods, poverty alleviation as well as in achieving conservation goals. In a collection of five papers spanning five years of research, the dissertation presents evidence on the livelihood effects of conservation and provides insights on various points of onsideration in the equitable and efficient...... design of future conservation interventions. The first three papers deal with the livelihood aspects of conservation interventions. Paper 1 presents a new method of characterising poverty groups in the Congo, using combined measures of assets and income, and importantly how they rely on the environmental...

KARAKTERISTIK SOSIAL EKONOMI MASYARAKAT PETANI KECAMATAN BANDAR DALAM SISTEM LIVELIHOOD PEDESAAN

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M Rosyid

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Socio-economic position in terms of development generally  to see how big the level of well-being of an area where it can be seen from the potential and the resources therein. Bandar distrit is rural areas with geographical condition of the mountains and a good watering with is dominated by the agricultural sector (35% of the total areadistricts can be found that most of the people working with depends on the utilization of natural resources. Not only that the quality of human resources became milestones in the progress of development.The purpose of this research is to identify the characteristics of the social and economic conditions of society rural farmers in rural Livelihood systems associated with education, income and the type of activities to the resources in Bandar. By using a quantitative approach supported by spatial analysis has focused on the potential, problems, and the amount of ownership of community resources. In the system of Livelihood, is divided into five socio-economic livelihood assets where power access owned by Bandar Sub-district has a maximum value of human resources, subsequently followed by physical capital and natural resources capital.While the condition of two other assets that financial and social capital only has a value that is less than maximum/lower. It is characterized by a low level ofeducation, low-income family per capita income amounting to Rp. 5.399.345 per year or were under the standard earnings Batang are mostly subsistence farmers patterned or does not make the commercial fields as agriculture and lacking the proper functioning of social groups in both averaging – align the farming community are below the poverty line. Later research is expected to provide a source of information and knowledge about the patterns of resource utilization and socio economic characteristics in Bandar describing existing condition so that the country can be used as a reference and referral information to further

Enhancing agricultural productivity and rural incomes through sustainable use of natural resources in the semi arid tropics.

Science.gov (United States)

Wani, Suhas P; Dixin, Yin; Li, Zhong; Dar, William D; Chander, Girish

2012-03-30

A participatory watershed management approach is one of the tested, sustainable and eco-friendly options to upgrade rain-fed agriculture to meet growing food demand along with additional multiple benefits in terms of improving livelihoods, addressing equity issues and biodiversity concerns. Watershed interventions at study sites in Thailand (Tad Fa and Wang Chai) and India (Kothapally) effectively reduced runoff and the associated soil loss. Such interventions at Xiaoxincun (China) and Wang Chai improved groundwater recharging and availability. Enhanced productive transpiration increased rainwater use efficiency for crop production by 13-29% at Xiaoxincun; 13-160% at Lucheba (China), 32-37% at Tad Fa and 23-46% at Wang Chai and by two to five times at Kothapally. Watershed interventions increased significantly the additional net returns from crop production as compared with the pre-watershed intervention period. Increased water availability opened up options for crop diversification with high-value crops, including increased forage production and boosted livestock-based livelihoods. In dryland tropics, integrated watershed management approach enabled farmers to diversify the systems along with increasing agricultural productivity through increased water availability, while conserving the natural resource base. Household incomes increased substantially, leading to improved living and building the resilience of the community and natural resources. Copyright © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry.

Livelihoods of squatter settlements : analysis from tenure perspective

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Shrestha, Ashokkumar; Nepali, Purna; Panday, U.S.; Shrestha, Reshma

2017-01-01

Squatter settlements are inevitable in most of the urban areas. Livelihood situation of squatter settlements seem poor, vulnerable and miserable. Living condition in these settlements suffered from overcrowding, inadequate accommodation, limited access to clean water and sanitation, lack of proper

Gasification of various types of tertiary coals: A sustainability approach

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Öztürk, Murat; Özek, Nuri; Yüksel, Yunus Emre

2012-01-01

Highlights: ► Production energy by burning of coals including high rate of ash and sulfur is harmful to environment. ► Energy production via coal gasification instead of burning is proposed for sustainable approach. ► We calculate exergy and environmental destruction factor of gasification of some tertiary coals. ► Sustainability index, improvement potential of gasification are evaluated for exergy-based approach. - Abstract: The utilization of coal to produce a syngas via gasification processes is becoming a sustainability option because of the availability and the economic relevance of this fossil source in the present world energy scenario. Reserves of coal are abundant and more geographically spread over the world than crude oil and natural gas. This paper focuses on sustainability of the process of coal gasification; where the synthesis gas may subsequently be used for the production of electricity, fuels and chemicals. The coal gasifier unit is one of the least efficient step in the whole coal gasification process and sustainability analysis of the coal gasifier alone can substantially contribute to the efficiency improvement of this process. In order to evaluate sustainability of the coal gasification process energy efficiency, exergy based efficiency, exergy destruction factor, environmental destruction factor, sustainability index and improvement potential are proposed in this paper.

The effect of natural resources on a sustainable development policy: The approach of non-sustainable externalities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schilling, Markus; Chiang Lichun

2011-01-01

The debate about the importance of non-renewable resources for economic development between optimists and pessimists shows that the extensive depletion of non-renewable resources, particularly oil, along with a higher level of consumption could have a significant impact on the economic development of future generations. Based on this debate, this paper proposes criteria under which the depletion of non-renewable resources would create excess costs for future generations. Therefore, this paper aims to answer the question 'What will be the impact of the depletion of non-renewable resources on sustainable economic development?' Accordingly, a sustainable development policy appears feasible by minimizing non-sustainable externalities which derive from future externalities that weigh the benefits from a previous employment of natural resources. The research based on qualitative analysis clarifies the reasons for and the extents of taking sustainability into account as well as points to difficulties of implementing policies to time the transition towards a sustainable economic development. Finally, the research shows the implications of this approach for environmental degradation, the depletion of non-renewable resources and energy production. - Research Highlights: →Economic development will more or less smoothly switch to the use of renewable substitutes. →The transition towards a sustainable use of resources may inherit costs for future generations. →Non-sustainable externalities show the future costs of excessive resource depletion. →The approach aims to take the long-term global effects of resource substitution into account.

Testing a participatory integrated assessment(PIA) approach to select climate change adaptation actions to enhance wetland sustainability: The case of Poyang Lake region in China

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

HUANG; Li; YIN; Yongyuan; DU; De-Bin

2015-01-01

The necessity of mainstreaming climate adaptation strategies or policies into natural resource management plans has been recognized by the UNFCCC.The IPCC AR5 report suggests a growing demand for research to provide information for a deeper and more useful understanding of climate adaptation options,and indicates a lack of effective methods to meet this increasing demand of policymakers.In this respect,a participatory integrated assessment(PIA) approach is presented in this paper to provide an effective means to mainstream wetland climate change adaptation in rural sustainable development strategies,and thus to reduce climate vulnerability and to enhance rural community livelihood.The PIA approach includes a series of research activities required to assess climate impacts on wetland ecosystems,and to prioritize adaptation responses.A range of adaptation options that address key aspects of the wetland ecosystem resilience and concerns are evaluated against community based on sustainable development indicators.The PIA approach is able to identify desirable adaptation options which can then be implemented to improve wetland ecosystem health and to enhance regional sustainable development in a changing climate.For illustration purpose,the PIA was applied in a case study in Poyang Lake(PYL) region,a critical wetland and water ecosystem in central China with important international biodiversity linkages,and a locale for key policy experiments with ecosystem rehabilitation.The PIA was used to facilitate the integration of wetland climate change adaptation in rural sustainable development actions with multi-stakeholders participation.In particular,the case shows how the PIA can be designed and implemented to select effective and practical climate change adaptation options to enhance ecosystem services management and to reduce resource use conflicts and rural poverty.Worked in partnership with multi-stakeholders and assisted with a multi-criteria decision making tool

Impact of livestock in uplifting rural livelihood

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alvi, J.; Ashraf, I.; Mehmood, K.; Iftikhar, M.

2015-01-01

The global population is increasing by creating high demand for food and improved livestock and crop farming initiatives. The livestock sector plays a key role in boosting the national economy and improving the citizens' livelihoods. The study focused on the potential contribution of the livestock sector in uplifting livelihoods. Data were collected through face to face interview using interview schedule from 120 randomly selected livestock producers in Sub- District Jaranwala of District Faisalabad. Data showed that, livestock farming on small level was found widely adopted for income generation. More than 22 percentage respondents earned a maximum income of more than Rs.15000. Livestock have dominant effect on domestic needs fulfillment. Farmers were spending income on family chores, education, health and other aspects of life. Informal discussions and observation dictated the lower productivity than the potential and inadequate awareness and adoption of precise dairy farming practices. Livestock keepers demanded provision of location specific best management practices, training on livestock management and market aspects. Essential veterinary services enabling the livestock extension should be disseminated on the door step to boost productivity. (author)

The Socio-economics and Alternative Livelihood Options of Fishers ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The Socio-economics and Alternative Livelihood Options of Fishers of Lake Victoria, ... PROMOTING ACCESS TO AFRICAN RESEARCH ... Most fishers were males aged 29-38yrs while women were involved in processing and marketing.

Global change, urban livelihoods and food security; presentation

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Murambadoro, M

2012-02-01

Full Text Available Food security research and policy have focused more on the rural poor where the incidence and depth of poverty is more pronounced. Urban livelihoods are based on cash income and many people in urban areas are employed in the informal sector which...

Constraints to livelihood diversification among rural households in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Low farm productivity due to environmental degradation had made rural dwellers in Nigeria to diversify into other business besides agricultural production so as to liberate them from poverty. However, there are various challenges to livelihood diversification among the rural dwellers. This study therefore, identifies ...

Forest ecosystem services and livelihood of communities around ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

A study on the potential of forest ecosystem services to the livelihood of communities around Shume-Magamba Forest Reserve in Lushoto District, Tanzania was conducted. Questionnaire survey, focus group discussion and participant's observation were used. Qualitatively and quantitatively data were analysed using the ...

SUSTAINABLE URBAN LANDSCAPE: AN APPROACH FOR ASSESSING AND APPROPRIATING INDICATORS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ahmed Mohamed Amin

2012-07-01

Full Text Available The impact of development on its context is considered a key issue that governs the discussion and understanding of sustainability. For the reason, that ethics of sustainability are based on developing with no or less negative impacts on the contextual environment despite its urban scale whether limited or extended. This describes types of development that increase the good impacts on the tangible and intangible aspects of the built environment. Thus, achieving sustainability is no more a choice but it is a must especially, in an environment suffering from a lot of threats and stresses that affect all aspects of life; socially, economically, environmentally and also affect the beauty and aesthetics of urban fabrics. Assessing sustainability, the applied indicators and ways of assessment are allimportant concerns for urban sustainability discourses. Especially in such sensitive interacting domains as landscape, that links nature with the built environment. Approaching these concerns has a great deal when enhancing our environment aiming at better urban life containers. This paper aims at investigating the issue of sustainable urban landscape assessment through discussing the hue of indicators, their ways of classification, the criteria of selection and stating the variety of methods in which they can be assessed. Finally, it appropriates an approach for stating and assessing urban landscape sustainability indicators, which evaluates their both qualitative and quantitative value upon performance scale.

Approaches to defining deltaic sustainability in the 21st century

Science.gov (United States)

Day, John W.; Agboola, Julius; Chen, Zhongyuan; D'Elia, Christopher; Forbes, Donald L.; Giosan, Liviu; Kemp, Paul; Kuenzer, Claudia; Lane, Robert R.; Ramachandran, Ramesh; Syvitski, James; Yañez-Arancibia, Alejandro

2016-12-01

Deltas are among the most productive and economically important of global ecosystems but unfortunately they are also among the most threatened by human activities. Here we discuss deltas and human impact, several approaches to defining deltaic sustainability and present a ranking of sustainability. Delta sustainability must be considered within the context of global biophysical and socioeconomic constraints that include thermodynamic limitations, scale and embeddedness, and constraints at the level of the biosphere/geosphere. The development, functioning, and sustainability of deltas are the result of external and internal inputs of energy and materials, such as sediments and nutrients, that include delta lobe development, channel switching, crevasse formation, river floods, storms and associated waves and storm surges, and tides and other ocean currents. Modern deltas developed over the past several thousand years with relatively stable global mean sea level, predictable material inputs from drainage basins and the sea, and as extremely open systems. Human activity has changed these conditions to make deltas less sustainable, in that they are unable to persist through time structurally or functionally. Deltaic sustainability can be considered from geomorphic, ecological, and economic perspectives, with functional processes at these three levels being highly interactive. Changes in this functioning can lead to either enhanced or diminished sustainability, but most changes have been detrimental. There is a growing understanding that the trajectories of global environmental change and cost of energy will make achieving delta sustainability more challenging and limit options for management. Several delta types are identified in terms of sustainability including those in arid regions, those with high and low energy-intensive management systems, deltas below sea level, tropical deltas, and Arctic deltas. Representative deltas are ranked on a sustainability range

Citizen involvement in sustainability-centred environmental assessment follow-up

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hunsberger, Carol A.; Gibson, Robert B.; Wismer, Susan K.

2005-01-01

In Canada, many project proponents and planners in the public and private sectors are required to forecast and minimize the adverse environmental effects of their undertakings. However, environmental assessments have traditionally been weak in the areas of planning and conducting effective monitoring, encouraging public participation, integrating social and ecological considerations, encouraging environmental rehabilitation and enhancement, and examining cumulative effects of multiple projects. This paper attempts to address these deficiencies together by drawing from theory and practice in citizen-based monitoring, in the interests of sustainable livelihoods, using local knowledge. Informed by case study research in several regions of Canada, the discussion focuses on opportunities for using citizen-based approaches to broad and continuing regional monitoring as a foundation for the project-centred work that is the usual concern of environmental assessment follow-up. Such approaches have advantages beyond the usual expectations of project-centred monitoring and beyond the conventional arguments for increasing local involvement in environmental assessments. However, there are also challenges including those of integrating local and conventional (or scientific) knowledge systems, addressing concerns about the credibility and biases of citizens and project proponents, ensuring attention to broader sustainability goals such as increased stewardship and civility, and developing practical ways of coordinating and funding integrated and participatory monitoring programs. The concluding recommendations call for a dramatically different approach to follow-up activities on the part of private and public project proponents, as well as novel thinking for environmental assessment practitioners

Prosociality and proenvironmentalism as components of sustainable behavior: toward an integrated approach to sustainability education

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alexander Neaman

2015-02-01

Full Text Available The concept of sustainable development includes three interdependent and mutually reinforcing pillars: economic development, social development and environmental protection [1]. Below, we provide arguments that proenvironmentalism and prosociality are components of a broader behavior, named “sustainable behavior”. We thus suggest that traditional emphasis of environmental education on protecting and/or preserving the environment may be reinforced with prosocial education. Such a combined educational approach can promote sustainable behavior, contributing to multi- and inter-disciplinary efforts to create an ecologically, socially and perhaps even economically sustainable society. Proenvironmental behavior is defined as actions which contribute towards environmental preservation and/or conservation [2]. In turn, prosocial behavior is defined as voluntary behavior intended to benefit others or promote harmonious relationship with others [3], [4]. Previous studies demonstrate correlations between proenvironmental and prosocial behavior [5], [7]. For example, Joireman et al. [8] found an association between prosociality and the use of public transport, which has a lower impact on the environment, in comparison to the use of individual motorized transport. Furthermore, [5] and [6] empirically demonstrated that prosociality and proenvironmentalism are components of a broader behavior, which they called “sustainable behavior” since it includes actions aimed at protecting both the natural and the human (social environments. With regards to the environmental aspects of sustainability, some authors suggest that “environmental problems” are actually problems of human behavior [9]. The first definition of environmental education [10] emphasized the importance of educating the general public about taking action to solve environmental problems. Based on the in-depth analysis of [11], the main emphasis of environmental education is limited to the

Visualization of a City Sustainability Index (CSI: Towards Transdisciplinary Approaches Involving Multiple Stakeholders

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Koichiro Mori

2015-09-01

Full Text Available We have developed a visualized 3-D model of a City Sustainability Index (CSI based on our original concept of city sustainability in which a sustainable city is defined as one that maximizes socio-economic benefits while meeting constraint conditions of the environment and socio-economic equity on a permanent basis. The CSI is based on constraint and maximization indicators. Constraint indicators assess whether a city meets the necessary minimum conditions for city sustainability. Maximization indicators measure the benefits that a city generates in socio-economic aspects. When used in the policy-making process, the choice of constraint indicators should be implemented using a top-down approach. In contrast, a bottom-up approach is more suitable for defining maximization indicators because this technique involves multiple stakeholders (in a transdisciplinary approach. Using different materials of various colors, shapes, sizes, we designed and constructed the visualized physical model of the CSI to help people evaluate and compare the performance of different cities in terms of sustainability. The visualized model of the CSI can convey complicated information in a simple and straightforward manner to diverse stakeholders so that the sustainability analysis can be understood intuitively by ordinary citizens as well as experts. Thus, the CSI model helps stakeholders to develop critical thinking about city sustainability and enables policymakers to make informed decisions for sustainability through a transdisciplinary approach.

International land deals, local people's livelihood, and environment nexus (How to create win-win land deals in Ethiopia?)

Science.gov (United States)

Teklemariam Gebremeskel, Dereje; Witlox, Frank; Azadi, Hossein; Haile, Mitiku; Nyssen, Jan

2013-04-01

Following the global raise in demand for food and biofuel production, transnational companies are acquiring large scale agricultural land in developing countries such as Ethiopia. Considering land as one of the factors to be outsourced for development, the government of Ethiopia is supplying millions of hectares of land to transnational companies in the form of longterm lease. Many of the companies which engage in large scale land acquisition are of Indian, Chinese, Ethiopian diaspora, German, Malaysian, Italian, British, Dutch, Turkish, and Saudi-Arabian origin. The boom in the acquisition of farm land in the country has sparked an all-rounded debate among civil society groups, international institutions, nongovernmental organizations and independent development experts. The common reflections concerning the land deals in Ethiopia and elsewhere contain much rhetoric and hype which lack analysis of the real situation "on the ground" giving different connotations such as 'land grabbing', 'agricultural outsourcing', 'neo-colonialism', 'agrarian colonialism', and 'land underdevelopment'. However, deforestation, soil degradation, marginalization of local indigenous communities, and minimally unfair gains from investment by the host country are among the real points of concern arising out of the long term land lease contracts. Scientific evidence is lacking concerning the pragmatic impacts of large scale agricultural land acquisitions by transnational companies upon the natural environment (forest and land), local peoples' livelihood, and the contacting parties (the host country and the companies). The major objective of this study is to investigate the impacts in the context of Ethiopia, orienting to reinvent win-win land use models which constitute sustainable land use, local peoples' livelihood and the company-host country interests. To achieve this overall objective, the study employs a number of methods and methodologies constituting both qualitative and

Using Sustainability Themes and Multidisciplinary Approaches to Enhance STEM Education

Science.gov (United States)

Rogers, Michael; Pfaff, Thomas; Hamilton, Jason; Erkan, Ali

2015-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report on the Multidisciplinary Sustainability Education Project (MSEP) as a framework using sustainability-themed education modules to introduce students to the need for multidisciplinary approaches to solving twenty-first-century problems while retaining traditional course strengths and content.…

158 economic importance of farmed parkland products to livelihood

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Tersor

42.5% opined that contribution of parkland products was high to their livelihood sustenance. The other ..... mg/kg, which also helps inlow blood pressure, enhance immunity ... social importance as alkaloids, essential oils and phenolics derived ...

