The designation and enforcement of protected areas in southeast Brazil severely restricted livelihoods of rural inhabitants, who had limited options to adapt to new settings. Serious challenges emerged from deficiency in local capacity for the organization, management, and application of mitigation interventions. However, the Cananéia Oyster Producers’ Cooperative managed to overcome numerous challenges and was a finalist for the United Nations Development Programme’s 2002 Equator Prize for simultaneous poverty alleviation and biodiversity conservation. Qualitative research methods, including Rapid Rural Appraisal tools, were employed to examine the cooperative’s self-organization, cross-scale institutional linkages, and livelihood and conservation impact. Through various coordinated endevours such as the adoption of oyster rearing beds, depuration station, education, and designation of an extractive reserve, cooperative members have been able to improve their livelihoods while minimizing environmental impact. Lessons learned from the cooperative on simultaneous poverty alleviation and biodiversity conservation are presented in the final chapter of this thesis. / May 2006

Disaster impacts have grown significantly in the last half century. Additionally, in 2007 the number of urban residents surpassed that of rural populations generating a struggle for resources, inevitably leading to increased challenges in the achievement of reduction in both urban poverty and disaster vulnerability. Although the literature on disaster recovery suggests that a ‘build back better’ approach is now the accepted norm, there are still many cases worldwide where the reconstruction process actually rebuilds rather than reduces vulnerabilities. The literature on disaster risk reduction provides some basic principles for sustainable hazard mitigation, however, evaluation criteria for effective post-disaster response and reconstruction have yet to be developed. This research will enrich the ongoing debate about what ‘sustainable hazard mitigation’ entails and how it fits into broader development goals in less developed countries (LDCs). A case study examination of a socio-ecological system allows for the identification of the ways in which planning, policy, partnerships, and the like, can be used to reduce vulnerabilities in a post-disaster setting, thus, improving outcomes in future disastrous events. In the absence of a framework for evaluation of disaster risk reduction effectiveness in the literature, an Assessment of Post-disaster Risk Reduction Effectiveness (PDARRE) was created. Thirty three criteria were derived from the literature and ‘good practices’ to address common challenges and necessary actions for successful post-disaster reconstruction which results in reduced vulnerability. The selected case study is a debris flow disaster which decimated the northern coastal state of Vargas, Venezuela in 1999. Torrential rainfall exceeding 900mm fell on the Sierra El Avila Mountains over three days. The results from the PDARRE evaluation found an overwhelmingly poor response to the Vargas disaster, although some positive actions were also noted. Individual community members were not well-informed of the risks they faced living in Vargas and have still not been provided adequate capacity to reduce their vulnerability, nine years after the disaster. The creation of new institutions immediately following the debris flows led to slow decision-making and weak governance as new managers struggled to adapt to their new positions. In addition, poor communication across government institutions, lack of enforcement of zoning policies and an incomplete system of early warning compounded vulnerability and governance concerns. Long-term monitoring of post-disaster recovery and reconstruction has typically been left to local governments that often get distracted by economic pressures and changes. To assist with post-disaster efforts, PDARRE was created to monitor and evaluate effectiveness. The criteria for this assessment were derived from many sources and were organized into categories to assist local governments to see which areas of their disaster response system are weakest, and enable effective adjustments to their activities, consequently improving the entire disaster management system. Though other checklists and tools for post-disaster response activities do exist, I argue that these over-emphasize the immediate response activities and time-frame. The post-disaster context provides an opportunity to harness funding that can be directed at-risk and vulnerability reduction efforts. Consistent with the perspective of prominent international NGOs, this research is based on the prevailing belief that disaster management can be more successful if mainstreamed into broader sustainable development goals and activities. Similar to other disasters, the Vargas debris flow disaster was a convergence of unfortunate and dangerous circumstances. As disasters continue to grow in magnitude and increase in frequency, the importance of strong disaster management plans will be reinforced the world over. With a synthesis of poverty and vulnerability reduction strategies, disaster-affected communities can use the post-disaster context as an opportunity to achieve more sustainable livelihoods, increased equity and improved safety.

