Achieving sustainability by introducing alternative livelihoods |
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Authors: | Zafar Adeel Uriel Safriel |
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Institution: | (1) International Network on Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH), United Nations University, 50 Main Street East, L8N 1E9 Hamilton, Canada;(2) Department of Evolution, Systematics and Ecology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Safra Campus at Givat Ram, Jerusalem, 91904, Israel |
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Abstract: | The millennium ecosystem assessment report on global assessment of desertification has highlighted its worldwide impacts on
the environment—increasing dust storms, floods and global warming—as well as on societies and economies. It links sustainable
management of resources, and inter alia well-being of dryland populations, to reducing societal pressures on dryland ecosystems
through adoption of alternative livelihoods. This paper, in combination with a companion paper by Safriel and Adeel, presents
the conceptual underpinnings of this approach as well as examples of how innovative approaches for creating livelihoods can
help reduce the pressure on marginal drylands. Three case studies presented are based on activities undertaken within a joint
international project called sustainable management of marginal drylands. First, introduction of chicken farming to farmers
in Hunshundake Sandland in northern China has reduced the pressure on grasslands and led to a major recovery of these ecosystems.
Second, development of desert-based aquaculture, with accompanied longer-term storage of water, on the margins of the Cholistan
desert in Pakistan has provided a new source of income for the villagers. Third, development of a new income-generating activity
based on soap production from olive oil in Dana Biosphere Reserve in Jordan has demonstrated that traditional olive farming
can be linked to community-based innovation to create a new, high-demand market for goods. Working with communities to develop
new, sustainable livelihoods that reduce pressure on marginal drylands can thus be used as powerful tool for overcoming and
reversing desertification. |
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Keywords: | Desertification Alternative livelihoods Sustainability Developing countries |
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