Participatory Resource Mapping for Livelihood Values Derived from the Forest in Ekondo-Titi Subregion, Cameroon: A Gender Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniel B. Etongo

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Increasingly, the multiplicity of products, services, and values, and the diversity of interests from different resource users and groups, is being acknowledged as vital for sustainable use. This calls for a shift from protection to sustainable use and to resource-user focus. The aim of this study is to identify the spatial occurrence of livelihood values through participatory resource mapping, their changes over time and alternatives for sustainable management. A participatory resource mapping study was conducted with local community, including important stakeholders in Ekondo-Titi subregion of Cameroon. The research technique which focused on gender revealed different patterns of forest resources and changes on the landscape. The study concludes that the importance of resources varies between men and women in Ekondo-Titi subregion of Cameroon, implying that resources may have multipurpose functions, but its exact role depends on the needs of the user groups that utilize them. The divergence of opinion on certain resources is a clear indication of preferences that are gender motivated. The study also revealed that the greatest impact of land use change is the conversion of forest land into agriculture.

The impact of a livelihood program on depressive symptoms among people living with HIV in Cambodia.

Science.gov (United States)

Shimizu, Mayumi; Yi, Siyan; Tuot, Sovannary; Suong, Samedy; Sron, Samrithea; Shibanuma, Akira; Jimba, Masamine

2016-01-01

Psychological and social problems are major concerns in this era of successful antiretroviral therapy. Although livelihood programs have been implemented extensively to improve the daily living conditions of people living with HIV in Cambodia, no studies have yet investigated the impacts of these programs on the mental health of this vulnerable population. Therefore, we examined the impact of a livelihood program on depressive symptoms and associated factors among people living with HIV in Cambodia. A quasi-experimental, nonequivalent comparison group study was conducted in six provinces of Cambodia in 2014. Data were collected from an intervention group comprising 357 people living with HIV who had participated in the livelihood program and a comparison group comprising 328 people living with HIV who had not participated in this program. Multiple logistic regression analysis was carried out to examine the association between livelihood-program participation and depressive symptoms as measured by the depressive symptoms subscale of the 25-item Cambodian version of the Hopkins Symptom Checklist. A propensity score matching was used to examine the effect of the livelihood program on depressive symptoms while controlling for selection bias. Overall, 56.0% and 62.7% of the participants in the intervention and comparison groups, respectively, met the Hopkins Symptom Checklist threshold for depressive symptoms. The multiple logistic regression analysis showed that the participants in the intervention group had significantly lower odds of having depressive symptoms (adjusted odds ratio 0.68, 95% confidence interval 0.52-0.88). The analysis from propensity score matching indicated that the livelihood program helped mitigate depressive symptoms among the participants in the intervention group (T=-1.99). The livelihood program appeared to help mitigate the burden of depressive symptoms among people living with HIV in Cambodia. Thus, this program should be scaled up and

Solar-based groundwater pumping for irrigation: Sustainability, policies, and limitations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Closas, Alvar; Rap, Edwin

2017-01-01

The increasing demand for solar-powered irrigation systems in agriculture has spurred a race for projects as it potentially offers a cost-effective and sustainable energy solution to off-grid farmers while helping food production and sustaining livelihoods. As a result, countries such as Morocco and Yemen have been promoting this technology for farmers and national plans with variable finance and subsidy schemes like in India have been put forward. By focusing on the application of solar photovoltaic (PV) pumping systems in groundwater-fed agriculture, this paper highlights the need to further study the impacts, opportunities and limitations of this technology within the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus. It shows how most policies and projects promoting solar-based groundwater pumping for irrigation through subsidies and other incentives overlook the real financial and economic costs of this solution as well as the availability of water resources and the potential negative impacts on the environment caused by groundwater over-abstraction. There is a need to monitor groundwater abstraction, targeting subsidies and improving the knowledge and monitoring of resource use. Failing to address these issues could lead to further groundwater depletion, which could threaten the sustainability of this technology and dependent livelihoods in the future. - Highlights: • Solar pumping projects require assessing environmental and financial sustainability. • Subsidies for solar pumping need to be tied to groundwater pumping regulations. • Solar irrigation projects need to consider groundwater availability and depletion. • Data and monitoring are needed to improve water resource impact assessments.

How the uncertain outcomes associated with aquatic and land resource use affect livelihood strategies in coastal communities in the Central Moluccas, Indonesia

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Oostenbrugge, van J.A.E.; Densen, van W.L.T.; Machiels, M.A.M.

2004-01-01

Management of tropical fisheries often fails because of a limited sectoral approach that disregards the livelihoods of small-scale fishermen. Fishermen are viewed as specialists, although many fisheries cannot provide an income that is large and stable enough to allow for such specialisation. The

Biocultural approaches to well-being and sustainability indicators across scales

Science.gov (United States)

Eleanor J. Sterling; Christopher Filardi; Anne Toomey; Amanda Sigouin; Erin Betley; Nadav Gazit; Jennifer Newell; Simon Albert; Diana Alvira; Nadia Bergamini; Mary Blair; David Boseto; Kate Burrows; Nora Bynum; Sophie Caillon; Jennifer E. Caselle; Joachim Claudet; Georgina Cullman; Rachel Dacks; Pablo B. Eyzaguirre; Steven Gray; James Herrera; Peter Kenilorea; Kealohanuiopuna Kinney; Natalie Kurashima; Suzanne Macey; Cynthia Malone; Senoveva Mauli; Joe McCarter; Heather McMillen; Pua’ala Pascua; Patrick Pikacha; Ana L. Porzecanski; Pascale de Robert; Matthieu Salpeteur; Myknee Sirikolo; Mark H. Stege; Kristina Stege; Tamara Ticktin; Ron Vave; Alaka Wali; Paige West; Kawika B. Winter; Stacy D. Jupiter

2017-01-01

Monitoring and evaluation are central to ensuring that innovative, multi-scale, and interdisciplinary approaches to sustainability are effective. The development of relevant indicators for local sustainable management outcomes, and the ability to link these to broader national and international policy targets, are key challenges for resource managers, policymakers, and...

Gender differentials in sweetpotato production on the livelihood ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This study was conducted to analyse the determinants of sweetpotato production on the livelihood strategies of the male and female sweetpotato producers in Ebonyi State. A multi-stage randomized sampling procedure was used to collect cross sectional data in 2014. Data collected from 120 Sweetpotato producers were ...

Livelihood after Relocation—Evidences of Guchchagram Project in Bangladesh

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bishawjit Mallick

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Due to climate change and its consequences to islands and coastal countries, the relocation of the people living in those vulnerable places has received a lot of attention from policy makers as well as academicians. There have been similar kinds of programs running in Bangladesh since the country’s independence in 1971, and people who are landless or victimized due to river bank erosion, cyclones, or floods have been relocated under the umbrella program called ‘Guchchagram’, i.e., cluster villages. Different ruling parties had used different names for the project due to the financial nature of the project, but none of them have significantly differed from the overall goals and objectives of relocated settlements and the betterment of the landless and extreme event victims. Particularly, this study asks how and to what extent the livelihood of relocated households has changed, and what the potentials and constraints of the relocated settlements are. Based on an empirical study at four Guchchagrams of Gopalganj Sadar Upazila, the study shows that there is a significant improvement in the livelihood conditions of the migrated people, but the locational disadvantages and access to agricultural production, the local employment market, and some of the targeted objectives of the project have not achieved. To some extent, the rehabilitated families have similar risks as they had before; however, available agricultural lands and proper allocation can reduce such livelihood risks.

Re-Linking Governance of Energy with Livelihoods and Irrigation in Uttarakhand, India

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stephanie Buechler

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Hydropower is often termed “green energy” and proffered as an alternative to polluting coal-generated electricity for burgeoning cities and energy-insecure rural areas. India is the third largest coal producer in the world; it is projected to be the largest coal consumer by 2050. In the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, India, over 450 hydroelectric power schemes are proposed or are under development. Hydropower projects ranging from micro hydro (run-of-the-river systems with generating capacity up to 100 kW to large reservoirs (storage systems up to 2000 MW such as the Tehri Dam are in various stages of planning, construction or implementation. Run-of-the-river hydropower projects are being developed in Uttarakhand in order to avoid some of the costs to local communities created by large dams. Stakeholders in this rapid hydropower expansion include multiple actors with often diverging sets of interests. The resulting governance challenges are centered on tradeoffs between local electricity and revenue from the sale of hydropower, on the one hand, and the impacts on small-scale irrigation systems, riparian-corridor ecosystem services, and other natural resource-based livelihoods, on the other. We focus on the Bhilangana river basin, where water dependent livelihoods differentiated by gender include farming, fishing, livestock rearing and fodder collection. We examine the contradictions inherent in hydropower governance based on the interests of local residents and other stakeholders including hydropower developers, urban and other regional electricity users, and state-level policymakers. We use a social justice approach applied to hydropower projects to examine some of the negative impacts, especially by location and gender, of these projects on local communities and then identify strategies that can safeguard or enhance livelihoods of women, youth, and men in areas with hydropower projects, while also maintaining critical ecosystem services

Impacts of flood on children and adults’ health and ways to sustainable development

Science.gov (United States)

Mohamed, S.; Ebenehi, I. Y.; Adaji, A.; Seow, T. W.; Chan, N. W.; Goh, K. C.; Rahim, M. H. I. Abd

2017-11-01

One of the events that will remain fresh in the minds of Kelantanese is the 2014 massive flood that occurred at the end of that year. Heavy rains fell initiating vast flooding in most areas of Kelantan leading to great destruction of livelihood of local communities. Natural hazard such as floods are not only caused by natural processes but also by human activities. The flood recorded severe fatalities, injuries and exposed many vulnerable to diseases. This paper through critical review of literature considered the long-term impact of floods on human’s health as the effects could meaningfully contribute to the worldwide burden of disease. Also, its outcomes are relentless hence need to be adequately comprehended and addressed through sustainability. This study revealed vulnerability to flood inclined ailments as psychological distress in the survivors is liable for a quota of all physical ailments. Hence, sustainable approach to flood preparedness and prevention is instantly needed. Accolades should be given to the Malaysian government for taken bold steps in that direction in recent time but success will be achieved if implementation is in compliance with sustainability agenda spelt in the New Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030.

Smart City for a Sustainable Future: Is Delhi Ready?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anindita Roy Saha

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Cities are the geographic nodes around which people gather for their livelihood activities. Various factors like resources, technology, education, medical innovations and environmental developments have shaped modern cities. However, with rapid urbanization and population growth, many cities are facing the problems of degradation, pollution, diseases and a poor quality of life. The major challenges before the urban growth centers have necessitated the formation of smart cities. Sustainable future of a city lies in the development of transport, infrastructure, environment, energy, ICT and people with a sustainability approach. The Government of India has launched a scheme to create hundred smart cities across the country, among which the National Capital of Delhi is a frontrunner. This paper attempts to study the existing infrastructure and facilities in Delhi in order to assess its readiness to be a smart city. It also attempts to analyze the citizens’ perception about Delhi as a smart city through a primary survey. Although there are limitations in the current scenario of economic and environmental performances and people’s perceptions, Delhi makes a strong case for becoming a smart city.

Linking rural community livelihoods to resilience building in flood risk reduction in Zimbabwe

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Patrick Gwimbi

2009-04-01

Full Text Available The increasing occurrence of disastrous flooding events and the mounting losses in both life and property values in Zimbabwe have drawn attention to the flooding situation in the country, especially the rural areas. This article explores the resilience of vulnerable rural communities to flood risks associated within increasingly frequent and severe events linked to climate change. Starting by reviewing the current literature on rural livelihoods, resilience and vulnerability research, the paper argues for a coordinated teamwork approach in flood risk mitigation in rural areas. The paper concludes with several recommendations for enhanced resilience to flood hazards.

Beyond (eco)design : Current approaches to sustainable packaging design

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wever, R.

2014-01-01

Packaging has always received a lot of attention within the field of design for sustainability. The classical approach has been to mainly focus on reducing the impact of the packaging. This approach stems from the ill-informed position that packaging is superfluous, or at best there only for

Poverty reduction through alternative livelihoods in Botswana\\'s ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

According to the study, there are several livelihood options available in the desert margins of Botswana, but communities fail to exploit these due to a number of constraints such as poor access to financial credit, lack of awareness of potential income earners such as eco-tourism, insufficient knowledge and technical ...

The Concept Of A Sustainable Approach To Corporate Real Estate Management

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ziemba Ewa

2015-12-01

Full Text Available This paper is conceptual in nature and presents the assumptions of a holistic approach to corporate real estate management. The approach is based on the imperative of sustainability, which has become a determinant of the proposed Sustainable Corporate Real Estate Management (SCREM model. Moreover, the authors indicate that in addition to the presence of the sustainability imperative, corporate real estate management requires the integration and formalization of knowledge about the concepts of corporate real estate management (CREM with those of corporate social responsibility (CSR. This approach is intended to enable the identification and improvement of real estate management processes and, as a result, contribute to more efficient and effective corporate real estate management and continuous and flexible development of enterprises, as well as boosting economic growth and building prosperity for present and future generations.

The Psychology of Sustainable Seafood Consumption: A Comprehensive Approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Richter, Isabel G M; Klöckner, Christian A

2017-09-28

This paper discusses conceptual confusions of sustainable seafood consumption, practical challenges, and potential anchors from where this behaviour can be fostered. The main focus lies on psychological variables. The resulting framework comprises (1) a definition of sustainable seafood consumption, (2) suggestions for corresponding behaviours, (3) the identification of facilitating and hindering factors, (4) an assemblage of these factors into a theoretical model, and (5) a short discussion of how the model adds up value to the current state of the art in marine resource conservation. Behavioural models significantly contribute to behavioural change research. The originality and value of this research are that it tackles the so far relatively neglected field of sustainable seafood consumption as important part of sustainable development and marine conservation in the future. From an interventional perspective, the developed model facilitates the identification of contact points to approach consumers and disseminate sustainable seafood consumption among modern Western consumers.

Livelihood assets and poverty nexus: a case study from rainfed pothwar area of pakistan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zahra, N.; Shah, H.; Khan, M.A.; Zubair, M.

2014-01-01

The present paper is based on primary data collected from a sample of 40 households arround watershed project site at Fateh Jang in Pothwar region. The inter-linkage of livelihood assets and poverty is determined by employing poverty score card technique. The poverty status of household was highly correlated with the livelihood sources (P<0.01), water availability for irrigation (P<0.10) and tenancy status (P<0.05). The results regarding poverty revealed that 2.50% of the sampled households were chronically poor, 5.0% transitory poor, 37.5% transitory vulnerable, 32.5% transitory non- poor and 22.5% was non-poor. Most of the sampled households fall along the transition line which implies their vulnerability to be trapped in poverty due to any shock. Beside other assets, even small scale irrigation was significant and an effective tool to improve income. Therefore along with improvement in irrigation practice through using high efficiency irrigation systems, other water harvesting techniques being demonstrated in the watershed project could also improve livelihood in the area. Better utilization of available resources would also improve livelihood and decrease poverty in the area. (author)

Food and Livelihood Security in Punjab through Water, Energy and ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Food and Livelihood Security in Punjab through Water, Energy and Agricultural Management ... management and facilitating access to resources by low-income farmers. ... Sharing opportunities for innovation in climate change adaptation.

An integrated framework to assess plausible future livelihood and poverty changes in deltas: an application to coastal Bangladesh

Science.gov (United States)

Lázár, A. N.; Payo, A.; Nicholls, R. J.; Hutton, C.; Adams, H.; Salehin, M.; Haque, A.; Clarke, D.; Bricheno, L.; Fernandes, J. A.; Rahman, M.; Ahmed, A.; Streatfield, P. K.

2015-12-01

Deltas represent one of the most densely populated areas in the world. This is especially true for the coastal zone of Bangladesh where more than a thousand people live in each square kilometre of land. Livelihoods, food security and poverty in Bangladesh are strongly dependent on natural resources affected by several factors including climate variability and change, upstream river flow modifications, commercial fish catches in the Bay of Bengal, and engineering interventions such as polderisation. The scarcity of fresh water, saline water intrusion and natural disasters (e.g. river flooding, cyclones and storm surges) have negative impact on drinking water availability and crop irrigation potential; thus severely affect land use and livelihood opportunities of the coastal population. Hydro-environmental changes can be especially detrimental for the well-being of the poorest households that are highly dependent on natural resources. The ESPA Deltas project aims to holistically examine the interaction between the coupled bio-physical environment and the livelihoods of these poor populations in coastal Bangladesh. Here we describe a new integrated model that allows the long-term analysis of the possible changes in this system by linking projected changes in physical processes (e.g. river flows, nutrients), with productivity (e.g. fish, rice), social processes (e.g. access, property rights, migration) and governance/management (e.g. fisheries, agriculture, water and land use management). This integrated approach is designed to provide Bangladeshi policy makers with science-based evidence of possible development trajectories within the coastal delta plain over timescales up to 50 years, including the likely robustness of different governance options on natural resource conservation and poverty levels. This presentation describes the model framework and aims to illustrate the cause-effect relationship in-between changes of the hydro-environment and the livelihoods and

‘Even fish have an ethnicity’: livelihoods and identities of men and women in war-affected coastal Trincomalee, Sri Lanka

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lokuge, Gayathri Hiroshani Hallinne

2017-01-01

Located within the nexus between identity and livelihoods, this thesis explores how the economic activities of fisher livelihoods are shaped by socio-cultural, political and identity dynamics, and how fisher livelihoods, in turn, shape and reproduce these dynamics in post-war Sri Lanka’s coastal

Engineering Sustainability: A Technical Approach to Sustainability

OpenAIRE

Rosen, Marc A.

2012-01-01

Sustainability is a critically important goal for human activity and development. Sustainability in the area of engineering is of great importance to any plans for overall sustainability given 1) the pervasiveness of engineering activities in societies, 2) their importance in economic development and living standards, and 3) the significant impacts that engineering processes and systems have had, and continue to have, on the environment. Many factors that need to be considered and appropriate...

Cork Design : A Design Action Intervention Approach Towards Sustainable Product Innovation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mestre, A.C.C.M.

2014-01-01

The study Cork Design: A Design Action Intervention Approach Towards Sustainable Product Innovation comprises the systematic implementation of sustainable product innovation within the Portuguese cork sector, through action research. Cork is a natural, recyclable, non-toxic, and renewable resource,

Perceptions on climate change and its impact on livelihoods in Hwange district, Zimbabwe

OpenAIRE

Charles Nhemachena; Reneth Mano; Shakespear Mudombi; Virginia Muwanigwa

2014-01-01

This study investigated perceptions of rural communities on climate change and its impacts on livelihoods. The research was conducted in the semi-arid Hwange district in Matebelel and North province of Zimbabwe. The perceptions were compared with empirical evidence from climatic studies on trends on temperature and rainfall, and impacts on livelihoods in the country and region. The findings from the current study are generally in agreement with those of other studies that indicate changes in ...

Supporting the Establishment of Climate-Resilient Rural Livelihoods in Mongolia with EO Services

Science.gov (United States)

Grosso, Nuno; Patinha, Carla; Sainkhuu, Tserendash; Bataa, Mendbayar; Doljinsuren, Nyamdorj

2016-08-01

The work presented here shows the results from the project "Climate-Resilient Rural Livelihoods in Mongolia", included in the EOTAP (Earth Observation for a Transforming Asia Pacific) initiative, a collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), developed in cooperation with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture of Mongolia.The EO services developed within this EOTAP project primarily aimed at enriching the existing environmental database maintained by the National Remote Sensing Center (NRSC) in Mongolia and sustaining the collaborative pasture management practices introduced by the teams within the Ministry of Food and Agriculture of Mongolia. The geographic area covered by the EOTAP services is Bayankhongor province, in western Mongolia region, with two main services: drought monitoring at the provincial level for the year 2014 and Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) and changes mapping for three districts of this province (Buutsagaan, Dzag and Khureemaral) for the years 2013, 2014.

Keeping goats or going north? Enhancing livelihoods of smallholder goat farmers through brucellosis control in Mexico

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Oseguera Montiel, D.

