Integrating Insights from Social-Ecological Interactions into Sustainable Land Use Change Scenarios for Small Islands in the Western Indian Ocean

Rebecca Jo Stormes Newman, Claudia Capitani, Colin Courtney-Mustaphi, Jessica Paula Rose Thorn, Rebecca Kariuki, Charis Enns and Robert Marchant
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Rebecca Jo Stormes Newman: York Institute for Tropical Ecosystems, Department of Environment and Geography, University of York, Heslington, York, North Yorkshire YO10 5NG, UK
Claudia Capitani: York Institute for Tropical Ecosystems, Department of Environment and Geography, University of York, Heslington, York, North Yorkshire YO10 5NG, UK
Colin Courtney-Mustaphi: Geoecology, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 27, 4056 Basel, Switzerland
Jessica Paula Rose Thorn: York Institute for Tropical Ecosystems, Department of Environment and Geography, University of York, Heslington, York, North Yorkshire YO10 5NG, UK
Rebecca Kariuki: School of Life Sciences and Bio-Engineering, Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology (NM-AIST), P.O. Box 447, Arusha 23306, Tanzania
Charis Enns: Geography Department, University of Sheffield, Winter St, Sheffield S3 7ND, UK
Robert Marchant: York Institute for Tropical Ecosystems, Department of Environment and Geography, University of York, Heslington, York, North Yorkshire YO10 5NG, UK

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 4, 1-22

Abstract: Small islands are vulnerable to the synergistic effects of climate change and anthropogenic disturbances due to the fact of their small area, geographical isolation, responsive ecologies, rapidly growing and developing populations and exposure to sea level and climate change. These changes exert pressures on ecosystem services, such as the provisioning of resources, and therefore threaten the sustainability of livelihoods. We reviewed key sustainability and livelihoods literature to bring together concepts of environmental livelihood resilience and stability across temporal and spatial scales and integrated them to produce a new conceptual framework for dynamic environmental livelihood sustainability (DESL). This framework aims to facilitate the incorporation of local community perspectives into water, energy and food nexus thinking about sustainable land use to support local livelihoods. Finally, we provide insights from this case study to evaluate the effectiveness of the DESL framework in addressing gaps in existing frameworks. We suggest this framing provides a mechanism for enhancing the agency of communities to produce more cohesive and inclusive land use management plans that can lead to enhanced environmental sustainability pathways.

Keywords: climate change; decision making; human well-being; nexus; participatory methods; poverty alleviation; Zanzibar (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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