Sustainable livelihood approaches and soil erosion risks: Who is to judge?

摘要

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to contribute to debates about environmental policy inrndeveloping countries by examining how far sustainable livelihoods approaches (SLAs) to developmentrnmay allow an alternative and less universalistic approach to environmental changes such as soilrnerosion.rnDesign/methodology/approach - The paper provides an overview of debates aboutrnenvironmental narratives and SLAs. There are tensions in both debates, about how far localrninstitutions represent adaptations to predefined environmental risks, or instead enable a redefinition ofrnrisks according to the experience of poor people. In addition, there is a tension in how far SLAs shouldrnbe seen as a fixed institutional design, or as a framework for organizing ideas and concerns aboutrndevelopment. The paper presents research on soil erosion in Thailand as a case study of how SLAs canrnredefine risks from erosion for poor people.rnFindings - SLAs provide a more contextual analysis of how environmental changes such as soilrnerosion represent risk to different land users, and hence SLAs can make environmental interventionsrnmore relevant for reducing vulnerability. But this approach can only succeed if intervener agencies arernwilling to consider challenging pre-existing environmental narratives in order to empower localrnlivelihoods.rnOriginality/value - The paper adds to existing research on SLAs by exploring the implications ofrnSLAs for redefining environmental assumptions. The paper forms part of work aiming to makerndebates about the politics of environmental knowledge and science more practically relevant withinrndevelopment policy.