2014-01-01

Smallholder Mexican farmers are embedded in an adverse context, due to neoliberal globalization policies, which threatens their livelihoods, and has caused an unprecedented surge of migration to the US. Keeping goats is one strategy to diversify livelihoods. Goat husbandry is dairy oriented and

Planning livelihood cohesion for agrarian Tsunami victims | Newport ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The paper highlights the need for adequate livelihood planning for agrarian Tsunami victims in Tamil Nadu are of India. It looks at the reason why the inhabitants of the area were affected by the disaster especially as they are around the coastal plains, which experience periodic monsoon. The recent tsunami devastated the ...

CONTRIBUTION OF URBAN VEGETABLE PRODUCTION TO FARMERS' LIVELIHOOD: A CASE OF THE KUMASI METROPOLIS OF ASHANTI REGION OF GHANA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Solomon Kodjo DARKEY

2014-04-01

Full Text Available The number of urban poor is rapidly increasing as urban population grows. Urban vegetable production is therefore a response to the available market demand and the challenges of unemployment and food insecurity resulting from the urbanisation. The study examined the contribution of urban vegetable production to farmers’ livelihoods in the Kumasi Metropolis of Ashanti Region of Ghana. Descriptive survey design was used for the study. Based on a simple random sampling technique, 300 urban vegetable farmers were selected and interviewed. Cronbach alpha coefficient values showed high reliability and consistency of the farmers’ livelihood subscales. The study that the contribution of urban vegetable production to farmers’ livelihoods differed significantly regarding different livelihood subscales (ANOVA. Post-hoc multiple comparisons test (Dunnett’s T3 result revealed that the contribution of urban vegetable production to farmers’ mean livelihoods was generally ‘low’. However, it contributed ‘moderately high’ to their natural and physical capitals. The strength of association between farmers’ mean livelihood subscales also showed that urban vegetable production impacted differently and significantly on their livelihoods. It is recommended that Farmer Based Organisations (FBOs should be formed to help empower and protect farmers’ from the exploitation of prospective buyers. It would also help address common challenges confronting members including high input cost, lack of credit facilities and inadequate marketing avenues.

The differential impact of microcredit on rural livelihoods: Case study from Ethiopia

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Aschale Dagnachew Siyoum

2012-12-01

Full Text Available This paper examines the differential impact of credit on rural Ethiopian households. Though credit is generally expected to have a positive impact on household livelihoods, this paper argues that credit affects households differently depending on wealth. Results show that credit failed to enable poor households to move out of poverty and food insecurity, whereas better-off and labour rich households used credit to improve their livelihoods. For poor households, rather than achieving long-term livelihood improvements, access to credit only means short-term consumption smoothing with a risk of being trapped into a cycle of indebtedness. Participation in a safety net programme could, to some extent, break through this cycle, because such participation enhanced the credit-worthiness of poor households. The paper is based on ethnographic research, including a survey of 106 households,and a series of monthly in-depth interviews with a group of 15 households in the district of Ebinat, northern Ethiopia, over an 18-month period, from February 2009 to July 2010.

Livelihood analysis of floating net cages fish farmers at Sendang Village Sub-district of Gajah Mungkur Reservoir of Wonogiri Regency

Science.gov (United States)

Nissa, Z. N. A.; Suadi; Sukardi

2018-03-01

Floating net cages farming (KJA) is one of the main livelihood resources in Sendang Village, Gajah Mungkur Reservoir. The purposes of this study were to determine the livelihood asset of fish farmers, the problems of livelihood asset management and the utilization strategy to support aquaculture businesses also farmers livelihood. The study showed that the natural capital, provides easiest way to farmer in fish cultivation. The fish farmers also have good technical capabilities in fish cultivation and the product has high demand and value which is essential for farmers livelihood. The main problems faced by small-scale farmers and all large-scale farmers were transition period, and the rise of cost price which sometime cause the failure in the business. The strategies to deal the problems include technological adjustment, managing the pattern of stocking of tilapia seeds and income source diversification. There were differences in dealing the rise of cost. The small-scale farmers borrow from the bank, while medium-scale farmers use their savings. Another difference of livelihood strategy was the management of financial capital. However, various strategies were still required to increase the livelihood of fish farmers and could address the vulnerabilities in the cultivation of KJA as a common pool resources.

Multiple strategies for resilient livelihoods in communal areas of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The cash and non-cash benefits derived from livestock, as well as the wide range of secondary resources harvested from communal rangelands, make an important contribution to livelihood diversification and, hence, resilience. Rural development policy should therefore not focus narrowly on commercialisation of livestock ...

Contribution of wetland agriculture to farmers' livelihood in Rwanda

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nabahungu, N.L.; Visser, S.M.

2011-01-01

This study analyzes factors that contribute to the livelihood of smallholder farmers living in the vicinity of the Cyabayaga and Rugeramigozi wetlands. Three tools were used: 1) focus group discussion 2) formal surveys and 3) Monitoring for Quality Improvement (MONQI). Farming systems in wetlands

Institutional Interplay in Natural Resources Governance: Toward a Sub-Sectoral Approach for Medicinal Plants Management in Bangladesh

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. K. M. Shahidullah

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Recognizing the significance of medicinal plants for rural livelihoods and primary healthcare, this paper attempted to analyze institutional interplays in medicinal plants management in Bangladesh. It assessed the governing process of natural resources by identifying cross-scale linkages of the institutions involved with managing medicinal plants. The study intended to delineate the interactional patterns and dynamics between existing formal and informal organizations toward exploring prospects of new medicinal plants governance institutions. Employing case study and participatory approaches to empirical field investigation, two intervention cases of the Livelihood and Agro-Forestry (LEAF and Sustainable Environmental Management Program (SEMP were assessed in two different social-ecological settings of the country. Involving 45 respondents in each site, Focus Group Discussions were carried out, and a total of 26 Key Informants were interviewed. The findings have revealed that undefined roles and responsibilities, inadequate coordination, and weak linkages among the cross-scale institutions resulted in ineffective management and relatively poor performance. Institutions with direct or indirect involvement in the process of managing medicinal plants interacted haphazardly, without much focus on the subsector and its local producers. Addressing the weaknesses, this study calls for formulating a national sub-sectoral approach focusing on strengthening and sustaining local producers and value addition to producer levels. Finally, this research offers a framework for developing a multi-stakeholder forum to govern medicinal plant resources coherently and effectively in Bangladesh.

Strengthening Rural Livelihoods : The Impact of Information and ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

20 sept. 2011 ... Strengthening Rural Livelihoods dresse un bilan utile et équilibré de l'influence que les téléphones mobiles et Internet peuvent avoir sur le soutien des moyens de subsistance des populations rurales, et notamment des agriculteurs en Asie. Tim Unwin, titulaire de la chaire UNESCO en TIC pour le ...

Integrated assessment of social and environmental sustainability dynamics in the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta, Bangladesh

Science.gov (United States)

Nicholls, R. J.; Hutton, C. W.; Lázár, A. N.; Allan, A.; Adger, W. N.; Adams, H.; Wolf, J.; Rahman, M.; Salehin, M.

2016-12-01

Deltas provide diverse ecosystem services and benefits for their populations. At the same time, deltas are also recognised as one of the most vulnerable coastal environments, with a range of drivers operating at multiple scales, from global climate change and sea-level rise to deltaic-scale subsidence and land cover change. These drivers threaten these ecosystem services, which often provide livelihoods for the poorest communities in these regions. The imperative to maintain ecosystem services presents a development challenge: how to develop deltaic areas in ways that are sustainable and benefit all residents including the most vulnerable. Here we present an integrated framework to analyse changing ecosystem services in deltas and the implications for human well-being, focussing in particular on the provisioning ecosystem services of agriculture, inland and offshore capture fisheries, aquaculture and mangroves that directly support livelihoods. The framework is applied to the world's most populated delta, the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna Delta within Bangladesh. The framework adopts a systemic perspective to represent the principal biophysical and socio-ecological components and their interaction. A range of methods are integrated within a quantitative framework, including biophysical and socio-economic modelling and analyses of governance through scenario development. The approach is iterative, with learning both within the project team and with national policy-making stakeholders. The analysis is used to explore physical and social outcomes for the delta under different scenarios and policy choices. We consider how the approach is transferable to other deltas and potentially other coastal areas.

Sustainable Approach to Wastewater Management in the Federal ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

As population grows and urbanization increases, more wastewater is generated and there is great awareness on the health and environmental implication of poorly disposed wastewater. This research work develops a sustainable approach to wastewater disposal in the Federal University of Technology, Akure. The existing ...

Small-Scale Farming in Semi-Arid Areas: Livelihood Dynamics between 1997 and 2010 in Laikipia, Kenya

Science.gov (United States)

Ulrich, Anne; Speranza, Chinwe Ifejika; Roden, Paul; Kiteme, Boniface; Wiesmann, Urs; Nusser, Marcus

2012-01-01

The rural population of semi-arid lands in Kenya face multiple challenges that result from population growth, poor markets, land use and climatic changes. In particular, subsistence oriented farmers face various risks and opportunities in their attempt to secure their livelihoods. This paper presents an analysis on how livelihood assets and…

An integrated framework to assess future livelihood and poverty changes in deltas: an application to coastal Bangladesh

Science.gov (United States)

Nicholls, Robert J.; Lazar, Attlia; Payo, Andres; Adams, Helen; Salehin, Mashfiqus; Haque, Anisul; Clarke, Derek; Bricheno, Lucy; Fernandes, Jose; Rahman, Mofizur; Ahmed, Ali; Streatfield, Kim

2016-04-01

Coastal deltas represent some of the most densely populated areas in the world. A good example is the coastal zone of Bangladesh where there are more than 1000 people/km2 in the rural areas. Livelihoods, food security and poverty in this area is strongly dependent on natural resources affected by several factors including climate variability and change, upstream river flow modifications, commercial fish catches in the Bay of Bengal, and engineering interventions such as polderisation. The scarcity of fresh water, saline water intrusion and natural disasters (e.g. river flooding, cyclones and storm surges) have negative impact on drinking water availability and crop irrigation potential. This severely affects land use and livelihood opportunities of the coastal population. Hydro-environmental changes can be especially detrimental for the well-being of the poorest households that are highly dependent on natural resources. The ESPA Deltas project aims to holistically examine the interaction between the coupled bio-physical environment and the livelihoods of these poor populations in coastal Bangladesh. Here we describe a new integrated model that allows the long-term analysis of the possible changes in this system by linking projected changes in physical processes (e.g. river flows, nutrients), with productivity (e.g. fish catches, rice production), social processes (e.g. access, property rights, migration) and governance/management (e.g. fisheries, agriculture, water and land use management). This includes the development and application of a range of scenarios, including expert-derived scenarios on issues such as climate change, and stakeholder-derived scenarios on more local issues in Bangladesh. This integrated approach is designed to provide Bangladeshi policy makers with science-based evidence of possible development trajectories within the coastal delta plain over timescales up to 50 years, including the likely robustness of different governance options on

Nuclear Weapons Enterprise Transformation - A Sustainable Approach

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

O'Brien, K H

2005-01-01

Nuclear weapons play an essential role in United States (U.S.) National Security Policy and a succession of official reviews has concluded that nuclear weapons will continue to have a role for the foreseeable future. Under the evolving U.S. government policy, it is clear that role will be quite different from what it was during the Cold War. The nuclear-weapons stockpile as well as the nuclear-weapons enterprise needs to continue to change to reflect this evolving role. Stockpile reductions in the early 1990s and the Stockpile Stewardship Program (SSP), established after the cessation of nuclear testing in 1992, began this process of change. Further evolution is needed to address changing security environments, to enable further reductions in the number of stockpiled weapons, and to create a nuclear enterprise that is cost effective and sustainable for the long term. The SSP has successfully maintained the U.S. nuclear stockpile for more than a decade, since the end of nuclear testing. Current plans foresee maintaining warheads produced in the 1980s until about 2040. These warheads continue to age and they are expensive to refurbish. The current Life Extension Program plans for these legacy warheads are straining both the nuclear-weapons production and certification infrastructure making it difficult to respond rapidly to problems or changes in requirements. Furthermore, refurbishing and preserving Cold-War-era nuclear weapons requires refurbishing and preserving an infrastructure geared to support old technology. Stockpile Stewardship could continue this refurbishment approach, but an alternative approach could be considered that is more focused on sustainable technologies, and developing a more responsive nuclear weapons infrastructure. Guided by what we have learned from SSP during the last decade, the stewardship program can be evolved to address this increasing challenge using its computational and experimental tools and capabilities. This approach must start

Application of Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping in Livelihood Vulnerability Analysis

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Murungweni, C.; Wijk, van M.T.; Andersson, J.A.; Smaling, E.M.A.; Giller, K.E.

2011-01-01

Feedback mechanisms are important in the analysis of vulnerability and resilience of social-ecological systems, as well as in the analysis of livelihoods, but how to evaluate systems with direct feedbacks has been a great challenge. We applied fuzzy cognitive mapping, a tool that allows analysis of

Better resilience to disasters and improved livelihoods on South ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

2016-04-29

Apr 29, 2016 ... Research supported by IDRC and the former Canadian International Development Agency (now part of Global Affairs Canada) has increased the resilience of poor coastal communities in India and Sri Lanka to natural disasters and improved livelihoods. Carried out by the MS Swaminathan Research ...

A Risk Management Approach for a Sustainable Cloud Migration

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alifah Aida Lope Abdul Rahman

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Cloud computing is not just about resource sharing, cost savings and optimisation of business performance; it also involves fundamental concerns on how businesses need to respond on the risks and challenges upon migration. Managing risks is critical for a sustainable cloud adoption. It includes several dimensions such as cost, practising the concept of green IT, data quality, continuity of services to users and clients, guarantee tangible benefits. This paper presents a risk management approach for a sustainable cloud migration. We consider four dimensions of sustainability, i.e., economic, environmental, social and technology to determine the viability of cloud for the business context. The risks are systematically identified and analysed based on the existing in house controls and the cloud service provider offerings. We use Dempster Shafer (D-S theory to measure the adequacy of controls and apply semi-quantitative approach to perform risk analysis based on the theory of belief. The risk exposure for each sustainability dimension allows us to determine the viability of cloud migration. A practical migration use case is considered to determine the applicability of our work. The results identify the risk exposure and recommended control for the risk mitigation. We conclude that risks depend on specific migration case and both Cloud Service Provider (CSP and users are responsible for the risk mitigation. Inherent risks can evolve due to the cloud migration.

MULTI-CRITERIA APPROACH FOR DESIGNING SUSTAINABLE DRAINAGE IN MALANG RESIDENTIAL AREA INDONESIA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

HAPSARI Ratih Indri

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Environmentally sound approach for sustainable urban drainage could promote infiltration and lower the risk of flooding. This study presents the framework to evaluate the drainage alternatives considering multiple aspects including water quantity, life cycle cost and amenity. This approach is verified through application at a residential area in Malang city Indonesia. Different combinations of drainage components comprising of drainage channels, infiltration wells and biopore absorption holes are assessed regarding runoff reduction, present value of life cycle cost, and willingness to pay for the convenience. The first part describes the effective designs of sustainable drainage components in the houses as well as in the public spaces of the housing. The second part of this study describes the use of analytic hierarchy process for weight assignment of sustainability criteria and multiple benefit calculation. The study recommends infiltration wells and biopore absorption holes together with drainage channels as the best management practice of sustainable drainage system based on its overall sustainability index.

Role of Forest Resources to Local Livelihoods: The Case of East Mau Forest Ecosystem, Kenya

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

D. K. Langat

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Forests in Kenya are threatened by unsustainable uses and conversion to alternative land uses. In spite of the consequences of forest degradation and biodiversity loss and reliance of communities on forests livelihoods, there is little empirical data on the role of forest resources in livelihoods of the local communities. Socioeconomic, demographic, and forest use data were obtained by interviewing 367 households. Forest product market survey was undertaken to determine prices of various forest products for valuation of forest use. Forest income was significant to households contributing 33% of total household income. Fuel wood contributed 50%, food (27%, construction material (18%, and fodder, and thatching material 5% to household forest income. Absolute forest income and relative forest income (% were not significantly different across study locations and between ethnic groups. However, absolute forest income and relative forest income (% were significantly different among wealth classes. Poor households were more dependent on forests resources. However, in absolute terms, the rich households derived higher forest income. These results provide valuable information on the role of forest resources to livelihoods and could be applied in developing forest conservation policies for enhanced ecosystem services and livelihoods.

Sustainable solid waste management: An integrated approach for Asian countries

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shekdar, Ashok V.

2009-01-01

Solid waste management (SWM) has been an integral part of every human society. The approaches for SWM should be compatible with the nature of a given society, and, in this regard, Asian countries are no exception. In keeping with global trends, the systems are being oriented to concentrate on sustainability issues; mainly through the incorporation of 3R (reduce, reuse and recycle) technologies. However, degree and nature of improvements toward sustainability are varying and depend on the economic status of a country. High-income countries like Japan and South Korea can afford to spend more to incorporate 3R technologies. Most of the latest efforts focus on 'Zero Waste' and/or 'Zero Landfilling' which is certainly expensive for weaker economies such as those of India or Indonesia. There is a need to pragmatically assess the expectations of SWM systems in Asian countries. Hence, in this paper, we analyze the situation in different Asian countries, and explore future trends. We conceptually evaluate issues surrounding the sustainability of SWM. We propose a multi-pronged integrated approach for improvement that achieves sustainable SWM in the context of national policy and legal frameworks, institutional arrangement, appropriate technology, operational and financial management, and public awareness and participation. In keeping with this approach, a generic action plan has been proposed that could be tailored to suit a situation in a particular country. Our proposed concept and action plan framework would be useful across a variety of country-specific scenarios

The role of education in mobile livelihoods

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Valentin, Karen

2012-01-01

Shedding light on the relationship between processes of migration and educational practices as aspects of wider livelihood strategies among young Nepalese migrants in India, this article focuses on the role of education in different phases of a migrant career. It explores firstly how education...... works as a driving force in the interrelated processes of social and physical mobility; secondly how formal and informal forms of learning are weaved together in individual life courses of migrants....

The significance of enset culture and biodiversity for rural household food and livelihood security in southwestern Ethiopia

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Negash, A.; Niehof, A.

2004-01-01

The significance of enset (Ensete ventricosum Welw. Cheesman) for the food and livelihood security of rural households in Southwestern Ethiopia, where this crop is the main staple, raises two major questions. The first concerns the related issues of household food security and livelihood security

A Decade of Rural Transformation : Lessons Learnt from the Bihar Rural Livelihoods Project—JEEViKA

OpenAIRE

World Bank Group

2017-01-01

The objective of this booklet is to document a decade of journey of the Bihar Rural Livelihoods Project (BRLP) from 2006 to 2016 in the one of the poorest states in India. The project was successfully completed and a follow-on project, Bihar Transformative Development Project (BTDP) commenced in 2016 to expand the BRLP model. This booklet is a joint effort of the Bihar Rural Livelihood Pr...

Livelihood responses to climate change in the Niger-delta ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Today, climatic changes coupled with oil exploration activeities in the region have negatively impacted on the environment. This has resulted in the alteration of habitats, biodiversity los and pollution of water bodies. This paper assesses livelihood responses of local people to climate change and the implications for food ...

Regional Network on HIV/AIDS, Rural Livelihoods and Food ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Launched in 2001, the Regional Network on HIV/AIDS, Rural Livelihoods and Food Security (RENEWAL) is a growing network of networks made up of national food and nutrition organizations (public, private and nongovernmental) and partners in AIDS and public health. RENEWAL aims to understand and facilitate a ...

