How to Create a Sustainable Livelihood

Sustainable livelihood is closely related to the concept of "sustainability" which is gaining global interest. Many world citizens especially in the developed nations are beginning to share the view that we must undertake a determined shift toward sustainable practices in virtually all areas of commerce and human activity. This is based on a wide range of economic, environmental, and quality-of-life indicators that are becoming increasingly evident worldwide. These include growing fragility in the economy, rising energy prices, worsening air quality, growing traffic congestion, urban sprawl into sensitive habitat, and much more. Globally, there is growing evidence of systemic decline in earth's major ecological systems including its atmosphere, oceans, forests, fresh water supplies, agricultural underpinning, and biodiversity.

According to Selznick, sustainability means living and working in a manner that can be continued indefinitely without causing harm to the natural world, to our fellow human beings, or to future generations. It means using resources more efficiently and minimizing waste. True sustainability is durable, economic balanced, vibrant, healthy, and satisfying to the human spirit. It demonstrates that we can all design, build, buy, invest, travel, and in general live and prosper in a manner that is economically secure, environmentally sound, and personally fulfilling.

A community is a group of people living together and having interests, work, etc. in common. A community possesses a framework of shared beliefs, interests and commitments that unites a set of varied groups and activities'. Some of the community members are in fact closet to the environment and deserve to be known as ecology based communities. Islands communities vary in their total land area; in their location, either in favorable situations or challenging ones, natural hardships; natural resource bases, land and surrounding sea; and prospects for economic prosperity. The variations can also be related to vulnerability to external interventions; ecological fragility; and the extent which they are perceived or perceive themselves as insular and peripheral.

According to Guralnik, sustainability is a capacity. It is a mean of approaching the world that has to be based on practice, so with a given stock of resources they come up with specific do's and don'ts in order to sustain (worldly) life. Intergenerational distribution of resources is considered.

In a study, researcher from the University of Yale finds that the sustainable living is an approach to social and economic, indeed, all activities, for all societies, rich and poor, which is compatible with the preservation of the environment. It is based on a philosophy of interdependence, of respect for life as well as non-living parts of nature, and responsibility for future generations. There is no single path towards a sustainable future. Each person, community, ethic or religious group, region, country, or culture should search for its own unique approaches based on historical roots, technologies, population dynamics and specific natural conditions.

Reference:

Selznick, P., 1996, In Search of Community. In W. Vitek and W. Jackson (Eds.), Rooted in the Land: Essays on Community and Place (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press), 195-203.