Land deals are common in resource-rich countries and have increased during the past years. Contributing factors to the augmentation of land investments in agriculture and forestry are known to be climate change, rising global food prices, rising income levels and changing diets. The international debate on the topic points at the fact that these types of investments create not only great opportunities but also risks and challenges to the host countries, which often have high poverty rates. In order for land deals to be beneficial for all involved actors there is a voiced need for information about the performances and processes of large-scale land deals already at early stages. The objective of this study is to identify and understand the complexities at household level in relation to a new land deal and to explain how these complexities might hinder positive impacts on rural development that this land deal can entail. This thesis draws on a field study of one particular new land deal, Rainbow Oil, in Madagascar where the phenomenon has become substantial during the past few years. The material has been collected through semi-structured interviews and observations as part of an ethnographic approach. Interviews have been made with the investor and authorities at multiple levels but mainly with peasants in the concerned villages. The findings of the study have been analyzed using the sustainable livelihoods framework which permits the analysis to be both holistic and people-centered. Results from the study indicate that hopes for rural development due to the land deal of Rainbow Oil are evident but that certain factors in the peasants’ access to livelihood assets seem to hinder them from engaging in the land use change. Concluding remarks from the results of the study demonstrate that the investor might not have recognized the necessary prerequisites for a successful involvement of the local populations. Deficiencies in the communication between the actors seem to have created uncertainties and skepticism that can further impede both the development of the land use change itself and in turn also the possible development of particularly the concerned villages.

Disaster impacts have grown significantly in the last half century. Additionally, in 2007 the number of urban residents surpassed that of rural populations generating a struggle for resources, inevitably leading to increased challenges in the achievement of reduction in both urban poverty and disaster vulnerability. Although the literature on disaster recovery suggests that a ‘build back better’ approach is now the accepted norm, there are still many cases worldwide where the reconstruction process actually rebuilds rather than reduces vulnerabilities. The literature on disaster risk reduction provides some basic principles for sustainable hazard mitigation, however, evaluation criteria for effective post-disaster response and reconstruction have yet to be developed. This research will enrich the ongoing debate about what ‘sustainable hazard mitigation’ entails and how it fits into broader development goals in less developed countries (LDCs). A case study examination of a socio-ecological system allows for the identification of the ways in which planning, policy, partnerships, and the like, can be used to reduce vulnerabilities in a post-disaster setting, thus, improving outcomes in future disastrous events. In the absence of a framework for evaluation of disaster risk reduction effectiveness in the literature, an Assessment of Post-disaster Risk Reduction Effectiveness (PDARRE) was created. Thirty three criteria were derived from the literature and ‘good practices’ to address common challenges and necessary actions for successful post-disaster reconstruction which results in reduced vulnerability. The selected case study is a debris flow disaster which decimated the northern coastal state of Vargas, Venezuela in 1999. Torrential rainfall exceeding 900mm fell on the Sierra El Avila Mountains over three days. The results from the PDARRE evaluation found an overwhelmingly poor response to the Vargas disaster, although some positive actions were also noted. Individual community members were not well-informed of the risks they faced living in Vargas and have still not been provided adequate capacity to reduce their vulnerability, nine years after the disaster. The creation of new institutions immediately following the debris flows led to slow decision-making and weak governance as new managers struggled to adapt to their new positions. In addition, poor communication across government institutions, lack of enforcement of zoning policies and an incomplete system of early warning compounded vulnerability and governance concerns. Long-term monitoring of post-disaster recovery and reconstruction has typically been left to local governments that often get distracted by economic pressures and changes. To assist with post-disaster efforts, PDARRE was created to monitor and evaluate effectiveness. The criteria for this assessment were derived from many sources and were organized into categories to assist local governments to see which areas of their disaster response system are weakest, and enable effective adjustments to their activities, consequently improving the entire disaster management system. Though other checklists and tools for post-disaster response activities do exist, I argue that these over-emphasize the immediate response activities and time-frame. The post-disaster context provides an opportunity to harness funding that can be directed at-risk and vulnerability reduction efforts. Consistent with the perspective of prominent international NGOs, this research is based on the prevailing belief that disaster management can be more successful if mainstreamed into broader sustainable development goals and activities. Similar to other disasters, the Vargas debris flow disaster was a convergence of unfortunate and dangerous circumstances. As disasters continue to grow in magnitude and increase in frequency, the importance of strong disaster management plans will be reinforced the world over. With a synthesis of poverty and vulnerability reduction strategies, disaster-affected communities can use the post-disaster context as an opportunity to achieve more sustainable livelihoods, increased equity and improved safety.