Impact pathways of trade liberalization on rural livelihoods: A case study of smallholder maize farmers in Mexico

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

GROENEWALD, Sytske

2012-06-01

Full Text Available Research assessing the impacts of trade liberalization on poor rural populations can be divided intotwo categories: more quantitative research, assessing relationships between specific, measurable variables(such as changes in the macroeconomic environment and their impact on farmers’ income levels;and more qualitative research, which takes trade policy as a context and provides broad, descriptive dataabout dynamic livelihood strategies. In this paper, we outline a framework that could be used to integratethese two approaches by unravelling the macro-micro linkages between national policies and responses ata household level. Using the Mexican maize sector as an illustration, we trace the pathways through whichtrade liberalization (including the North American Free Trade Agreement has interacted with changes in governmentinstitutions, and thereby impacted on farmers’ livelihood strategies. We identify three pathwaysthrough which trade policy affects households and individuals: via enterprises, distribution channels, andgovernment, and we link these to a five-category typology of smallholders’ strategies for escaping rural poverty:intensification, diversification, expansion, increased off-farm income and exit from agriculture. Basedon a case-study from Chiapas, Mexico, we report on farmers’ responses to post-liberalization agriculturalpolicies. Data suggest that farmers have intensified maize production, sought more off-farm employment orhave exited agriculture altogether. The potential for smallholders to escape poverty by diversifying farms orexpanding their land-holdings or herd-size has been largely unrealized. We provide a conceptual frameworkfor linking the impacts of liberalization to farmers’ livelihood strategies and suggest that this framework isuseful in the context of agricultural modernisation initiatives that seek to increase agricultural productionand productivity.

Definition and use of Solution-focused Sustainability Assessment: A novel approach to generate, explore and decide on sustainable solutions for wicked problems.

Science.gov (United States)

Zijp, Michiel C; Posthuma, Leo; Wintersen, Arjen; Devilee, Jeroen; Swartjes, Frank A

2016-05-01

This paper introduces Solution-focused Sustainability Assessment (SfSA), provides practical guidance formatted as a versatile process framework, and illustrates its utility for solving a wicked environmental management problem. Society faces complex and increasingly wicked environmental problems for which sustainable solutions are sought. Wicked problems are multi-faceted, and deriving of a management solution requires an approach that is participative, iterative, innovative, and transparent in its definition of sustainability and translation to sustainability metrics. We suggest to add the use of a solution-focused approach. The SfSA framework is collated from elements from risk assessment, risk governance, adaptive management and sustainability assessment frameworks, expanded with the 'solution-focused' paradigm as recently proposed in the context of risk assessment. The main innovation of this approach is the broad exploration of solutions upfront in assessment projects. The case study concerns the sustainable management of slightly contaminated sediments continuously formed in ditches in rural, agricultural areas. This problem is wicked, as disposal of contaminated sediment on adjacent land is potentially hazardous to humans, ecosystems and agricultural products. Non-removal would however reduce drainage capacity followed by increased risks of flooding, while contaminated sediment removal followed by offsite treatment implies high budget costs and soil subsidence. Application of the steps in the SfSA-framework served in solving this problem. Important elements were early exploration of a wide 'solution-space', stakeholder involvement from the onset of the assessment, clear agreements on the risk and sustainability metrics of the problem and on the interpretation and decision procedures, and adaptive management. Application of the key elements of the SfSA approach eventually resulted in adoption of a novel sediment management policy. The stakeholder

Conservation and restoration of indigenous plants to improve community livelihoods: the Useful Plants Project

Science.gov (United States)

Ulian, Tiziana; Sacandé, Moctar; Mattana, Efisio

2014-05-01

Kew's Millennium Seed Bank partnership (MSBP) is one of the largest ex situ plant conservation initiatives, which is focused on saving plants in and from regions most at risk, particularly in drylands. Seeds are collected and stored in seed banks in the country of origin and duplicated in the Millennium Seed Bank in the UK. The MSBP also strengthens the capacity of local communities to successfully conserve and sustainably use indigenous plants, which are important for their wellbeing. Since 2007, high quality seed collections and research information have been gathered on ca. 700 useful indigenous plant species that were selected by communities in Botswana, Kenya, Mali, Mexico and South Africa through Project MGU - The Useful Plants Project. These communities range from various farmer's groups and organisations to traditional healers, organic cotton/crop producers and primary schools. The information on seed conservation and plant propagation was used to train communities and to propagate ca. 200 species that were then planted in local gardens, and as species reintroduced for reforestation programmes and enriching village forests. Experimental plots have also been established to further investigate the field performance (plant survival and growth rate) of indigenous species, using low cost procedures. In addition, the activities support revenue generation for local communities directly through the sustainable use of plant products or indirectly through wider environmental and cultural services. This project has confirmed the potential of biodiversity conservation to improve food security and human health, enhance community livelihoods and strengthen the resilience of land and people to the changing climate. This approach of using indigenous species and having local communities play a central role from the selection of species to their planting and establishment, supported by complementary research, may represent a model for other regions of the world, where

Role of small-scale sawmilling in household and community livelihoods – Case studies in the Eastern Cape

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Horn, J

2000-01-01

Full Text Available on the role of SSM in household and community livelihoods in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It has therefore not been possible to evaluate whether SSM is a suitable entry point for support to livelihood enhancement and / or pro-poor enterprise...

Socio-personal correlates of participation in livelihood activities among rural youth in Jabalpur district of Madhya pradesh, India

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

VC Umunnakwe

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The increasing realization of the negative political, social and economic consequences stemming from the precariousness of youth’s livelihoods, underscores the need to understand their livelihood activities, which is a requisite for curbing social ills and reducing rural poverty. The paper examined the participation of rural youth in livelihood activities, their socio-personal characteristics, the relationship between their socio-personal characteristics and their participation in livelihood activities as well as the interrelationships among their socio-personal characteristics. Multi-stage random sampling was used to collect data from 247 respondents through interview schedule. Frequency counts and percentages were used to present data while Pearson product moment correction (PPMC was used to test relationships. The results revealed that majority of the respondents were from other backward caste (66%, married (72.10%, belonged to joint (57.90% and medium (50.60% size families as well as families that were self-employed in agriculture (59.50%. Higher percentages of the respondents and their fathers were educated up to higher school and above. Huge majority (75.71% of the respondents participated in cereal production while more than half of the respondents were involved in pulse production (56.28% and petty trading (53.44%. Marital status; fathers’ educational attainment; family type and family size had significant relationship with participation in livelihood activities. Inter-correlations among socio-personal characteristics showed that caste was related to marital status and educational attainment. It is concluded that socio-personal attributes of rural youth are related to their participation in livelihood activities. The study recommends that socio-personal variables of present study be considered by rural development policy makers when undertaking programmes aimed at enhancing rural youth’s livelihoods.

Sustaining Operational Resiliency: A Process Improvement Approach to Security Management

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Caralli, Richard A

2006-01-01

.... Coordinating these efforts to sustain operational resiliency requires a process-oriented approach that can be defined, measured, and actively managed. This report describes the fundamental elements and benefits of a process approach to security and operational resiliency and provides a notional view of a framework for process improvement.

Pattern of livelihood and household food security among rural ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The study of the pattern of livelihood and household food security among rural dwellers case of women pastoralist was carried out in Oyo state, Nigeria. Data were obtained from 100 women. The women are purposively sampled such that their husbands were pastoralists or that they are involved in pastoral farming.

Creating sustainable directions. Collaborative stakeholder approach of governments and businesses

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Keijzers, G.H.J.

2003-01-01

In this study it is demonstrated that the increasing complexity of sustainable development processes makes it necessary to intensify the collaboration between public and private parties to ensure effective, committed and enduring change. It is also demonstrated that this applies to both the development of government and business strategies and policies for sustainability. Report is given on research into the development of collaborative stakeholder and consensus-building approach for sustainable development. The emergence of new processes of collaboration and the increased intensity of collaboration between governments, businesses and societal groups is illustrated. The main research questions of this dissertation were formulated as: How does the complex and broadening range of sustainability issues affect policy processes for governments and businesses?; and How can enterprises manage the strategic processes of adapting their resources and capabilities to the evolving sustainability demands from a growing number of stakeholders?

Learning Conservation and Sustainable Development: An Interdisciplinary Approach

Science.gov (United States)

John Schelhas; James P. Lassoie

2001-01-01

Conservation aud sustainable development (CSD) represent one of the most important new ways of thinking in natural resource management and policy. Cornell University has developed an iuterdisciplinary graduate minor to include this approach in its curriculum. The concept of CSD involves working toward environmental, social, and economic goals simultaneously. Although...

The role of values in sustainability evaluation: insights from three Dutch approaches

NARCIS (Netherlands)

De Kraker, Joop; Cörvers, Ron J. M.

2010-01-01

This paper reviews three recent approaches to sustainability evaluation by Dutch scientists. Conclusions are drawn with respect to the possibility and desirability of excluding normative and subjective elements from the evaluation of sustainability. Suggestions are given on how such elements can

Beyond the buildingcentric approach: A vision for an integrated evaluation of sustainable buildings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Conte, Emilia; Monno, Valeria

2012-01-01

The available sustainable building evaluation systems have produced a new environmental design paradigm. However, there is an increasing need to overcome the buildingcentric approach of these systems, in order to further exploit their innovate potential for sustainable building practices. The paper takes this challenge by developing a cross-scale evaluation approach focusing on the reliability of sustainable building design solutions for the context in which the building is situated. An integrated building–urban evaluation model is proposed based on the urban matrix, which is a conceptualisation of the built environment as a social–ecological system. The model aims at evaluating the sustainability of a building considering it as an active entity contributing to the resilience of the urban matrix. Few holistic performance indicators are used for evaluating such contribution, so expressing the building reliability. The discussion on the efficacy of the model shows that it works as a heuristic tool, supporting the acquisition of a better insight into the complexity which characterises the relationships between the building and the built environment sustainability. Shading new lights on the meaning of sustainable buildings, the model can play a positive role in innovating sustainable building design practices, thus complementing current evaluation systems. - Highlights: ► We model an integrated building–urban evaluation approach. ► The urban matrix represents the social–ecological functioning of the urban context. ► We introduce the concept of reliability to evaluate sustainable buildings. ► Holistic indicators express the building reliability. ► The evaluation model works as heuristic tool and complements other tools.

How to ensure sustainable interoperability in heterogeneous distributed systems through architectural approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Pape-Haugaard, Louise; Frank, Lars

2011-01-01

A major obstacle in ensuring ubiquitous information is the utilization of heterogeneous systems in eHealth. The objective in this paper is to illustrate how an architecture for distributed eHealth databases can be designed without lacking the characteristic features of traditional sustainable databases. The approach is firstly to explain traditional architecture in central and homogeneous distributed database computing, followed by a possible approach to use an architectural framework to obtain sustainability across disparate systems i.e. heterogeneous databases, concluded with a discussion. It is seen that through a method of using relaxed ACID properties on a service-oriented architecture it is possible to achieve data consistency which is essential when ensuring sustainable interoperability.

Climate impacts on human livelihoods at 1.5° and 2° of warming

Science.gov (United States)

Lissner, Tabea

2017-04-01

The measurement of impacts of climate change on socio-economic systems remains challenging and especially multi-dimensional outcome measures remain scarce. Climate impacts can directly affect many dimensions of human livelihoods, which cannot be addressed by monetary assessments alone. Multi-dimensional measures are essential in order to understand the full range of consequences of climate change and to understand the costs that higher levels of warming may have, not only in economic terms, but also in terms of non-market impacts on human livelihood. The AHEAD framework aims at measuring "Adequate Human livelihood conditions for wEll-being And Development" in a multi-dimensional framework, allowing to focus on resources and conditions which are a requirement to attain well-being. In this contribution we build on previous implementations of AHEAD and focus on differences in climate impacts at 1.5° and 2° of warming in order to improve our understanding of the societal consequences of these different warming levels.

Sustainable Contracts in the Bottled Tawilis Value Chain in Taal, Batangas, Philippines

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cynthia V. Almazan

2012-03-01

Full Text Available This research was conceptualized to investigate the potential impact of contracts on the sustainability of the bottled tawilis supply chain, i.e. sustainability in terms of environmental protection, well-being of the people whose livelihood depends on tawilis production, processing and marketing; and enhanced economic gains from the chain. A survey amongst fishermen, middlemen and processors was performed in the lake Taal area. The study concludes that formal contracts, with specific demands to gear used and the handling of fish, may stimulate the catch of minimum and uniform sized fish. Such contracts may also stimulate delivery of higher quality fish by fishermen. These contracts thereby enhance sustainable fishing and increase in fishermen’s income. Direct (win-win contracts between processors and fishermen seem to be the best way to stimulate delivery of sustainably catched fish. Government should strongly increase enforcement of sustainable fishing practices and stimulate contracting for sustainable fishing in this chain.

Climate crisis narratives and coastal livelihoods in North-west Greenland

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tejsner, Pelle

2017-01-01

North have increasingly been portrayed as somehow more ‘ exposed’ or ‘ vulnerable’ victims located on the frontline of a geographically determined global crisis narrative about climate change, which inadvertently ignores the reality of coastal livelihoods in the Arctic today. Qeqertarsuarmiut often...

A Demographic Approach to Evaluating Tree Population Sustainability

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Corey R. Halpin

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Quantitative criteria for assessing demographic sustainability of tree populations would be useful in forest conservation, as climate change and a growing complex of invasive pests are likely to drive forests outside their historic range of variability. In this paper, we used CANOPY, a spatially explicit, individual‐tree model, to examine the effects of initial size distributions on sustainability of tree populations for 70 northern hardwood stands under current environmental conditions. A demographic sustainability index was calculated as the ratio of future simulated basal area to current basal area, given current demographic structure and density‐dependent demographic equations. Only steeply descending size distributions were indicated to be moderately or highly sustainable (final basal area/initial basal area ≥0.7 over several tree generations. Five of the six principal species had demographic sustainability index values of <0.6 in 40%–84% of the stands. However, at a small landscape scale, nearly all species had mean index values >1. Simulation experiments suggested that a minimum sapling density of 300 per hectare was required to sustain the initial basal area, but further increases in sapling density did not increase basal area because of coincident increases in mortality. A variable slope with high q‐ratios in small size classes was needed to maintain the existing overstory of mature and old‐growth stands. This analytical approach may be useful in identifying stands needing restoration treatments to maintain existing species composition in situations where forests are likely to have future recruitment limitations.

An eco-sustainable green approach for the synthesis of ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

sustainable green approach for the synthesis of propargylamines using LiOTf as a reusable catalyst under solvent-free condition. Someshwar D Dindulkar Baek Kwan Kwon Taek Lim Yeon Tae Jeong. Volume 125 Issue 1 January 2013 pp 101- ...

Community-based livelihood management in relations to natural disaster - A study on Teknaf (coastal) area of Bangladesh

Science.gov (United States)

Khanam, R.

2017-06-01

Teknaf is an Upazila under Cox’s Bazar District of Bangladesh, it’s a coastal area with strong influenced by the Naaf river estuary of the Bay of Bengal. The study outlines the major livelihood groups or community in the area. It was observed that the livelihoods are severely affected by climatic and non-climatic changes. For example, the increased salinity of both soil and water has seriously affected all livelihood resources, in particular agriculture, fishery, livestock and forestry. The increase in frequency and intensity of natural disasters - floods and cyclones, has made it difficult for the local people to secure their livelihood. In addition to natural factors, several anthropogenic factors remain the major form of vulnerability for the farmers, fishers and other livelihood sections of the society. This study was an exploratory research with questionnaire survey by random sampling, focus group discussion, and review secondary data. The study observed that the local people have evolved many local adaptive practices to deal with the difficult climatic conditions. Outcome of the study is capacity building of the community with in their available resource; combined crop and fish culture need to encourage; control excessive collection of Natural resources like marine fish, forest tree, alternative income generating activities for farmers & fisherman at lean season and disaster situation need to start.

Merging building maintainability and sustainability assessment: A multicriteria decision making approach

Science.gov (United States)

Asmone, A. S.; Chew, M. Y. L.

2018-02-01

Accurately predicting maintainability has been a challenge due to the complex nature of buildings, yet it is an important research area with a rising necessity. This paper explores the use of multicriteria decision making approach for merging maintainability and sustainability elements into building grading systems to attain long-term sustainability in the building industry. The paper conducts a systematic literature review on multicriteria decision analysis approach and builds on the existing knowledge of maintainability to achieve this. A conceptual framework is developed to bridge the gap between building operations and maintenance with green facilities management by forecasting green maintainability at the design stage.

Climate change, ethics and sustainability: An innovative approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

José Luis Sánchez García

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Our goal in this article is the analysis of the state of affairs, regarding the phenomenon of climate change and its impact in different areas. We synthesize the various approaches available in the scientific debate on this subject, mainly the one that affirms the existence of global warming and the current approach, which denies it. Beyond the controversy, what seems to be evident is that there is a multifactorial causality in a phenomenon that affects anthropogenic factors a well. Since some environmentalisms exclude the human being in their consideration of the ecosystem, and if they do, they accommodate man in their approaches always as a variable that distorts and deteriorates the environment, we believe that a fundamental rethinking of the issue is needed, from the perspective of an integral environmentalism. The environmentalism we propose not only does not exclude the human being from this multifactorial equation, but also considers man as the fundamental, modifiable variable in that process. We thus consider the environmental problem in the broader framework of an integral ecology, where the human being takes a central place, understood as a free person and a moral subject, responsible for his actions and a key element in any consideration and review of the process. In this context, the concept of sustainability emerges as a key concept that must guide human action in all areas, a concept from which it is possible to appeal to the responsibility of man within the framework of an ethics of sustainability. Man is called to do right in all orders. When he does not respect this ethical orientation, so implicitly included in his own conscience, he becomes denatured and suffers the consequences in himself and in the environment in which he lives. We believe that it is a priority to seek the foundations of the existence of God, analyzing the theistic view, the foundations of sustainability for the good of man himself and the planet. JEL

Poverty, livelihoods and the conservation of nature

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Bouma, JA

2011-01-01

Full Text Available : ? In Vietnam and India, agriculture is the main livelihood strategy, whereas in the Costa Rica and South Africa agriculture plays a relatively minor role ? In Costa Rica, this is because large scale commercial agriculture is dominant in the region... ? Giving local communities a role in PA management would allow them to express their own needs and interests, and could improve the effectiveness of PA management at the same time ? The analysis suggests that households in Vietnam and Costa Rica might...

Assessment of the Sustainability Capacity of a Coordinated Approach to Chronic Disease Prevention.

Science.gov (United States)

Moreland-Russell, Sarah; Combs, Todd; Polk, LaShaun; Dexter, Sarah

2017-12-07

This article outlines some factors that influenced the sustainability capacity of a coordinated approach to chronic disease prevention in state and territory health departments. This study involved a cross-sectional design and mixed-methods approach. Quantitative data were collected using the Program Sustainability Assessment Tool (PSAT), a 40-item multiple-choice instrument that assesses 8 domains of sustainability capacity (environmental support, funding stability, partnerships, organizational capacity, program evaluation, program adaptation, communications, and strategic planning). Qualitative data were collected via phone interviews. The PSAT was administered to staff and stakeholders from public health departments in 50 US states, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, who were involved in the implementation of coordinated chronic disease programs. Phone interviews were conducted with program coordinators in each state. Sustainability score patterns and state-level categorical results, as well as strengths and opportunities for improvement across the 8 program sustainability domains, were explored. On average, programs reported the strongest sustainability capacity in the domains of program adaptation, environmental support, and organizational capacity, while funding stability, strategic planning, and communications yielded lowest scores, indicating weakest capacity. Scores varied the most by state in environmental support and strategic planning. The PSAT results highlight the process through which states approached the sustainability of coordinated chronic disease initiatives. This process included an initial focus on program evaluation and partnerships with transfer of priority to long-term strategic planning, communications, and funding stability to further establish coordinated chronic disease efforts. Qualitative interviews provided further context to PSAT results, indicating that leadership, communications, partnerships, funding stability, and policy

Modelling livelihoods and household resilience to droughts using Bayesian networks

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Merritt, W.S.; Patch, B.; Reddy, V.R.; Syme, G.J.

