The effects of climate change make maintaining this balance all the more challenging, especially for people who work directly with terrestrial and aquatic resources. SFS Centers use interdisciplinary approaches to help students understand how the concept of sustainable livelihoods applies to multi-scale processes, from household decision making to national environmental policy.
Students examine how sociocultural, economic, and political factors shape resource use across a fragmented rainforest landscape. SFS staff and students, in collaboration with local landholders and stakeholder organizations, focus on regenerating and restoring the rainforest of the Atherton Tablelands while supporting the livelihoods of communities that live there. Students also explore topics of sustainable and regenerative agriculture in the region.
Gross National Happiness (GNH) is Bhutan’s driving development philosophy. GNH has four pillars—sustainable socioeconomic development, preservation and promotion of culture, conservation of environment, and good governance—all geared toward producing, perpetuating, and promoting sustainable livelihoods rather than unsustainable consumption. Students explore and critique GNH and examine how Bhutan’s development policy addresses issues like food security, poverty reduction, cultural preservation, and sustainability.
Adaptation and collaborative conservation efforts are necessary for the people of Cambodia to ensure food security and sustainable livelihoods for the future. Students explore local populations’ dependence upon natural resources and the primary drivers of change in local livelihood strategies while discussing approaches to finding a sustainable balance between human needs and biodiversity preservation. Students take a range of field trips to understand livelihood strategies of farmers and fishers, and other rural community members.
Climate change and geologic forces are influencing the livelihoods of many Patagonians. Fishers are impacted by coastal storms and adverse consequences of fish farming, ranchers are increasingly imperiled by inconsistent rains, and seismic and volcanic events close farms and displace communities. In a place where many people share an intimate relationship with the earth, changes to the landscape – both small and dramatic – have profound impacts.
Students examine the socio-cultural and economic complexity of the Maasai Steppe region. They explore the tenuous balance between competing interests where pastoralist communities coexist with small-scale agrarians and eco-tourism adventure businesses in Kenya’s national parks and conservation areas. Students visit community members and exchange views on the links between the social-economic development and natural resource management.
Students visit rare primary tropical rainforests and learn about the histories of people whose traditions and livelihoods are intimately connected to the Amazon. We study how natural resources have been managed over millennia and examine a suite of livelihood strategies that are both typical of resource-rich, rural areas and unique to Peru. Students learn how nature-society interactions, such as agriculture, resource extraction, tourism, and rural development, have shaped local livelihoods.