Community-based tourism (CBT) has become an important facet in the quest for sustainable tourism. CBT is a term that has been subjected to different interpretations in the academic literature. In the field, CBT continues to be supported as an approach to improve the livelihoods of local people in communities participating in tourism. With growing interest in the sustainable livelihoods approach to development, tourism researchers have begun to examine tourism as a livelihood strategy. However, there remain few case studies that have connected the sustainable livelihoods approach and tourism. More specifically, there is limited empirical evidence exploring community-based tourism as a livelihood strategy for rural communities. This research employed an exploratory mixed methods approach to investigate community-based tourism from a livelihoods perspective. The case of the Commonwealth of Dominica was examined to address the following objectives: i) to assess the approach to the development of community-based tourism on the island of Dominica; ii) to analyze residents’ perceptions of the impacts that tourism has on their community from a livelihoods perspective; and iii) to evaluate the degree of success (or failure) of community-based tourism development in Dominica. The research findings revealed that community-based tourism is a valued component of Dominica’s national tourism strategy. Since the early nineties, community involvement has been an implicit policy in the tourism development process. More recently, government-funded initiatives have provided assistance to communities across the island to develop, implement, and market community tourism products. Additionally, this research suggests that the livelihood asset pentagon presented in the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework for Tourism (Shen, Hughey, and Simmons, 2008) is an effective organizational tool for assessing the impact of tourism on communities. Future research should be directed at applying the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework for Tourism in more diverse contexts to ensure its validity and applicability. Furthermore, there is a need to develop a comprehensive Community-based Tourism Framework to assist in the monitoring and evaluation of community-based tourism projects in the field. The main conclusion drawn from this study is that the island of Dominica is on a successful path for developing community-based tourism and it has the potential to yield a number of ‘best practice’ scenarios for the Caribbean region and the globe a like.

Since its introduction into mainstream society two decades ago, ecotourism has become an international phenomenon. Claimed by its proponents to endorse ecologically, socially, and economically sustainable travel to natural areas, ecotourism is in many ways the conceptual fusion of conservation and development. Yet, despite the optimism often associated with the phenomenon, the question of the degree to which it actually contributes to development, however defined, has become a controversial issue. Theorists and practitioners hold a variety of opinions of ecotourism, ranging from cautious optimism (Honey 2008; Ross & Wall 1999) to outright rejection (Carrier & Macleod 2005; Wheeller 2003). Unfortunately, research shows that the poorest of the poor generally bear the burden of ecotourism initiatives without receiving an equitable share of the associated benefits (Stem et al. 2003; Western & Wright 1994). In response, a sustainable livelihoods approach is proposed as a practical means of understanding the complex livelihood strategies employed by indigenous populations. While tourism research has often focused on the economic impacts of ecotourism initiatives, current livelihoods discourse suggests that the poor draw on a wide range of assets and incorporate a variety of livelihood strategies, in their pursuit of economic gain (Ashley 2002; Ashley et al. 2001; Bebbington 1999; Bennett et al. 1999; Zoomers 1999). This discourse is especially timely for pastoral populations living adjacent to protected areas in Kenya. Recent changes in government policy have promoted the subdivision of land for private ownership (Homewood et al. 2009; Leserogol 2005; Lamprey & Reid 2004), an unexpected transformation that has led to the adoption of ecotourism as a sustainable livelihood strategy. Informed by development theory, tourism theory, and property rights theory, the purpose of this research was to examine the effect of different land tenure regimes on the distribution of benefits accrued from various ecotourism initiatives, and how those benefits impact the livelihoods of the pastoral Maasai living on the periphery of the Maasai Mara National Reserve. Culturally-appropriate, participatory research methods were combined with the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework to document an indigenous perspective on livelihood sustainability. By adapting the conceptual framework to include cultural and historical capital, it served as a lens for viewing and identifying the culturally embedded meaning associated with the recent privatisation of Maasai property. These changes include: significant increases in income generated from ecotourism initiatives, an increased desire to cultivate land, an enhanced capacity for participating in the decision-making process, and greater diversification in local livelihood strategies. However, the empirical evidence also demonstrated that changing property regimes have led to the increased sedentarisation of these semi-nomadic people, resulting in modifications to their pastoral culture, reductions in their herd sizes, and the occasional obstruction of wildlife migratory patterns through the construction of permanent fences.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the relation between national economic ventures, environmental security and community development. It does so through a case study of the implementation process of an iron and copper mine (La Dominga Project) in a “biodiversity hotspot” in central-northern Chile. Using qualitative methods to gather empirical data and a discursive analytical framework, it seeks to understand how the mine affects livelihoods and community development, as perceived by local citizens. The results show that the state, the extractive industries and private landowners constantly contest the local community’s access to land. The state and the industry have an advantage in power, manifested in the decision-making procedure. As a consequence of the deficient participation in this process, the community faces a forced exposure to risk. La Dominga jeopardizes local livelihoods and alternative development plans, which show potential to be long-term ecologically sustainable. Those are 1) the community based- and adaptively co-managed area for exploitation of benthic resources and 2) the tourist activities, based on the bird and whale spotting tours to the closely located protected islands. The thesis further suggests that social mobilization and articulation of local resistance fails because of 1) elements of social control within the community, 2) the discursive role of mining, and more specifically copper mining in the Chilean landscape ideologies and 3) CSR-interventions in form of extensive, individual “grant programs”.