2016-01-01

Over the last four decades, the Indian government has been investing heavily in watershed development (WSD) programmes that are intended to improve the livelihoods of rural agrarian communities and maintain or improve natural resource condition. Given the massive investment in WSD in India, and the

Globalization and sustainable development: a political ecology strategy to realize ecological justice

OpenAIRE

Byrne, John; Glover, Leigh; Alrøe, Hugo Fjelsted

2006-01-01

Organic agriculture is, like mainstream agriculture, faced with the challenges of globalization and sustainable development. Ecological justice, the fair distribution of livelihoods and environments, has emerged as a key concept in efforts, on the one hand, to resist negative consequences of globalization and ecological modernization and, on the other to propose new agenda and institutional arrangements. This chapter investigates the role that ecological justice as a political ecology strateg...

Critical Omissions and New Directions for Sustainable Tourism: A Situated Macro–Micro Approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Blanca A. Camargo

2013-10-01

Full Text Available This paper traces the history and evolution of sustainable tourism and identifies some critical issues and omissions in this and related approaches such as responsible tourism, ecotourism and pro-poor tourism. The academic, institutional and practical intersections of sustainable tourism and responsible tourism are examined. It reveals that important theoretical and practical considerations around well-being, inclusion, and sustainability have been omitted. A critical look at ecotourism reveals additional concerns, such as a cornucopia of guidelines and principles, without clear ethical justifications to support them. At the same time, academics in this domain have been slow to consider the modernist and neoliberal influences shaping ecotourism and sustainable tourism development, such as through the discourse of ecological modernization. We identify some key omissions, such as the missing ‘body’ in sustainable tourism discourse, lack of critical analysis of postcolonial and dependency issues, and propose re-situating ‘sustainable tourism’ within a micro–macro, local-global systems approach informed by a clear framework of justice and ethics.

Publications | Page 634 | IDRC - International Development ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Results 6331 - 6340 of 6374 ... In search of substance : "State of the Art" of approaches, strategies and methods for improving natural resource management and livelihoods (restricted access). The global sustainable development agenda supports equitable development that ensures sustainable use of the natural resource ...

Developing a multicriteria approach for the measurement of sustainable performance

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ding, G.

2005-02-01

In Australia, cost-benefit analysis (CBA) is one of the conventional tools used widely by the public and the private sectors in the appraisal of projects. It measures and compares the total costs and benefits of projects that are competing for scarce resources in monetary terms. Growing concerns that the values of environmental goods and services are often ignored or underestimated in the CBA approach have led to the overuse and depletion of environmental assets. A model of a sustainability index as an evaluation tool that combines economic, social and environmental criteria into an indexing algorithm is presented and described. The sustainability index uses monetary and non-monetary approaches to rank projects and facilities on their contribution to sustainability. This process enables the principle of trade-off to occur in the decision-making process and thereby allows environmental values to be considered when selecting a development option. This makes it possible to optimize financial return, maximize resource consumption and minimize detrimental effects to the natural and man-made world. A case study is used to demonstrate the model. (author)

Assessing the effects of rural livelihood transition on non-point source pollution: a coupled ABM-IECM model.

Science.gov (United States)

Yuan, Chengcheng; Liu, Liming; Ye, Jinwei; Ren, Guoping; Zhuo, Dong; Qi, Xiaoxing

2017-05-01

Water pollution caused by anthropogenic activities and driven by changes in rural livelihood strategies in an agricultural system has received increasing attention in recent decades. To simulate the effects of rural household livelihood transition on non-point source (NPS) pollution, a model combining an agent-based model (ABM) and an improved export coefficient model (IECM) was developed. The ABM was adopted to simulate the dynamic process of household livelihood transition, and the IECM was employed to estimate the effects of household livelihood transition on NPS pollution. The coupled model was tested in a small catchment in the Dongting Lake region, China. The simulated results reveal that the transition of household livelihood strategies occurred with the changes in the prices of rice, pig, and labor. Thus, the cropping system, land-use intensity, resident population, and number of pigs changed in the small catchment from 2000 to 2014. As a result of these changes, the total nitrogen load discharged into the river initially increased from 6841.0 kg in 2000 to 8446.3 kg in 2004 and then decreased to 6063.9 kg in 2014. Results also suggest that rural living, livestock, paddy field, and precipitation alternately became the main causes of NPS pollution in the small catchment, and the midstream region of the small catchment was the primary area for NPS pollution from 2000 to 2014. Despite some limitations, the coupled model provides an innovative way to simulate the effects of rural household livelihood transition on NPS pollution with the change of socioeconomic factors, and thereby identify the key factors influencing water pollution to provide valuable suggestions on how agricultural environmental risks can be reduced through the regulation of the behaviors of farming households in the future.

Civic Ecology: A Postmodern Approach to Ecological Sustainability

Science.gov (United States)

Lopes, V. L.

2013-12-01

Human agency is transforming the planetary processes at unprecedented rates risking damaging essential life-support systems. Climate change, massive species extinction, land degradation, resources depletion, overpopulation, poverty and social injustice are all the result of human choices and non-sustainable ways of life. The survival of our modern economic systems depends upon insatiable consumption - a simple way of life no longer satisfies most people. Detached, instrumental rationality has created an ideal of liberalism based on individual pursuit of self-interest, leading the way into unprecedented material progress but bringing with it human alienation, social injustice, and ecological degradation. The purpose of this presentation is to introduce a community-based systems response to a growing sense that the interlocked social-ecological crisis is as much a problem of human thought and behavior as it is about identifying carrying capacities and CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere. This approach, referred to here as civic ecology, presents a new and important paradigm shift in sustainability practice that attempts to bring together and integrate ecological ideas and postmodern thinking. As such, it is as much a holistic, dynamic, and synergistic approach to ecological sustainability, as it is a philosophy of life and ethical perspective born of ecological understanding and insight. Civic ecology starts with the proposition that the key factor determining the health of the ecosphere is the behavior of human beings, and therefore many of the most important issues related to sustainability lie in the areas of human thought and culture. Thus, the quest for sustainability must include as a central concern the transformation of psychological and behavioral patterns that have become an imminent danger to planetary health. At the core of this understanding is a fundamental paradigm shift from the basic commitments of modern Western culture to its model of mechanism

Systems approaches for the design of sustainable agro-ecosystems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kropff, M.J.; Bouma, J.; Jones, J.W.

2001-01-01

The complexity of agricultural systems and the need to fulfil multiple objectives in sustainable agro-ecosystems call for interdisciplinary analyzes and input from a wide variety of disciplines in order to better understand the complete agronomic production system. Systems approaches have been

A review of social sustainability considerations among EU-approved voluntary schemes for biofuels, with implications for rural livelihoods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

German, Laura; Schoneveld, George

2012-01-01

The rapid expansion of biofuel production and consumption has raised concerns over the social and environmental sustainability of biofuel feedstock production, processing and trade. The European Union (EU) has thus balanced its commitment to biofuels as one option for meeting its renewable energy targets with sustainability criteria for economic operators supplying biofuels to member states. Seven voluntary “EU sustainability schemes” were approved in July, 2011 as a means to verify compliance. While mandated sustainability criteria have a strong environmental focus, a number of these voluntary schemes have social sustainability as a significant component of the requirements put forward for achieving certification. As several of these voluntary schemes are incipient, thereby limiting evidence on their effectiveness in practice, this analysis is based on a comparative analysis of the substantive content or ‘scope’ of these schemes and the likely procedural effectiveness of the same. Findings show that while some schemes have considerable coverage of social sustainability concerns, poor coverage of some critical issues, the presence of schemes lacking any social sustainability requirements, and gaps in procedural rules are likely to undermine the likelihood that social sustainability is achieved through these schemes or the EU sustainability policies lending credibility to them. - Highlights: ► Among 7 voluntary schemes approved by EC-RED for biofuel, social sustainability is sorely lacking. ► 2 Schemes lacking any social sustainability criteria collectively cover all feedstock/regions. ► The strong climate metric effectively sidelines development aspirations of southern producers. ► Only one of 7 standards will leverage the industry's potential as a stimulus to rural development. ► Policies in consumer markets are critical to give teeth to industry-led sustainability schemes.

Ecosystem Management: Tomorrow’s Approach to Enhancing Food Security under a Changing Climate

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mike Rivington

2011-06-01

Full Text Available This paper argues that a sustainable ecosystem management approach is vital to ensure the delivery of essential ‘life support’ ecosystem services and must be mainstreamed into societal conscience, political thinking and economic processes. Feeding the world at a time of climate change, environmental degradation, increasing human population and demand for finite resources requires sustainable ecosystem management and equitable governance. Ecosystem degradation undermines food production and the availability of clean water, hence threatening human health, livelihoods and ultimately societal stability. Degradation also increases the vulnerability of populations to the consequences of natural disasters and climate change impacts. With 10 million people dying from hunger each year, the linkages between ecosystems and food security are important to recognize. Though we all depend on ecosystems for our food and water, about seventy per cent of the estimated 1.1 billion people in poverty around the world live in rural areas and depend directly on the productivity of ecosystems for their livelihoods. Healthy ecosystems provide a diverse range of food sources and support entire agricultural systems, but their value to food security and sustainable livelihoods are often undervalued or ignored. There is an urgent need for increased financial investment for integrating ecosystem management with food security and poverty alleviation priorities. As the world’s leaders worked towards a new international climate change agenda in Cancun, Mexico, 29 November–10 December 2010 (UNFCCC COP16, it was clear that without a deep and decisive post-2012 agreement and major concerted effort to reduce the food crisis, the Millennium Development Goals will not be attained. Political commitment at the highest level will be needed to raise the profile of ecosystems on the global food agenda. It is recommended that full recognition and promotion be given of the linkages

Systematic Assessment of Carbon Emissions from Renewable Energy Access to Improve Rural Livelihoods

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Judith A. Cherni

2016-12-01

Full Text Available One way of increasing access to electricity for impoverished unconnected areas without adding significant amounts of CO2 to the atmosphere is by promoting renewable energy technologies. However, decision-makers rarely, if ever, take into account the level of in-built energy requirements and consequential CO2 emissions found in renewable energy, particularly photovoltaic cells and related equipment, which have been widely disseminated in developing countries. The deployment of solar panels worldwide has mostly relied on silicon crystalline cell modules, despite the fact that less polluting material—in particular, thin film and organic cells—offers comparatively distinct technical, environmental and cost advantages characteristics. A major scientific challenge has thus been the design of a single decision-making approach to assess local and global climate change-related impacts as well as the socio-economic effects of low-carbon technology. The article focuses on the functions of the multi-criteria-based tool SURE-DSS and environmental impact analysis focused on greenhouse gases (GHG emissions balance to inform the selection of technologies in terms of their impact on livelihoods and CO2eq. emissions. An application in a remote rural community in Cuba is discussed. The results of this study show that while PV silicon (c-Si, thin film (CdTe and organic solar cells may each equally meet the demands of the community and enhance people’s livelihoods, their effect on the global environment varies.

Determining significance in social impact assessments (SIA) by applying both technical and participatory approaches: Methodology development and application in a case study of the concentrated solar power plant NOORO I in Morocco

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Terrapon-Pfaff, Julia; Fink, Thomas; Viebahn, Peter; Jamea, El Mostafa

2017-01-01

One of the main objectives of impact assessments is to identify potentially significant impacts. However, determining this significance has received very limited attention as a procedural step in social impact assessments. Consequently, only limited research and documentation exists on approaches, survey tools and evaluation methods, especially with regard to participatory approaches and combined participatory-technical approaches. This study aims to address this research gap by developing and applying a joined participatory and technical impact significance evaluation. The approach is applied in a case study which analysed the livelihood impacts of the large-scale concentrated solar power plant NOOR O I in Ouarzazate, Morocco. The analysis shows that although different approaches and significance criteria must be applied when involving both local stakeholders and experts, the linked analysis offers more robust results and an improved basis for decision-making. Furthermore, it was observed in the case study that impacts affecting the social, cultural and political spheres were more often considered significant than impacts affecting the physical and material livelihood dimensions. Regarding sustainability assessments of large-scale renewable energy plants, these findings underline the importance (as for other large-scale infrastructure developments) of placing greater emphasis on the inclusion of social aspects in impact assessments. - Highlights: •Significance evaluation in social impact assessments lacks participatory aspects. •Combined participatory and technical impact significance evaluation developed •Application in a case study to analyse the livelihood impacts of a CSP plant •Involvement of local stakeholders and technical experts results in robust findings. •Social, cultural and political issues are often more relevant than material aspects.

The Dilemma of Incumbents in Sustainability Transitions: A Narrative Approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Karoline Augenstein

2015-12-01

Full Text Available In the context of the larger sustainability discourse, “sufficiency” is beginning to emerge as a new value throughout Western societies, and the question asked in this article is: Can we observe and conceptually identify opportunities to link successful business strategies of incumbents to principles of sufficiency? Thus, how feasible is sustainable entrepreneurship for incumbents? In this paper, a conceptual approach is developed combining insights from sociology, transition research, management and sustainable entrepreneurship research with a focus on narratives as a translation mechanism in situations where tensions emerge between corporate narratives and unexpected societal trends, e.g., the emergence of sufficient lifestyles. It will be shown that even though these are still a niche phenomenon, a focus on corporate narratives is an important element in understanding the role of incumbents in transitions to sustainability.

Better resilience to disasters and improved livelihoods on South ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

29 avr. 2016 ... MSSRF Saving Lives Panel. MSSRF. Michelle Hibler. Research supported by IDRC and the former Canadian International Development Agency ... Solar dryers are improving livelihoods in Bhutan. Des séchoirs à fruits et à légumes fonctionnant à l'énergie solaire aident les résidents de villages reculés du ...

Livelihood strategies under the constraints of climate change vulnerability in Quang Nam

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Casse, Thorkil

2013-01-01

This chapter examines how vulnerability can be measured in quantitative terms. Households whose livelihoods are based on economic activities like acacia production and shrimp farming suffered the most....

Do Smallholder, Mixed Crop-Livestock Livelihoods Encourage Sustainable Agricultural Practices? A Meta-Analysis

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rudel, Thomas K.; Kwon, Oh-Jung; Paul, B.K.

2016-01-01

As calls for bolstering ecosystem services from croplands have grown more insistent during the past two decades, the search for ways to foster these agriculture-sustaining services has become more urgent. In this context we examine by means of a meta-analysis the argument, proposed by Robert McC.

Exploring an innovative watershed management approach: From feasibility to sustainability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Said, A.; Sehlke, G.; Stevens, D.K.; Sorensen, D.; Walker, W.; Hardy, T.; Glover, T.

2006-01-01

Watershed management is dedicated to solving watershed problems on a sustainable basis. Managing watershed development on a sustainable basis usually entails a balance between the needs of humans and nature, both in the present and in the future. From a watershed or water resources development basis, these problems can be classified into five general categories: lack of water quantity, deterioration in water quality, ecological impacts, weak public participation, and weak economic value. The first three categories can be combined to make up physical sustainability while the last two categories can be defined as social and economic sustainability. Therefore, integrated watershed management should be designed to achieve physical sustainability utilizing, to the greatest extent possible, public participation in an economically viable manner. This study demonstrates an innovative approach using scientific, social, and motivational feasibilities that can be used to improve watershed management. Scientific feasibility is tied to the nature of environmental problems and the scientific means to solve them. Social feasibility is associated with public participation. Motivational feasibility is related to economic stimulation for the stakeholders to take actions. The ecological impacts, lack of water quantity and deterioration in water quality are problems that need scientific means in order to improve watershed health. However, the implementation of these means is typically not achievable without the right public participation. In addition, public participation is typically accelerated by economic motivation for the stakeholders to use the resources in a manner that improves watershed health. The Big Lost River in south-central Idaho has been used as an illustration for implementing scientific, social and motivational feasibilities and in a manner that can achieve sustainability relative to water resources management. However, the same approach can be used elsewhere after

Exploring an innovative watershed management approach: From feasibility to sustainability

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Said, A. [Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620 (United States); Sehlke, G. [Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, ID 83415 (United States); Stevens, D.K.; Sorensen, D.; Walker, W.; Hardy, T. [Civil and Environmental Department, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84321 (United States); Glover, T. [Economics Department, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84321 (United States)

2006-10-15

Watershed management is dedicated to solving watershed problems on a sustainable basis. Managing watershed development on a sustainable basis usually entails a balance between the needs of humans and nature, both in the present and in the future. From a watershed or water resources development basis, these problems can be classified into five general categories: lack of water quantity, deterioration in water quality, ecological impacts, weak public participation, and weak economic value. The first three categories can be combined to make up physical sustainability while the last two categories can be defined as social and economic sustainability. Therefore, integrated watershed management should be designed to achieve physical sustainability utilizing, to the greatest extent possible, public participation in an economically viable manner. This study demonstrates an innovative approach using scientific, social, and motivational feasibilities that can be used to improve watershed management. Scientific feasibility is tied to the nature of environmental problems and the scientific means to solve them. Social feasibility is associated with public participation. Motivational feasibility is related to economic stimulation for the stakeholders to take actions. The ecological impacts, lack of water quantity and deterioration in water quality are problems that need scientific means in order to improve watershed health. However, the implementation of these means is typically not achievable without the right public participation. In addition, public participation is typically accelerated by economic motivation for the stakeholders to use the resources in a manner that improves watershed health. The Big Lost River in south-central Idaho has been used as an illustration for implementing scientific, social and motivational feasibilities and in a manner that can achieve sustainability relative to water resources management. However, the same approach can be used elsewhere after

Potential Impact of Climate Change on Resilience and Livelihoods in Mixed Crop-Livestock Systems in East Africa

OpenAIRE

Mario Herrero; Peter G Jones; Stanley Karanja; Ianetta Mutie; Mariana C Rufino; Philip K Thornton

2013-01-01

Climate-induced livelihood transitions in the agricultural systems of Africa are increasingly likely. A recent study by Jones and Thornton (2009) points to the possibility of such climate-induced livelihood transitions in the mixed crop-livestock rainfed arid-semiarid systems of Africa. These mixed systems cover over one million square kilometers of farmland in West Africa, Eastern Africa,...

Pattern of livelihood and household food security among rural dwellers

African Journals Online (AJOL)

PRECIOUS

2009-12-01

Dec 1, 2009 ... among rural dwellers: Case of women pastoralists in ... The study of the pattern of livelihood and household food security among rural ... production, storage or trade but also and perhaps more ... overall rural development and poverty eradication, ... panying pressures to raise productivity and efficiency and.

Bottom-up approach to sustainable urban development in Lebanon: The case of Zouk Mosbeh

OpenAIRE

El Asmar, Jean-Pierre; Ebohon, O. J.; Taki, A. H.

2012-01-01

In contrast with the “top-down” approach to development, the dominant methodology in Lebanon, Iemphasize rather the “bottom-up” approach where all stakeholders have equal opportunities to participate in policy formulation and implementation. The bottom-up or participatory approach to sustainable development has hardly been tested for urban development and management in Lebanon. This research concerns the sustainable rehabilitation of the built environment in the area of Zouk Mosbeh (ZM) in ...

Engineering Students' Sustainability Approaches

Science.gov (United States)

Haase, S.

2014-01-01

Sustainability issues are increasingly important in engineering work all over the world. This article explores systematic differences in self-assessed competencies, interests, importance, engagement and practices of newly enrolled engineering students in Denmark in relation to environmental and non-environmental sustainability issues. The…

effect of tenure security on livelihood activities of women farmers in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

KANETH

1989-05-03

May 3, 1989 ... Keywords: tenure security, livelihood activities and rural women. INTRODUCTION .... sale to buy farming inputs or other things they cannot produce. Also about 20% of the .... Internet Insiders, USA: McGraw Hill. Quan Julian ...

