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 in...

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 re...

This paper examines the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change mechanism Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+), and its associated multitude of global to local safeguards, as they apply to a single ejido on the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. It draws on written sources and interviews to analyze the ways in which broad international norms articulated through the REDD+ safe...

© The Ecological Society of America www.frontiersinecology.org D some improvement in environmental outcomes, conventional agriculture continues to contribute to biodiversity loss, climate change, and the degradation of terrestrial and freshwater systems (Foley et al. 2011 ). A major global challenge is to develop sustainable, “climatesmart” agricultural systems that feed growing populations and...

Cover images: A montage of two satellite sensor products, the cover image shows the lights of human settlements and (on May 14, 2002) variation in sea surface temperatures. The image illustrates several World Development Report 2003 themes: the link between growth and environment (higher income correlated with greater energy use), the continuing socioeconomic challenge of inequality and poverty...

The sustainable livelihood framework is a widely used approach to analyze changes in rural livelihoods, especially in resource dependent communities. The framework emphasizes that given a certain situation where the livelihood context, resources and institutions remain favourable, livelihood strategies carried out by people could possibly lead to two different outcomes. One, the results of live...

The primary objective of this study is to evaluate and analyse the significance Sustainable Livelihoods Approach (SLA) its application rural development projects policies. A literature review conducted, with focus being on components SLA. researchers noted that SLA effectively interrogates livelihoods poor various mechanisms in approach. These include all forms capital, vulnerability aspect, li...

Rural societies in war-affected areas can be described as ’distressed livelihoods’: they experience a dramatic increase in risk and uncertainty. How does this affect land use and agricultural coping strategies of small-scale farm households? This was the key research question of a multi-disciplinary, comparative village study carried out in the war-torn areas of Sri Lanka. The study employed th...