Increased domestic and international demand for aquatic foods have greatly enhanced aquaculture practices and production in Bangladesh, which is reflected in the national economy. However, the impacts of a fast growing aquaculture sector through the involvement of stakeholders, poorer sections throughout the value chain and broader rural livelihoods are largely underdeveloped and have frequently been ignored. The present study explores the impacts of dynamic aquaculture sector on stakeholders at production level and supply chain and test the hypothesis that aquaculture is enhancing rural livelihoods and benefiting the poor. Three aquaculture production systems in three areas of Bangladesh were selected for the study. These were prawn production in gher system in Jessore, pond fish culture in Mymensingh and rice-fish farming in Dinajpur. This selection allowed analysis both the impacts of domestic and export marketing of aquaculture products. Participatory research data collection tools; focus group discussions and participatory mapping were commonly used along with questionnaire surveys to ensure participation of stakeholders. Aquaculture, in general, found to have had significant impacts on rural livelihoods. The greatest effect of aquaculture on farming households were observed in income and consumption. Integrated aquaculture systems were the regular source of fish and vegetables and constitute more than half of the fish and vegetables consumed by farming households. While income from aquaculture was the highest among the several household income sources, the main cash crop differed between the systems studied. Prawn, fish and rice was the main cash earning crops for gher farming, fish farming and rice-fish farming respectively. Qualitative investigation suggested that aquaculture not only increased income through greater production volume, but also improved farmers’ assets through income diversification to farm and non-farm sources. The other important outcomes of aquaculture were the enhancement of social safety nets through increased sharing of inputs and labour among farmers. Commonly the aquaculture systems were found to be more intensive with an increasingly commercial attitude over the last ten years, which affected the intra-household labour distribution leading to a greater role for women in production management. While the three activities; fish feed preparation, feeding and growing vegetables performed by vast majority of women could be attributed to their inherent involvement with agriculture, hard physical work like harvesting ponds and pond construction were mostly carried out by the women from poor households as a strategy to reduce hired labour cost. The women’s’ increased involvement in aquaculture not only increased their overall workload, but also empowered them in household decision making to some extend. However, involvement in decision making was related to the level of involvement in production activities. The impacts of aquaculture spread beyond the farming households to the broader rural livelihoods. Wage labourers and fishers (harvesting teams) two of the poorest groups of people directly involved were benefited most over the last ten years. Intensification of aquaculture increased the demand for hired labour leading to a structural shift in the agricultural wage labour market in farming communities. About half of the agricultural labourers were found part-time employed in aquaculture activities in Jessore and Mymensingh. In Dinajpur intensification of rice cultivation had a much higher effect on the demand for labour than aquaculture. Increased employment in rural areas increased real labour wages by about one fifth over the last ten years and subsequently improved livelihood outcomes. Declining fish catch due to both decreased natural fish stocks and more restricted property rights, professional fishers benefited by diversifying their livelihoods into the aquaculture sector. While, many of the fishers permanently changed their profession to prawn marketing in Jessore, the rest were full-time or part-time employed in harvesting ponds and/or retailing fish in markets. Such diversification of income greatly reduced seasonal vulnerability and improved livelihood outcomes. The role of fish marketing, which is a critical institution in rural livelihoods, was found to facilitate the growth of the aquaculture sector. High demand of aquatic products and the diverse options of marketing fisheries enabled farmers to meet their initial requirements. More commercial operations of aquaculture increased farmers’ awareness and linkages to markets. However, typically the worse-off farmers were the slowest to capture new market opportunities, often due to their poor resources and human capital. Fish marketing was found to be run by the private sector and government provided the infrastructure facilities, except prawn processing plants, which were developed by private sector. While the fish market transactions were fairly efficient, markets facilities and infrastructure were commonly poor and need of government investment for improvement. A gradual growth of fish and markets in the rural areas was observed in the study; this was driven by the increased demand for fish through increased population and supply from aquaculture. The marketing intermediaries provided important services despite their small share of consumers’ price and ensured a fair share for farmers. The auctioneers