Flooding, resettlement, and change in livelihoods: evidence from rural Mozambique.

Science.gov (United States)

Arnall, Alex; Thomas, David S G; Twyman, Chasca; Liverman, Diana

2013-07-01

Post-disaster development policies, such as resettlement, can have major impacts on communities. This paper examines how and why people's livelihoods change as a result of resettlement, and relocated people's views of such changes, in the context of natural disasters. It presents two historically-grounded, comparative case studies of post-flood resettlement in rural Mozambique. The studies demonstrate a movement away from rain-fed subsistence agriculture towards commercial agriculture and non-agricultural activities. The ability to secure a viable livelihood was a key determinant of whether resettlers remained in their new locations or returned to the river valleys despite the risks posed by floods. The findings suggest that more research is required to understand i) why resettlers choose to stay in or abandon designated resettlement areas, ii) what is meant by 'voluntary' and 'involuntary' resettlement in the realm of post-disaster reconstruction, and iii) the policy drivers of resettlement in developing countries. © 2013 The Author(s). Journal compilation © Overseas Development Institute, 2013.

Approach to an Affordable and Sustainable Space Transportation System

Science.gov (United States)

McCleskey, Caey M.; Rhodes, R. E.; Robinson, J. W.; Henderson, E. M.

2012-01-01

This paper describes an approach and a general procedure for creating space transportation architectural concepts that are at once affordable and sustainable. Previous papers by the authors and other members of the Space Propulsion Synergy Team (SPST) focused on a functional system breakdown structure for an architecture and definition of high-payoff design techniques with a technology integration strategy. This paper follows up by using a structured process that derives architectural solutions focused on achieving life cycle affordability and sustainability. Further, the paper includes an example concept that integrates key design techniques discussed in previous papers. !

Virtual Water and Water Footprints: Overreaching Into the Discourse on Sustainability, Efficiency, and Equity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dennis Wichelns

2015-10-01

Full Text Available The notions of virtual water and water footprints were introduced originally to bring attention to the large amounts of water required to produce crops and livestock. Recently, several authors have begun applying those notions in efforts to describe efficiency, equity, and the sustainability of resources and production activities. In this paper, I describe why the notions of virtual water and water footprints are not appropriate for analysing issues pertaining to those topics. Both notions lack a supporting conceptual framework and they contain too little information to enhance understanding of important policy issues. Neither notion accounts for the opportunity cost or scarcity value of water in any setting, or the impacts of water availability and use on livelihoods. In addition, countries trade in goods and services – not in crop and livestock water requirements. Thus, the notions of virtual water and water footprints cannot provide helpful insight regarding the sustainability of water use, economic efficiency, or social equity. Gaining such insight requires the application of legitimate conceptual frameworks, representing a broad range of perspectives from the physical and social sciences, with due consideration of dynamics, uncertainty, and the impacts of policy choices on livelihoods and natural resources.

Impact of extension interventions in improving livelihood of dairy farmers of Nadia district of West Bengal, India.

Science.gov (United States)

Garai, Suman; Garai, Sanchita; Maiti, Sanjit; Meena, B S; Ghosh, M K; Bhakat, Champak; Dutta, T K

2017-03-01

Livestock is a one of the major sources of livelihood for most of the small and marginal farmers in India, particularly for rural households who live in below poverty line. Extension interventions have long been seen as a key element for enabling farmers to obtain information and technologies that can improve their livelihoods. It is also recognized that extension is an important factor in promoting dairy development. Ex-post-facto cause to effect research design was applied in this study to trace out the impact of extension interventions in improving knowledge, attitude, adoption towards scientific dairy farming practices and improvement in milk production of dairy animal and income from dairying which will be resulted into improved livelihood of rural poor in Nadia district of West Bengal, India. Therefore, 60 dairy farmers of experimental villages who were considered as beneficiaries and 60 dairy farmers of control villages who were considered as non-beneficiaries were selected as sample for the study. It was found that beneficiaries had significantly higher score in all the five components of livelihood improvement with its all sub components, i.e., knowledge, attitude, adoption of scientific dairy farming practices, milk production per household per day and monthly income from dairying except disease control, and marketing component of adoption. Hence, it may be concluded that extension interventions had a significant impact on improving livelihood of rural dairy farmers in Nadia district of West Bengal, India.

[Livelihood status assessment of farmers and herdsmen's households based on participatory appraisal: a case in Taipusi Banner of Inner Mongolia].

Science.gov (United States)

Wei, Wen; Xu, Zhu; Shi, Shang-li; Tian, Qing-song; Wang, Hui-ping; Liu, Jian-li

2011-10-01

Participatory appraisal method was adopted to investigate the recent livelihood status of different type farmers and herdsmen's households in the Taipusi Banner of Inner Mongolia agriculture- animal husbandry ecotone, aimed to understand their livelihood strategies and restricting factors and to search for the ways to improve their living standards. The households dealing with pure agricultural production had smaller family size, with older age-structure and lower educational level, and their simple livelihood strategies brought about larger vulnerability and risk. To introduce and expand non-agricultural activities would be the important way to promote the livelihood diversification and to reduce the livelihood risks of these households. The households dealing with pure animal husbandry took grazing as the main subsistence, and their production activities were greatly restrained by the pasture vulnerability. To develop environment-friendly and high-yielding agriculture and animal husbandry would be the effective way to solve the livelihood problems of these households and to protect the ecological environment. The households dealing with both agricultural production and business or dealing with both animal husbandry and business generally had larger family size, with younger age- structure, higher diversity in labor division, larger proportion of non-farming activities, and better living standards. Especially for the households dealing with both animal husbandry and business, their income was much higher.

The Nutrition Club Approach: Community Mobilization to Prevent Child Malnutrition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nugyen, Anh Vu

2014-01-01

Full text: Objective: To establish a scalable and sustainable, community led approach to prevent and manage child malnutrition, and increase vulnerable families’ access to food security. Methods: The establishment of the nutrition club is a participatory community mobilization process involving local leaders including the Women’s Union, Farmers Union and Youth Union, local health workers and caregivers of young children. The first step in the process is the formation of district and commune management boards and community development boards. This is followed by a training needs assessment and capacity strengthening of local partners. Nutrition club facilitators are selected by the community and are widely respected and committed to community service. Monthly nutrition club meetings are attended by pregnant women and caregivers of children under five years old. Activities during the nutrition club meeting includes: care and nutrition during pregnancy and the post partum period, complementary feeding, child care practices, development of home gardens and hygiene and sanitation; using interactive facilitation methods such as games, skills practice, role plays and competitions. Follow up home visits are conducted to reinforce positive practices and support vulnerable families. Caregivers who attend the nutrition club have access to community led interest groups such as: chicken raising, livelihoods, agriculture and micro-credit schemes. Nutrition club members pay a small monthly fee that covers cost of refreshments and utilities. Monitoring and supervision is conducted by a team of government district and health center staff. Sustainability of the approach is promoted by mobilizing and utilizing existing resources. An agreement is made between the community development board and World Vision that support for running costs will gradually be reduced and discontinued after four years. The alignment of the nutrition club approach with government policy and priorities

Adaptive collaborative governance of Nepal's community forests: shifting power, strenghtening livelihoods

NARCIS (Netherlands)

McDougall, C.L.

2015-01-01

Short Summary

Cynthia McDougall--PhD Dissertation

Knowledge, Technology, &Innovation Chairgroup (WASS)

Adaptive collaborative governance of Nepal’s community forests: Shifting power, strengthening livelihoods

Ideas towards sustainable water security

Science.gov (United States)

Dalin, Carole

2016-04-01

With growing global demands and a changing climate, ensuring water security - the access to sufficient, quality water resources for health and livelihoods and an acceptable level of water related risk - is increasingly challenging. While a billion people still lack access to water, over-exploitation of this resource increases in many developed and developing parts of the world. While some solutions to water stress have been known for a long time, financial, cultural and political barriers often prevent their implementations. This talk will highlight three crucial areas that need to be addressed to progress towards sustainable water security. The first point is on scale, the second on the agricultural sector and irrigation, and the third on food trade and policy.

Groundwater and human development: challenges and opportunities in livelihoods and environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Shah, T

2005-01-01

At less than 1000 km3/year, the world's annual use of groundwater is 1.5% of renewable water resource but contributes a lion's share of water-induced human welfare. Global groundwater use however has increased manifold in the past 50 years; and the human race has never had to manage groundwater use on such a large scale. Sustaining the massive welfare gains groundwater development has created without ruining the resource is a key water challenge facing the world today. In exploring this challenge, we have focused a good deal on conditions of resource occurrence but less so on resource use. I offer a typology of five groundwater demand systems as Groundwater Socio-ecologies (GwSE), each embodying a unique pattern of interactions between socio-economic and ecological variables, and each facing a distinct groundwater governance challenge. During the past century, a growing corpus of experiential knowledge has accumulated in the industrialized world on managing groundwater in various uses and contexts. A daunting global groundwater issue today is to apply this knowledge intelligently to by far the more formidable challenge that has arisen in developing regions of Asia and Africa, where groundwater irrigation has evolved into a colossal anarchy supporting billions of livelihoods but threatening the resource itself.

The RIO approach : Design and anchoring of sustainable animal husbandry systems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Elzen, Boelie; Bos, Bram

2016-01-01

This paper discusses an approach to develop new 'integrally sustainable' animal production systems and stimulate their uptake in practice. It consists of a design approach called RIO, and a set of 'anchoring' activities to stimulate their uptake in niches and in the regime. In the period 2001-2015

Sustainability Reporting Experience by Universities: A Causal Configuration Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Zorio-Grima, Ana; Sierra-García, Laura; Garcia-Benau, Maria A.

2018-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to identify the combinations of factors leading to experience in sustainability reporting by Spanish public universities. Design/methodology/approach: Using a sample of 49 public universities in Spain, this paper identifies the combinations of factors on innovation profile, political and internal factors…

Re-use of wastewater for a sustainable forest production and climate change mitigation under arid environments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria Cristina Monteverdi

2014-06-01

Full Text Available 800x600 Over the last decades biotic and abiotic constrains together with human actions are determining a substantial environmental pressure, particularly in dry lands as the south of the Mediterranean region. From very long time, indeed, simultaneous drivers such as demographic growth, climate change and socio-economic factors are weakening the previous homeostasis between human needs and natural resources on the regional scale.Resulting pressures are determining environmental degradation and increase of desertification risk for the arid and semiarid lands. Water quality and availability are both crucial points limiting people well-being and livelihoods in the same context. Scarcity of fresh water and heavy and mismanaged production of wastewater are the main factors affecting water resources. Increasing pollution of soil and ground waters reduces the possibility of sustainable development of local communities with relevant social consequences. The FAO's supporting program in north Africa aims to: a develop new and cheaper phytotechnologies (e.g. constructed wetland system; innovative treatment system for reuse of waste water for fertigation; b treat wastewater for water quality protection; c promote land recovery by means of sustainable multipurpose forestry; d adopt bioengineering interventions to stop slopes erosion and protect urban, and semi-urban infrastructures; e create pilot demonstrative areas to test multi-purpose sustainable agroforestry systems. Within this frame, an integrated approach was designed to promote innovative sustainable water management and multipurpose forestry, in order to mitigate the effects of climate change, promote land recovery, and improve the livelihoods of local population. The present paper aims to provide an overview of the FAO project GCP/RAB/013/ITA. Particularly, two pilot studies are shown and discussed. Normal 0 14 false false false IT X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions

True Green and Sustainable University Campuses? Toward a Clusters Approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Giulia Sonetti

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Campus greening is often the first step universities take towards sustainability. However, the diffusion of sustainability reporting methodologies and rankings is still at an early stage, and is biased in mainly measuring energy efficiency indicators while omitting basic features enabling meaningful comparisons among centers or addressing social (users aspects related to long term sustainability transitions. This paper aims to introduce a critical perspective on sustainability university frameworks through: (i a review of current Campus Sustainability Assessments (CSAs; (ii performing and comparing the results obtained from the application of two internationally recognized CSAs (namely, Green Metric and ISCN to two case studies (the Politecnico di Torino, in Italy, and the Hokkaido University, In Japan and, finally, (iii proposing a new CSA approach that encompasses clusters of homogeneous campus typologies for meaningful comparisons and university rankings. The proposed clusters regard universities’ morphological structures (campuses nested within city centers versus outside of a city compact ones, climatic zones and functions. At the micro scale, the paper introduces the need for indicators beyond measuring pure energy efficiency, but which are attentive to local and societal constraints and provide long-term tracking of outcomes. This, better than a sheer record of sustainability priority actions, can help in building homogenous university case studies to find similar and scalable success strategies and practices, and also in self-monitoring progress toward achieving truly sustainable university campuses.

Forced Migration and Changing Livelihoods in the Brazilian Amazon.

Science.gov (United States)

Randell, Heather

2017-09-01

Forced migration due to development projects or environmental change impacts livelihoods, as affected households are faced with new-and often less favorable-environmental, social, and economic conditions. This article examines changing livelihood strategies among a population of rural agricultural households displaced by the Belo Monte Dam in the Brazilian Amazon. Using longitudinal data, I find that many households used compensation payments to concentrate income generation efforts on the most lucrative strategies-cacao and cattle production and business or rental income. Poorer households and those that received the least compensation were more likely to continue relying on agricultural wage labor-a less desirable income source associated with not owning land or with persons needing to supplement income with additional work as a day laborer. Results also indicate that the amount of compensation received by most households was sufficient to enable them to make productive investments beyond attaining replacement land and housing. Many households invested in assets such as agricultural infrastructure, cattle, rental houses, or tractors-all of which directly contribute to future income. Displacement compensation, similar to remittances or conditional cash transfers, can therefore act as an important infusion of capital to promote socioeconomic development and poverty reduction.

Tourism-conservation enterprises for community livelihoods and biodiversity conservation in Kenya

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nthiga, R.W.; Duim, van der V.R.; Visseren-Hamakers, I.J.; Lamers, M.A.J.

2015-01-01

Tourism-conservation enterprises (TCEs), such as eco-lodges, are a relatively new strategy of the African Wildlife Foundation for enhancing community livelihoods and wildlife conservation in wildlife-rich areas outside state-protected areas in sub-Saharan Africa. This article investigates the extent

Exploring the options for alternative means of livelihood for blind ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Aim: To explore the readiness of and the options for alternative means of livelihood for Blind Street beggars in Sokoto, Nigeria, with a view to achieving the millennium development goals. Materials and Methods: A cross.sectional study was conducted in a Local Government Area (LGA), in Sokoto State overa 6 weeks period ...

Sustainability makes ready for the future. Utilization of the energy, environmental protection; Nachhaltigkeit macht fit fuer die Zukunft. Energie nutzen, Umwelt schuetzen

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Doering, Markus; Jungbluth, Andreas; Petry, David; Mueller, Bernd

2010-09-15

Needless to say, that sustainability corresponds to the preservation of development opportunities and livelihood opportunities as well as to save the competitiveness of our country. In addition to this, the sustainability is the answer to the challenges of the globalisation, demographic change, worldwide climate changes and the shortage of energy sources. Under this aspect, the brochure under consideration contains the following contributions: (1) Discovery of energy: fundamentals and sources; (2) Utilization of energy: climate-friendly concepts; (3) Energy conservation: Environmental protection by means of efficiency; (4) Energy exploration: Innovations for a sustainable development.

Hurdles to Forest Friendly Farming: Sustainability Lessons from Southeastern Mexico

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eric Keys

2010-09-01

Full Text Available Worldwide the search is on for sustainable solutions to the competing needs for forest conservation and agricultural development. A strategy with contemporary salience arises in intensive, sedentarized agriculture that can protect forests and enhance livelihoods for forest dwellers. This paper investigates why intensive agriculture does not limit deforestation in southeastern Mexico’s Calakmul Municipality. It argues that agriculture faces challenges from a range of biophysical and socioeconomic factors in tropical regions and that this encourages expanded land use for intensive farmers.

Community-based approaches to strategic environmental assessment: Lessons from Costa Rica

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sinclair, A. John; Sims, Laura; Spaling, Harry

2009-01-01

This paper describes a community-based approach to strategic environmental assessment (SEA) using a case study of the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad's (ICE) watershed management agricultural program (WMAP) in Costa Rica. The approach focused on four highly interactive workshops that used visioning, brainstorming and critical reflection exercises. Each workshop represented a critical step in the SEA process. Through this approach, communities in two rural watersheds assessed the environmental, social and economic impacts of a proposed second phase for WMAP. Lessons from this community-based approach to strategic environmental assessment include a recognition of participants learning what a participatory SEA is conceptually and methodologically; the role of interactive techniques for identifying positive and negative impacts of the proposed program and generating creative mitigation strategies; the effect of workshops in reducing power differentials among program participants (proponent, communities, government agencies); and, the logistical importance of notice, timing and location for meaningful participation. The community-based approach to SEA offers considerable potential for assessing regional (watershed) development programs focused on sustainable resource-based livelihoods

Approaches to Sustainable Development in Contemporary Museology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Irene Campolmi

2013-05-01

Full Text Available Sustainable development has become a leading value of the 21st century society. Throsby’s and Hutter’s recent studies on inter and intra-generational equity, diversity maintenance and interdependence have demonstrated that sustainability values promote a different perspective on cultural institutions. Particularly, they incite to reorganize the production and consumption patterns, and rethink about the construction of meanings in permanent displays. The paper wants to explore how sustainability principles are an approach to develop a “sustainable museology”, which cares about making visitors more critic and aware of the political, sociological, epistemological and cultural implications that lay behind the making of exhibitions. Museums undertaking a sustainable development of their narrative making processes overpass the Foucauldian idea of art museums as heterotopy, (space of otherness, and approach that of archétopy. This model offers rooms to rethink about narratives as stakeholders’ collective processes capable to “meet the needs of the present without compromising those of the future generations”, as stated in the “Brundtland Commision” Report of 1987. The last display done by the Berlin Neue Nationalgalerie is analysed as a case-study for archétopy. Il paper analizza il concetto di sostenibilità nelle politiche governative dei musei d’arte. Lo studio osserva tale valore da un punto di vista sia teorico che pratico e cita l’esempio dei grandi musei europei, facendo più volte riferimento al caso della Tate Modern di Londra. Se da un lato l’argomento è esplicitamente collegato ai musei d’arte in quanto essi operano per la sostenibilità del bene comune, dall’altro i musei europei hanno basato le proprie politiche culturali adottando il così detto approccio “three bottom” già intrapreso dalle grandi aziende e dalle business companies. Tale approccio si basa sull’elaborazione di politiche attente alla

Conceptualizing Sustainably Produced Food for Promotional Purposes: A Sustainable Marketing Approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cecilia Solér

2012-03-01

Full Text Available Progress in transforming current food consumption and production practice in a sustainable direction is slow. Communicative, sustainable consumer policy instruments such as eco-labeling schemes have limited impact outside the green segment and within the mainstream market. This article asks how sustainably produced food can be described in order to promote such food. Based on six cases, it aims to conceptualize the common denominators of sustainable food production by drawing on recent literature on sustainable marketing and on food and sustainable development. Contradictions and implications in terms of labeling schemes, global sourcing and consumer food practice are discussed.

Strategies and models for agricultural sustainability in developing Asian countries.

