Links to Rural Livelihoods and Sustainable Development

Livelihoods Concepts and Approaches

Livelihoods Connect. The comprehensive website from DFID and IDS on Sustainable Livelihoods. Contains guidance sheets, distance learning materials, key documents, organisational links, the sustainable livelihoods toolbox, experiences, case studies and much more. Guidance sheets are available in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese. Some documents in Russian.

Livelihoods livelihood module of Wageningen University.

Sustainable Development Concepts, Definitions

General Issues of Sustainability - Defining Sustainable Development Page from Washington State University with abstracts of a number of papers that consider definitions and concepts of sustainable development from different viewpoints. Good place to start. From same site see also: Earthwise - writings on sustainable ecology.

Environment and Sustainable Development United Nations University. A glance at the major issues.

Encyclopedia of Sustainable Development Written for children - so clear and simple language. Good overview. UK Department of Environmental & Rural Affairs (Defra) and Manchester Metropolitan University.

Sustainable Development - Articles

What is Sustainable Agriculture? by Gail Feenstra (1997) at Univ. California at Davis Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Programme. Good general overview, with reference to California.

Environmental Sustainability and the Redesign of Agroecosystems by Stuart B. Hill (1992)

Sustainable Agriculture: It's About People by John Ikerd

Reflections on sustainable agriculture by Richard L. Tinsley, Asian Insitutite of Technology; some reflections on sustainability and the small farms of the South.

Sustainable Development Institutions

Earth Trends page of World Resources Insitute. Global topics and trends, statistics, country level data, etc. Access to the influential World Resources Report.

International Institute for Sustainable Development of CIDA/IDRC, Canada. Check out pages on Introduction to Sustainable Development. br>
Sustainable Livelihoods site of DFID/IDS (Department for Internationial Development and Institute for Development Studies, Sussex University, UK). Describes broad-based DFID/IDS approach to analysing and building sustainable livelihoods. Contains online learning resources, more complete downloadable guidance sheets, tools, etc. Check pages on definition of sustainable livelihood, and environmental sustainability. Good glossary.

Sustainable Development Dimensions - website of the Sustainable Development Department of FAO (a glance at the programmes gives impression of areas of global concern, if little discussion of underlying concepts).

United Nations Environment Programme. A glance at this website gives an idea of global concerns.

International Institute for Environment and Development. UK.

Gateways to more links on Sustainable Development, Livelihoods, Agriculture, etc.

Learning for sustainability. Comprehensive site with leads to lots of good resources and links to all aspects of sustainability, management of natural resources and social learning. Constructed by Will Allen of Land Care Research Ltd, New Zealand, there are lots of references to work in Australasia, but the links to concepts and approaches are general. Definitely worth a visit!

Sustainable Development Gateway from the International Institute for Sustainable Development (Canada).

Google gateway to sustainable development.