provided a vital role in running the supply chain with investment and credits, which ensured fair competition in the pricing process. Marketing of aquatic products was not only a mechanism of product transaction, but also provided critical livelihoods for rural poor. On average about one hundred people, including retailers were involved in auction markets and eight people in prawn depots. Importantly the number of people in marketing was found to have increase over the years. Access for different groups of poor people to marketing jobs was found to be significant in rural livelihoods. The asset base and daily earning indicates that more than three quarters of the marketing intermediaries were poor; some of them were from poorest and low cast Hindu society. Greater flexibility of entry and exit to the jobs enabled the poorer sections to diversify their livelihoods, which enabled to cope with seasonal variability of opportunities and stable income. The marketing employment provided then increased livelihood welfare and social security. Finally, it can be concluded that the promotion of aquaculture not only increased much needed food availability but also generated critical livelihoods and marketing is not just a mechanism of product flow, but also providing livelihoods welfare to poorest sections of the society. The micro level findings of the study regarding impacts of aquaculture indicate that aquaculture production and marketing have significant impacts on enhancing rural livelihoods in Bangladesh.

The socioeconomic context of many biodiversity rich countries is argued to be heavily dwarfed in current conservation and development debate, resulting in that projects that intersect complex issues of development and conservation are often simplistically deemed as being unsuccessful. The aim of this research has therefore been to attain a more profound understanding of how socioeconomic conditions and local neoliberal contexts effect ICDP projects and to an extent also agroecological transition. In this case study ten qualitative life-story interviews were carried out during a minor field study in rural Las Pavas, Nicaragua. These were further analyzed through the use of the sustainable livelihood approach in order to identify what impacts the local socioeconomic contexts had on participant livelihoods and also what prospects and challenges C.I.P.P’s permaculture project presented in this regard. The empirical evidence shows that participant livelihoods were subjected to several constraints that were buttressed by the neoliberal development context which signified a great reliance on cattle raising as main financial activity at the expense of other important natural assets such as forest and water. Furthermore, demonstrating that permaculture projects had to provide the widest range of benefits with the least amount of risk in order to be adopted.

Community-based tourism (CBT) has become an important facet in the quest for sustainable tourism. CBT is a term that has been subjected to different interpretations in the academic literature. In the field, CBT continues to be supported as an approach to improve the livelihoods of local people in communities participating in tourism. With growing interest in the sustainable livelihoods approach to development, tourism researchers have begun to examine tourism as a livelihood strategy. However, there remain few case studies that have connected the sustainable livelihoods approach and tourism. More specifically, there is limited empirical evidence exploring community-based tourism as a livelihood strategy for rural communities. This research employed an exploratory mixed methods approach to investigate community-based tourism from a livelihoods perspective. The case of the Commonwealth of Dominica was examined to address the following objectives: i) to assess the approach to the development of community-based tourism on the island of Dominica; ii) to analyze residents’ perceptions of the impacts that tourism has on their community from a livelihoods perspective; and iii) to evaluate the degree of success (or failure) of community-based tourism development in Dominica. The research findings revealed that community-based tourism is a valued component of Dominica’s national tourism strategy. Since the early nineties, community involvement has been an implicit policy in the tourism development process. More recently, government-funded initiatives have provided assistance to communities across the island to develop, implement, and market community tourism products. Additionally, this research suggests that the livelihood asset pentagon presented in the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework for Tourism (Shen, Hughey, and Simmons, 2008) is an effective organizational tool for assessing the impact of tourism on communities. Future research should be directed at applying the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework for Tourism in more diverse contexts to ensure its validity and applicability. Furthermore, there is a need to develop a comprehensive Community-based Tourism Framework to assist in the monitoring and evaluation of community-based tourism projects in the field. The main conclusion drawn from this study is that the island of Dominica is on a successful path for developing community-based tourism and it has the potential to yield a number of ‘best practice’ scenarios for the Caribbean region and the globe a like.