Science.gov (United States)

Kesavan, P C; Swaminathan, M S

2008-02-27

The green revolution of the 1960s and 1970s which resulted in dramatic yield increases in the developing Asian countries is now showing signs of fatigue in productivity gains. Intensive agriculture practiced without adherence to the scientific principles and ecological aspects has led to loss of soil health, and depletion of freshwater resources and agrobiodiversity. With progressive diversion of arable land for non-agricultural purposes, the challenge of feeding the growing population without, at the same time, annexing more forestland and depleting the rest of life is indeed daunting. Further, even with food availability through production/procurement, millions of marginal farming, fishing and landless rural families have very low or no access to food due to lack of income-generating livelihoods. Approximately 200 million rural women, children and men in India alone fall in this category. Under these circumstances, the evergreen revolution (pro-nature, pro-poor, pro-women and pro-employment/livelihood oriented ecoagriculture) under varied terms are proposed for achieving productivity in perpetuity. In the proposed 'biovillage paradigm', eco-friendly agriculture is promoted along with on- and non-farm eco-enterprises based on sustainable management of natural resources. Concurrently, the modern ICT-based village knowledge centres provide time- and locale-specific, demand-driven information needed for evergreen revolution and ecotechnologies. With a system of 'farm and marine production by masses', the twin goals of ecoagriculture and eco-livelihoods are addressed. The principles, strategies and models of these are briefly discussed in this paper.

Agroforestry for landscape restoration and livelihood development in Central Asia.

Science.gov (United States)

U. Djanibekov; Klara Dzhakypbekova; James Chamberlain; Horst Weyerhaeuser; Robert Zomer; G. Villamor; J. Xu

2016-01-01

This paper discusses how the adoption of agroforestry for ecosystem and livelihood improvement in Central Asian countries can be enhanced. First, it describes how previous and current developments lead to changing environmental conditions, and how these changing conditions consequently affected the welfare of people. Environmental issues on a global level, such as...

Connecting Competences and Pedagogical Approaches for Sustainable Development in Higher Education: A Literature Review and Framework Proposal

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rodrigo Lozano

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Research into and practice of Higher Education for Sustainable Development (HESD have been increasing during the last two decades. These have focused on providing sustainability education to future generations of professionals. In this context, there has been considerable progress in the incorporation of SD in universities’ curricula. Most of these efforts have focussed on the design and delivery of sustainability-oriented competences. Some peer-reviewed articles have proposed different pedagogical approaches to better deliver SD in these courses; however, there has been limited research on the connection between how courses are delivered (pedagogical approaches and how they may affect sustainability competences. This paper analyses competences and pedagogical approaches, using hermeneutics to connect these in a framework based on twelve competences and twelve pedagogical approaches found in the literature. The framework connects the course aims to delivery in HESD by highlighting the connections between pedagogical approaches and competences in a matrix structure. The framework is aimed at helping educators in creating and updating their courses to provide a more complete, holistic, and systemic sustainability education to future leaders, decision makers, educators, and change agents. To better develop mind-sets and actions of future generations, we must provide students with a complete set of sustainability competences.

A sustainable future for the polar regions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dalal-Clayton, Barry; Wilson, Emma

2008-04-15

The spectre of change is galvanising debate about the future of the poles. Climatic shifts look set to affect both profoundly. As the ice melts, new marine transport routes will open up. The exploitation of natural resources could expand significantly. Further risks include marine acidification, the migration of commercial fish species and coastal erosion. In the Arctic, traditional livelihoods could suffer. Meanwhile, national claims of sovereignty over areas of ocean floor are fuelling fears of a new 'cold war' over access to mineral resources in sensitive environments. Clearly, science alone cannot address the challenges facing the poles: a coherent strategy for sustainable development is urgently needed.

A sustainable future for the polar regions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dalal-Clayton, Barry; Wilson, Emma

2008-04-15

The spectre of change is galvanising debate about the future of the poles. Climatic shifts look set to affect both profoundly. As the ice melts, new marine transport routes will open up. The exploitation of natural resources could expand significantly. Further risks include marine acidification, the migration of commercial fish species and coastal erosion. In the Arctic, traditional livelihoods could suffer. Meanwhile, national claims of sovereignty over areas of ocean floor are fuelling fears of a new 'cold war' over access to mineral resources in sensitive environments. Clearly, science alone cannot address the challenges facing the poles: a coherent strategy for sustainable development is urgently needed.

SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS as a methodical approach to the development of design strategies for environmentally sustainable buildings

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Hanne Tine Ring

. The research methodology applied in the project combines a literature study of descriptions of methodical approaches and built examples with a sensitivity analysis and a qualitative interview with two designers from a best practice example of a practice that has achieved environmentally sustainable...... architecture, such as: ecological, green, bio-climatic, sustainable, passive, low-energy and environmental architecture. This PhD project sets out to gain a better understanding of environmentally sustainable architecture and the methodical approaches applied in the development of this type of architecture...... an increase in scientific and political awareness, which has lead to an escalation in the number of research publications in the field, as well as, legislative demands for the energy consumption of buildings. The publications in the field refer to many different approaches to environmentally sustainable...

The art of 'doing' sustainable agricultural innovation: approaches and attitudes to facilitating transitional projects

OpenAIRE

Loeber, A.; Vermeulen, T.; Barbier, M.; Elzen, B.

2012-01-01

The management of projects for sustainable innovation is characterised by a variety of intricacies. Facilitators play a central role in dealing with these challenges. Adopting an empirical approach, this chapter discusses the practical approaches and attitudes that facilitators develop to deal with such challenges in the domain of agricultural innovation. To that end, the paper presents a list of four intricacies inherent in running projects that seek to enhance sustainable development, based...

A systemic approach to the discussion of sustainability of nuclear energy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aegerter, Irene

2001-01-01

In 1998 the four Swiss Scientific Academies formed a working group to study sustainability of electricity production. Having been a member of this group since the beginning I witnessed the evolution of the discussion that led to a consensus. The group found the criteria of sustainability to be special for nuclear energy. While the resource uranium is not needed for any other purpose and thus the use of uranium is sustainable, the possible harm to future generations by nuclear reactors is difficult to evaluate: the potential damage can be large but the probability of its occurrence is very small. Therefore some people judge nuclear power as an environmentally friendly source of electricity production and an important contribution towards a sustainable energy future whereas others look at the potential damage and value nuclear power as not sustainable. The discussion of alternatives then reveals that it is definitely not sustainable to replace nuclear power by fossil fuels. This was a consensus reached by the members of the working group, which consists of the pro and anti nuclear camp. Sustainable energy production is a complex topic and not easy to tackle with our everyday methods. The group decided to solve the problem with a systemic approach to get to know the hidden and indirect effects of electricity production and usage. A system approach brings a new concept into the often blocked discussion of proponents and antinuclear people. In order to assure that a holistic evaluation results which reaches a high degree of consensus, several subgroups were formed representing divergent views on the issues analysed. These groups do not communicate their findings while work on their cross impact matrices (CIMs) is under way. The results are compared and discrepancies are discussed. Usually this shows that once the wording of the variables is corrected and their interpretations are shared by the parties involved, consensus concerning evaluations is achieved

An analysis of illegal mining on the Offin shelterbelt forest reserve, Ghana: Implications on community livelihood

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Samuel Boadi

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Mining in tropical countries contributes significantly to the global minerals supplies but unregulated mining activities in reserved forests is associated with destruction, loss of habitats and loss of biodiversity. This study determined the area of the Offin shelterbelt forest reserve, Ghana, degraded through illegal mining (galamsey and the impacts on the livelihoods of fringe communities. Thirty-two (32 coordinates were recorded around the peripheries of disturbed site in the reserve using hand-held Global Positioning System and were then imported into a geodatabase in ArcGIS which was used to estimate the area degraded. Data was obtained from 60 purposively sampled respondents from two communities fringing the reserve and 10 key informant interviews. Increased income (13%, employment opportunities (6.7% and increased market activities (2% were some benefits of the illegal mining activities identified by the respondents. Eight respondents associated their employment with of the advent of illegal mining activities out which 6 (70% were engaged directly in mining activities, while 2 (30% were into trading. The miners earned cash income range of US $ 2.9–22.9 daily. Within 5 years, illegal mining had degraded 2.5 km2 (4.4% of the total area of the reserve and the destruction of cocoa farms and water sources (31. Farming among respondents reduced from 90% to 76% after illegal mining. The relatively high cost (US$ 6424.1 involved in flushing out and the subsequent return of such miners poses a threat to sustainable forest management and requires a more holistic approach in tackling such a problem.

Effect of tenure security on livelihood activities of women farmers in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

On perceived effect of non-tenure security on livelihood activities, 17% percent of the respondents stated inability to use land for collateral, 25% complained about fragmentation of land, 23% complained about their inability of planting long duration crops, 20% complained about farming system being difficult to change, while ...

Impact of Woodfuel Production on The Livelihood of the People in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Abstract. The study examined the impact of woodfuel production on the livelihoods of people in Saleni and Pongwe-Msungura villages in Bagamoyo district. ... It is recommended that, villagers and other stakeholders be encouraged and given incentives to plant fast growing trees for firewood and charcoal making. Census ...

AIDS and Rural Livelihoods. Dynamics and Diversity in Sub-Saharan Africa

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Niehof, Anke; Rugalema, G.; Gillespie, S.

2010-01-01

HIV and AIDS continue to devastate the livelihoods of millions of Africans and represent the major public health challenge in many countries. More people die of AIDS each day than from wars, famine and floods combined, while an orphaned generation of children must be provided for. Yet despite

Conservation as a Core Asset for Livelihood Security in East Africa ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

This project aims to help rural households and decision-makers better understand conservation and biodiversity as key components of rural livelihood improvement strategies and security in East Africa and the Horn of Africa. It will do so by documenting lessons learned by rural communities on the linkages between ...

Applying stakeholder Delphi techniques for planning sustainable use of aquatic resources

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lund, Søren; Banta, Gary Thomas; Bunting, Stuart W

2015-01-01

and Vietnam. The purpose of this paper is to give an account of how the stakeholder Delphi method was adapted and applied to support the participatory integrated action planning for sustainable use of aquatic resources facilitated within the HighARCS project. An account of the steps taken and results recorded......The HighARCS (Highland Aquatic Resources Conservation and Sustainable Development) project was a participatory research effort to map and better understand the patterns of resource use and livelihoods of communities who utilize highland aquatic resources in five sites across China, India...... of the stakeholder Delphi requires the presence of multidisciplinary and facilitating skills and competences within the implementing teams which should be considered before deciding to include a Stakeholder Delphi as a decision-making tool...

Designing sustainable work systems: the need for a systems approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Zink, Klaus J

2014-01-01

There is a growing discussion concerning sustainability. While this discussion was at first mainly focused on a society level--and sometimes regarding especially environmental problems, one can now see that this topic is of increasing relevance for companies worldwide and even the social dimension of this three pillar approach is gaining more and more importance. This leads to some questions: Is sustainability already a part of human factors thinking or do we have to further develop our discipline? How can we define sustainable work systems? What are the topics we have to consider? Do we need a new systems ergonomics perspective regarding whole value creation chains and a life-cycle perspective concerning products (and work systems)? How can we deal with potential contradictions about social, ecological, and economic goals? Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd and The Ergonomics Society. All rights reserved.

Sustainable land management (SLM) practices in drylands: how do they address desertification threats?

Science.gov (United States)

Schwilch, G; Liniger, H P; Hurni, H

2014-11-01

Managing land sustainably is a huge challenge, especially under harsh climatic conditions such as those found in drylands. The socio-economic situation can also pose challenges, as dryland regions are often characterized by remoteness, marginality, low-productive farming, weak institutions, and even conflict. With threats from climate change, disputes over water, competing claims on land, and migration increasing worldwide, the demands for sustainable land management (SLM) measures will only increase in the future. Within the EU-funded DESIRE project, researchers and stakeholders jointly identified existing SLM technologies and approaches in 17 dryland study sites located in the Mediterranean and around the world. In order to evaluate and share this valuable SLM experience, local researchers documented the SLM technologies and approaches in collaboration with land users, utilizing the internationally recognized WOCAT questionnaires. This article provides an analysis of 30 technologies and 8 approaches, enabling an initial evaluation of how SLM addresses prevalent dryland threats, such as water scarcity, soil degradation, vegetation degradation and low production, climate change, resource use conflicts, and migration. Among the impacts attributed to the documented technologies, those mentioned most were diversified and enhanced production and better management of water and soil degradation, whether through water harvesting, improving soil moisture, or reducing runoff. Favorable local-scale cost-benefit relationships were mainly found when considered over the long term. Nevertheless, SLM was found to improve people's livelihoods and prevent further outmigration. More field research is needed to reinforce expert assessments of SLM impacts and provide the necessary evidence-based rationale for investing in SLM.

Sustainable Land Management (SLM) Practices in Drylands: How Do They Address Desertification Threats?

Science.gov (United States)

Schwilch, G.; Liniger, H. P.; Hurni, H.

2014-11-01

Managing land sustainably is a huge challenge, especially under harsh climatic conditions such as those found in drylands. The socio-economic situation can also pose challenges, as dryland regions are often characterized by remoteness, marginality, low-productive farming, weak institutions, and even conflict. With threats from climate change, disputes over water, competing claims on land, and migration increasing worldwide, the demands for sustainable land management (SLM) measures will only increase in the future. Within the EU-funded DESIRE project, researchers and stakeholders jointly identified existing SLM technologies and approaches in 17 dryland study sites located in the Mediterranean and around the world. In order to evaluate and share this valuable SLM experience, local researchers documented the SLM technologies and approaches in collaboration with land users, utilizing the internationally recognized WOCAT questionnaires. This article provides an analysis of 30 technologies and 8 approaches, enabling an initial evaluation of how SLM addresses prevalent dryland threats, such as water scarcity, soil degradation, vegetation degradation and low production, climate change, resource use conflicts, and migration. Among the impacts attributed to the documented technologies, those mentioned most were diversified and enhanced production and better management of water and soil degradation, whether through water harvesting, improving soil moisture, or reducing runoff. Favorable local-scale cost-benefit relationships were mainly found when considered over the long term. Nevertheless, SLM was found to improve people's livelihoods and prevent further outmigration. More field research is needed to reinforce expert assessments of SLM impacts and provide the necessary evidence-based rationale for investing in SLM.

Breaking resilience for a sustainable future: Thoughts for the anthropocene

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Glaser, Marion; Plass-Johnson, Jeremiah Grahm; Ferse, Sebastian C. A.

2018-01-01

and degraded state of the coral reefs that fishers’ livelihoods depend on.We argue that,more often than not in the Anthropocene, breaking resilience has a central role in the pursuit of sustainable human-nature relations. Therefore, the link between the resilience and the transformation debates needs...... on reef fisheries in the Spermonde Island Archipelago in Indonesia, based on social and ecological studies between 2004 and 2016. We identify a number of interlocking wickedly resilient vicious cycles as predominant drivers of the impoverishment of fishing households and the overexploited, polluted...

Vulnerability and resilience of competing land-based livelihoods in south eastern Zimbabwe

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Murungweni, C.

2011-01-01

Key words: vulnerability; resilience; livelihood; drought; Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area; south eastern Zimbabwe.

Vulnerability and resilience have emerged as powerful analytical concepts in the study of socio-ecological systems. In this research these concepts are used

Biomass, Livelihoods and International Trade. Challenges and Opportunities for the EU and Southern Africa

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Johnson, Francis X [Stockholm Environment Institute, Climate and Energy Programme, Stockholm (Sweden); Rosillo-Calle, Frank [Imperial College London, Centre for Energy Policy and Technology, London (United Kingdom)

2007-04-15

This report is an outcome of a workshop held on 29-30 April 2005, in London, entitled, 'Biomass, Sustainable Livelihoods, and International Trade: Challenges and Opportunities for the EU and southern Africa.' The workshop focused on the intersection of these three topics by addressing the questions of how biomass and bio-energy can contribute to creating livelihoods, while also promoting trade and sustainable development. Special emphasis was placed on international cooperation between two economic blocs: the European Union (EU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Initially this report was expected to be a point-of-reference on some of the issues raised at the workshop, and in the follow-up discussions that took place among the participants, and their associates during the summer and fall of 2005. However, the fast-moving pace of issues relating to expansion of bioenergy production, consumption and trade during the past year required a different approach. Consequently, over the past year the authors have expanded the report into a longer review, with background and details on the topics and regions. Some of the workshop participants also made contributions to this follow-up effort. It is hoped that the report will stimulate new ideas and partnerships not only for policy analysis/research, but also for the design and implementation of development cooperation programmes. The rapid changes occurring around the world in relation to these issues during the past year, particularly in the area of biofuels production and trade, complicated the task of writing the report. The dynamic nature of analysis and research that is intended to have strong policy relevance necessarily makes any documentation of this type incomplete. An attempt has been made by the authors, wherever possible, to update the report based on policy developments during the past year. The workshop served as a starting point for scoping out some key issues and creating contacts and

Biomass, Livelihoods and International Trade. Challenges and Opportunities for the EU and Southern Africa

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Johnson, Francis X. [Stockholm Environment Institute, Climate and Energy Programme, Stockholm (Sweden); Rosillo-Calle, Frank [Imperial College London, Centre for Energy Policy and Technology, London (United Kingdom)

2007-04-15

This report is an outcome of a workshop held on 29-30 April 2005, in London, entitled, 'Biomass, Sustainable Livelihoods, and International Trade: Challenges and Opportunities for the EU and southern Africa.' The workshop focused on the intersection of these three topics by addressing the questions of how biomass and bio-energy can contribute to creating livelihoods, while also promoting trade and sustainable development. Special emphasis was placed on international cooperation between two economic blocs: the European Union (EU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Initially this report was expected to be a point-of-reference on some of the issues raised at the workshop, and in the follow-up discussions that took place among the participants, and their associates during the summer and fall of 2005. However, the fast-moving pace of issues relating to expansion of bioenergy production, consumption and trade during the past year required a different approach. Consequently, over the past year the authors have expanded the report into a longer review, with background and details on the topics and regions. Some of the workshop participants also made contributions to this follow-up effort. It is hoped that the report will stimulate new ideas and partnerships not only for policy analysis/research, but also for the design and implementation of development cooperation programmes. The rapid changes occurring around the world in relation to these issues during the past year, particularly in the area of biofuels production and trade, complicated the task of writing the report. The dynamic nature of analysis and research that is intended to have strong policy relevance necessarily makes any documentation of this type incomplete. An attempt has been made by the authors, wherever possible, to update the report based on policy developments during the past year. The workshop served as a starting point for scoping out some key issues and creating contacts

Biomass, Livelihoods and International Trade. Challenges and Opportunities for the EU and Southern Africa

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Johnson, Francis X.; Rosillo-Calle, Frank

2007-04-01

This report is an outcome of a workshop held on 29-30 April 2005, in London, entitled, 'Biomass, Sustainable Livelihoods, and International Trade: Challenges and Opportunities for the EU and southern Africa.' The workshop focused on the intersection of these three topics by addressing the questions of how biomass and bio-energy can contribute to creating livelihoods, while also promoting trade and sustainable development. Special emphasis was placed on international cooperation between two economic blocs: the European Union (EU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Initially this report was expected to be a point-of-reference on some of the issues raised at the workshop, and in the follow-up discussions that took place among the participants, and their associates during the summer and fall of 2005. However, the fast-moving pace of issues relating to expansion of bioenergy production, consumption and trade during the past year required a different approach. Consequently, over the past year the authors have expanded the report into a longer review, with background and details on the topics and regions. Some of the workshop participants also made contributions to this follow-up effort. It is hoped that the report will stimulate new ideas and partnerships not only for policy analysis/research, but also for the design and implementation of development cooperation programmes. The rapid changes occurring around the world in relation to these issues during the past year, particularly in the area of biofuels production and trade, complicated the task of writing the report. The dynamic nature of analysis and research that is intended to have strong policy relevance necessarily makes any documentation of this type incomplete. An attempt has been made by the authors, wherever possible, to update the report based on policy developments during the past year. The workshop served as a starting point for scoping out some key issues and creating contacts and

How to quantify sustainable development: a risk-based approach to water quality management.

