Strengthening Empowerment

8. Sustainable Livelihoods
Supporting environmentally sustainable livelihoods among coastal communities

The links between local livelihoods and ecosystem well-being is now widely recognised. Lessons learned from a number of post-tsunami recovery projects which aimed to restore livelihoods showed that inadequate attention was paid to considerations of long-term environmental sustainability, impacts on ecosystems, or to meet changing aspirations and needs in the future, and focused only on replacing damaged infrastructure or skills. However, major efforts have been made to promote environmentally sustainable livelihood restoration via initiatives such as the Greencoast project, and by agencies such as CARE, CONSRN, CORDIO, FAO, FFI, IUCN, Oxfam, SACEP, UNDP, UNEP, WCS, Wetlands International, and WWF.

Ecosystem restoration and environmental rehabilitation measures need to provide coastal communities with sufficient opportunities to participate or benefit, leading to serious questions about both their economic viability and long-term sustainability. Interventions further need to address long-term needs and trends in terms of the changing needs and aspirations of coastal populations, and meeting future and continuing threats to ecosystems and livelihoods. Integrating ecosystem and livelihood concerns is complex, and requires that many different – and interrelated – conditions and dynamics are understood and tackled. Many of these factors are highly context-specific. It is vitally important to look into the underlying causes of poverty, vulnerability and livelihood insecurity, to understand the direct and underlying cause of ecosystem degradation, as well as to be clear about the types of livelihood activities that are acceptable, sustainable and realistic.

MFF together with it partners seeks to address the continuing challenges to coastal ecosystems and livelihoods in Indian Ocean countries. Four sectors in particular ecotourism, fisheries, aquaculture/mariculture and non-fish mangrove products have been highlighted as requiring particular attention in terms of opportunities to strengthen sustainable livelihoods at the local level, as well as to integrate ecosystem and livelihood concerns. MFF also promotes action learning. For example, in 2009 MFF co-sponsored 13 delegates from diverse disciplines, from the eastern coast of Sri Lanka to participate in a cross-country study tour in Thailand.

The idea was to expose the delegates, who are all leaders in their respective areas, to successful coastal management, as well as lessons learned from badly designed post-tsunami interventions, environmental stewardships, true entrepreneurs, eco-tourism and other sustainable income generating activities for successful replication in their region.

MFF works to:

• Develop models to guide livelihood restoration in post-disaster situations, and methodologies to promote an action-learning approach to ensure that livelihood restoration activities are adapted to specific local needs and ecosystem conditions.
  
  
• Develop and replicate small community-led ecotourism activities related to mangroves and other coastal ecosystems, and improve access to markets.
  
  
• Support the restoration of fisheries and aquaculture in tsunami-affected areas, and ensure that these efforts are environmentally sustainable.
  
  
• Develop efforts to add value to local use and marketing of non-fish mangrove products, linked to community-based management and conservation approaches.
  
  
• Identify and share information on alternative livelihoods which can address key threats to coastal ecosystems which arise from unsustainable exploitation or damaging harvesting methods, while meeting the long-term needs and changing socio-economic aspirations of coastal communities
  
  

  The actions under this programme of work contribute towards the following MFF results: More environmentally sustainable coastal livelihoods Improved participation in, support for, and benefit from, ecosystem conservation among coastal dwellers More integrated development and conservation actions which serve to reduce vulnerability and increase resilience among coastal communities