Science.gov (United States)

Sarang, Amin; Vahedi, Arman; Shamsai, Abolfazl

2008-02-01

Since the term was coined in the Brundtland report in 1987, the issue of sustainable development has been challenged in terms of quantification. Different policy options may lend themselves more or less to the underlying principles of sustainability, but no analytical tools are available for a more in-depth assessment of the degree of sustainability. Overall, there are two major schools of thought employing the sustainability concept in managerial decisions: those of measuring and those of monitoring. Measurement of relative sustainability is the key issue in bridging the gap between theory and practice of sustainability of water resources systems. The objective of this study is to develop a practical tool for quantifying and assessing the degree of relative sustainability of water quality systems based on risk-based indicators, including reliability, resilience, and vulnerability. Current work on the Karoun River, the largest river in Iran, has included the development of an integrated model consisting of two main parts: a water quality simulation subroutine to evaluate Dissolved Oxygen Biological Oxygen Demand (DO-BOD) response, and an estimation of risk-based indicators subroutine via the First Order Reliability Method (FORM) and Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS). We also developed a simple waste load allocation model via Least Cost and Uniform Treatment approaches in order to consider the optimal point of pollutants control costs given a desired reliability value which addresses DO in two different targets. The Risk-based approach developed herein, particularly via the FORM technique, appears to be an appropriately efficient tool for estimating the relative sustainability. Moreover, our results in the Karoun system indicate that significant changes in sustainability values are possible through dedicating money for treatment and strict pollution controls while simultaneously requiring a technical advance along change in current attitudes for environment protection.

The Effects of Biofuel Feedstock Production on Farmers’ Livelihoods in Ghana: The Case of Jatropha curcas

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Emmanuel Acheampong

2014-07-01

Full Text Available The widespread acquisition of land for large-scale/commercial production of biofuel crops in Ghana has raised concerns from civil society organizations, local communities and other parties, regarding the impact of these investments on local livelihoods. This paper assessed the effect of large-scale acquisition of land for production of Jatropha curcas on farmers’ livelihoods in Ghana. The study was conducted in 11 communities spanning the major agro-ecological zones and political divisions across Ghana. Methods of data collection included questionnaire survey, interviews and focus group discussions. Results show that several households have lost their land to Jatropha plantations leading, in some cases, to violent conflicts between biofuel investors, traditional authorities and the local communities. Most people reported that, contrary to the belief that Jatropha does well on marginal lands, the lands acquired by the Jatropha Companies were productive lands. Loss of rights over land has affected households’ food production and security, as many households have resorted to reducing the area they have under cultivation, leading to shortening fallow periods and declining crop yields. In addition, although the cultivation of Jatropha led to the creation of jobs in the communities where they were started, such jobs were merely transient. The paper contends that, even though the impact of Jatropha feedstock production on local livelihoods in Ghana is largely negative, the burgeoning industry could be developed in ways that could support local livelihoods.

SERVIR HIMALYA: Enabling Improved Environmental Management and Livelihoods in the HKH

Science.gov (United States)

Bajracharya, B.; Murthy, M. S. R.; Shrestha, B.

2014-11-01

With an overarching goal to improve environmental management and resilience to climate change, SERVIR-Himalaya is established as a collaborative initiative of USAID, NASA and ICIMOD. The SERVIR-Himalaya has been the key instrument to provide integrated and innovative geospatial solutions for generation and dissemination of information and knowledge resources on mountain environments. The SERVIR applications, products and services are viewed as essential cross-cutting elements to achieve the greater impacts on addressing Himalayan livelihood challenges. The broad thematic areas which are also subset of the societal benefit areas of Global Earth Observation (GEO), namely - agriculture and food security, ecosystems and sustainable landscapes, and disaster risk management are addressed. On the cross-cutting theme, SERVIR Himalaya is also focusing on developing regional level applications providing key information systems and services on multiple themes of regional significance. The regional level science applications include use of MODIS satellite information products and services for environmental and natural resources monitoring in the Himalayan region. Regional and national training and workshops, on-the-job training, internships and exchange programs and technical backstopping are key capacity building components to enhance the capacity of partners from national institutions in the regional member countries. These efforts are also seen as receiving feedback on the science applications, identify additional needs, and increase synergy by exploring opportunities for collaboration.

On a Vision to Educating Students in Sustainability and Design—The James Madison University School of Engineering Approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Olga Pierrakos

2011-12-01

Full Text Available In order for our future engineers to be able to work toward a sustainable future, they must be versed not only in sustainable engineering but also in engineering design. An engineering education must train our future engineers to think flexibly and to be adaptive, as it is unlikely that their future will have them working in one domain. They must, instead, be versatilists. The School of Engineering at James Madison University has been developed from the ground up to provide this engineering training with an emphasis on engineering design, systems thinking, and sustainability. Neither design nor sustainability are mutually exclusive, and consequently, an education focusing on design and sustainability must integrate these topics, teaching students to follow a sustainable design process. This is the goal of the James Madison University School of Engineering. In this paper, we present our approach to curricular integration of design and sustainability as well as the pedagogical approaches used throughout the curriculum. We do not mean to present the School’s model as an all or nothing approach consisting of dependent elements, but instead as a collection of independent approaches, of which one or more may be appropriate at another university.

Digital labour and development: impacts of global digital labour platforms and the gig economy on worker livelihoods.

Science.gov (United States)

Graham, Mark; Hjorth, Isis; Lehdonvirta, Vili

2017-05-01

As ever more policy-makers, governments and organisations turn to the gig economy and digital labour as an economic development strategy to bring jobs to places that need them, it becomes important to understand better how this might influence the livelihoods of workers. Drawing on a multi-year study with digital workers in Sub-Saharan Africa and South-east Asia, this article highlights four key concerns for workers: bargaining power, economic inclusion, intermediated value chains, and upgrading. The article shows that although there are important and tangible benefits for a range of workers, there are also a range of risks and costs that unduly affect the livelihoods of digital workers. Building on those concerns, it then concludes with a reflection on four broad strategies - certification schemes, organising digital workers, regulatory strategies and democratic control of online labour platforms - that could be employed to improve conditions and livelihoods for digital workers.

Avoid, Control, Succumb, or Balance: Engineering Students' Approaches to a Wicked Sustainability Problem

Science.gov (United States)

Lönngren, Johanna; Ingerman, Åke; Svanström, Magdalena

2017-08-01

Wicked sustainability problems (WSPs) are an important and particularly challenging type of problem. Science and engineering education can play an important role in preparing students to deal with such problems, but current educational practice may not adequately prepare students to do so. We address this gap by providing insights related to students' abilities to address WSPs. Specifically, we aim to (I) describe key constituents of engineering students' approaches to a WSP, (II) evaluate these approaches in relation to the normative context of education for sustainable development (ESD), and (III) identify relevant aspects of learning related to WSPs. Aim I is addressed through a phenomenographic study, while aims II and III are addressed by relating the results to research literature about human problem solving, sustainable development, and ESD. We describe four qualitatively different ways of approaching a specific WSP, as the outcome of the phenomenographic study: A. Simplify and avoid, B. Divide and control, C. Isolate and succumb, and D. Integrate and balance. We identify approach D as the most appropriate approach in the context of ESD, while A and C are not. On this basis, we identify three learning objectives related to students' abilities to address WSPs: learn to use a fully integrative approach, distinguish WSPs from tame and well-structured problems, and understand and consider the normative context of SD. Finally, we provide recommendations for how these learning objectives can be used to guide the design of science and engineering educational activities.

Transition of shifting cultivation and its impact on people’s livelihoods in the Miombo Woodlands of Northern Zambia and South-Western Tanzania

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Grogan, Kenneth Joseph; Birch-Thomsen, Torben; Lyimo, James

2013-01-01

population, government policies, and an increasing commercialization/market integration. Questionnaires, focus group meetings, and in-depth interviews reveal that despite the breakdown of the traditional shifting cultivation practices, a general improvement of livelihoods has taken place. This has happened...... through adaptation and diversification in both agricultural practices and livelihood activities. However, it is also seen that because of the often rapidly changing external factors (market conditions and policies), life in the shifting cultivation communities involves a continual shift of emphasis among...... a variety of livelihood strategies....

Agricultural transformations, livelihoods and rural-city connections. Policy implications for regional development

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Steel, G.|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/304349828; van Lindert, P.H.C.M.|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/069299382; Fold, Niels; Mynborg, Tobias

2016-01-01

This report analyses agricultural transformations, livelihoods and rural-city connections in Sub-Saharan Africa with the aim to identify key policy areas for regional development. The report draws on the results from comparative empirical studies in various dynamic rural regions characterized by

The differential impact of microcredit on rural livelihoods: Case study from Ethiopia

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Siyoum, A.D.; Hilhorst, D.J.M.; Pankhurst, A.S.A.

2012-01-01

This paper examines the differential impact of credit on rural Ethiopian households. Though credit is generally expected to have a positive impact on household livelihoods, this paper argues that credit affects households differently depending on wealth. Results show that credit failed to enable

Community knowledge and sustainable natural resources management: learning from the Monpa of Arunachal Pradesh

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ranjay K. Singh

2006-04-01

Full Text Available Community knowledge and local institutions play a significant role in sustainable comanagement, use and conservation of natural resources. Looking to the importance of these resources, a project, funded by the National Innovation Foundation (NIF, Ahmedabad, India was implemented to document the community knowledge associated with agriculture and natural resources in few selected Monpa tribe dominating villages of West Kameng and Tawang Districts of Arunachal Pradesh, India. Dynamics of various indigenous practices, gender role, culture and informal rural social institutions, cultural edges significantly contribute in managing and using the natural resources sustainably. Experiential learning and location specific knowledge play a pivotal role in ecosystem sustainability. Study also indicates the synergistic relation existing between local knowledge and ecological edges, thereby helping in sustaining livelihood in high altitude. Indigenous resource management systems are not mere traditions but adaptive responses that have evolved over time.

Sustainable employability--definition, conceptualization, and implications: A perspective based on the capability approach.

Science.gov (United States)

van der Klink, Jac J L; Bültmann, Ute; Burdorf, Alex; Schaufeli, Wilmar B; Zijlstra, Fred R H; Abma, Femke I; Brouwer, Sandra; van der Wilt, Gert Jan

2016-01-01

The aim of this paper is to propose a new model of sustainable employability based on the capability approach, encompassing the complexity of contemporary work, and placing particular emphasis on work-related values. Having evaluated existing conceptual models of work, health, and employability, we concluded that prevailing models lack an emphasis on important work-related values. Amartya Sen's capability approach (CA) provides a framework that incorporates a focus on values and reflects the complexity of sustainable employability. We developed a model of sustainable employability based on the CA. This model can be used as starting point for developing an assessment tool to investigate sustainable employability. A fundamental premise of the CA is that work should create value for the organization as well as for the worker. This approach challenges researchers, policy-makers, and practitioners to investigate what people find important and valuable--what they would like to achieve in a given (work) context--and moreover to ascertain whether people are able and enabled to do so. According to this approach, it is not only the individual who is responsible for achieving this; the work context is also important. Rather than merely describing relationships between variables, as existing descriptive models often do, the CA depicts a valuable goal: a set of capabilities that constitute valuable work. Moreover, the CA fits well with recent conceptions of health and modern insights into work, in which the individual works towards his or her own goals that s/he has to achieve within the broader goals of the organization.

A modular approach for stimulating knowledge use in organizations to attain real sustainable innovations

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ad Breukel; Dr. ir. Jan Venselaar

2010-01-01

The Fociss (Focussing Innovation for a Sustainable Strategy) approach is a structured method to define core business related issues within sustainable development that require main attention in a specific company. In theory, Fociss has the ability for all kinds of innovations, but the implementation

LIVELIHOOD DIVERSIFICATION AND INCOME: A CASE STUDY OF COMMUNITIES RESIDENT ALONG THE KIRI DAM, ADAMAWA STATE, NIGERIA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michael Amurtiya

2016-12-01

Full Text Available This research analysed livelihood diversifi cation and income in resident communities along the Kiri Dam, Adamawa state, Nigeria. The specifi c objectives of the study were: to describe the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents, assess the level of livelihood diversifi cation of the respondents, analyse income of the respondents, identify factors associated with varying levels of income, and identify constraints to livelihood diversifi cation in the area. A multistage sampling technique was used to collect primary data from 120 respondents from the study area. The data collected were subjected to descriptive and inferential statistical analysis. The results showed that the majority of the respondents were male (78%, married (76%, educated (70%, below 60 years of age (93% and employed in agricultural activities (83%. The Simpson index of diversifi cation shows that 43% of the respondents diversify at an average level. The majority (60% of the respondents’ annual income is over ₦ 200,000. The ordinary least square estimation shows that age, marital status, education, irrigation activities, fi shing, farm size and level of diversifi cation aff ect income level in the area. The main constraints to diversifi ed livelihood in the area were a lack of basic social infrastructure, a hippopotamus menace and fl ooding. The study recommended the provision of social infrastructure and the control of hippopotamuses. 

Gender and climate change in the Indian Himalayas: global threats, local vulnerabilities, and livelihood diversification at the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve

Science.gov (United States)

Ogra, M. V.; Badola, R.

2015-08-01

Global climate change has numerous implications for members of mountain communities who feel the impacts in both physical and social dimensions. In the western Himalayas of India, a majority of residents maintain a livelihood strategy that includes a combination of subsistence or small-scale agriculture, livestock rearing, seasonal or long-term migration, and localized natural resource extraction. While warming temperatures, irregular patterns of precipitation and snowmelt, and changing biological systems present challenges to the viability of these traditional livelihood portfolios in general, we find that climate change is also undermining local communities' livelihood assets in gender-specific ways. In this paper, we present a case study from the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve (Uttarakhand, India) that both outlines the implications of climate change for women farmers in the area and highlights the potential for ecotourism (as a form of livelihood diversification) to strengthen both key livelihood assets of women and local communities' adaptive capacity more broadly. The paper intentionally employs a categorical focus on women but also addresses issues of inter-group and gender diversity. With this special issue in mind, suggestions for related research are proposed for consideration by climate scientists and social systems and/or policy modelers seeking to support gender justice through socially transformative perspectives and frameworks.

Livelihoods, vulnerability and adaptation to climate change in Morogoro, Tanzania

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Paavola, Jouni

2008-01-01

This article examines farmers' livelihood responses and vulnerability to climate variability and other stressors in Morogoro, Tanzania, to understand their implications for adaptation to climate change by agricultural households in developing world more generally. In Morogoro, agricultural households have extended cultivation, intensified agriculture, diversified livelihoods and migrated to gain access to land, markets and employment as a response to climatic and other stressors. Some of these responses have depleted and degraded natural resources such as forest, soil and water resources, which will complicate their living with climate change in the future. This will be particularly problematic to vulnerable groups such as women, children and pastoralists who have limited access to employment, markets and public services. In this light, fair adaptation to climate change by agricultural households in Morogoro and elsewhere in developing countries requires several complementary responses. Adaptation efforts should involve effective governance of natural resources because they function as safety nets to vulnerable groups. In addition, strengthening of national markets by infrastructure investments and institutional reforms is needed to give incentives to intensification and diversification in agriculture. Market participation also demands enhancement of human capital by public programs on health, education and wellbeing

Earthworms, pesticides and sustainable agriculture: a review.

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Datta, Shivika; Singh, Joginder; Singh, Sharanpreet; Singh, Jaswinder

2016-05-01

The aim of this review is to generate awareness and understand the importance of earthworms in sustainable agriculture and effect of pesticides on their action. The natural resources are finite and highly prone to degradation by the misuse of land and mismanagement of soil. The world is in utter need of a healthy ecosystem that provides with fertile soil, clean water, food and other natural resources. Anthropogenic activities have led to an increased contamination of land. The intensification of industrial and agricultural practices chiefly the utilization of pesticides has in almost every way made our natural resources concave. Earthworms help in a number of tasks that support many ecosystem services that favor agrosystem sustainability but are degraded by exhaustive practices such as the use of pesticides. The present review assesses the response of earthworm toward the pesticides and also evaluates the relationship between earthworm activity and plant growth. We strictly need to refresh and rethink on the policies and norms devised by us on sustainable ecology. In an equivalent way, the natural resources should be utilized and further, essential ways for betterment of present and future livelihood should be sought.

Tackling the Sustainability Dilemma: A Holistic Approach to Preparing Students for the Professional Organization

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Mabry, Sibylle

2011-01-01

Increased knowledge of business sustainability as the basis of a holistic approach to value creation has inspired many managers to integrate ecological and social stewardship into their strategic business innovation plans. However, the coverage of sustainability issues in business courses remains small at many universities. This article…

Livelihood Capabilities and Pathways of Shrimp Farmers in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tran Thi Phung Ha, Ha; Dijk, van J.W.M.; Bosma, R.H.; Sinh, L.X.

2013-01-01

Shrimp farming is a major livelihood activity in the Mekong Delta in the southernmost part of Vietnam. The Vietnamese government has promoted shrimp farming as a way to reduce poverty, provide employment opportunities and increase exports to support economic development. The shrimp farming system,

People's practices : exploring contestation, counter-development, and rural livelihoods : ...cases from Muktinagar, Bangladesh

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Huq, H.

2000-01-01

People's Practices: Exploring contestation, Counter - development, and rural livelihoods

The central problems explored in the thesis concern the vulnerability of disadvantaged local people, especially women, and their agency; development discourses and counter-development

Methodological issues in implementing a sustainable forest management plan in remote mountain areas - The Karakorum (Pakistan)

OpenAIRE

Ferrari, Efrem

2014-01-01

Based on a practical case-study, the Central Karakorum National Park - Gilgit-Baltistan - Pakistan, the aim of the thesis is to present a methodological framework for promoting the sustainable forest management in mountain areas characterized by remoteness, difficulties of access and where few data are available. Forest resources of Karakorum Mountains assume an essential role for the livelihoods of local communities, heavily dependent on wood for heating, cooking and construction purposes...

Origin of the Livelihood Dilemma for Local Fisherman in Poyang Lake Wetland: a Ramsar Site in China

Science.gov (United States)

Xie, Dongming; Zhou, Guohong; Zhou, Yangming; Chen, Yayun; Jia, Junsong

2018-01-01

Poyang Lake is one of the first Ramsar sites in China; it has plenty of natural resources that support the survival of local residents. However, local fisherman have encountered a livelihood dilemma, as natural resources have declined, obviously because of the change in the ecological environment and anthropic disturbance. We seek to explain what lead to livelihood dilemma to the local fishermen, so semi-structured interviews, questionnaire surveys, Geographic information system (GIS), Remote sensing (RS), Global position system (GPS), and department data were used to analyze the internal and external factors for these dilemmas. The results explained the external factors including the exhaustion of natural resources, the drying up of wetlands, landscape fragmentation, water contamination, and disturbance through anthropic behavior; the internal factors included the ageing of fishermen, poor cultural quality, conservative ideas, and unreasonable fishing practices. Eco-compensation, industry transformation, and capacity innovation may help to resolve livelihood dilemmas for the local fisherman of the Poyang Lake wetlands.

Assessment Of Current State And Impact Of REDD On Livelihood Of Local People In Rungwe District Tanzania

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fredrick Ojija

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract A climate change mitigation mechanism Reducing Emission from Deforestation and forest Degradation REDD is anticipated to affect livelihoods of forest dependent communities. This study was conducted to establish this impact on livelihoods of local people in Rungwe District Tanzania. Data were collected through questionnaires group discussions and interviews from three villages Syukula Ilolo and Kibisi. Results showed that households annual income and crop production are higher after REDD implementation. The older respondents 40 years old considered REDD to be important for forest management compared to younger generation 40 years old p0.05. Similarly the older respondents considered wood forest products such as fuelwood charcoal timber and poles to be reduced. There was a widespread awareness about REDDs objectives among household respondents. Therefore REDD proponents should implement alternative sources of livelihoods to help local people improve their income and reduce dependence on the forest resources and eventually decrease deforestation and forest degradation.

Digital labour and development: impacts of global digital labour platforms and the gig economy on worker livelihoods

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