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Use
of Sustainable Livelihoods Approaches
Sustainable livelihoods were an important component of the
project, the aim being to develop and test mechanisms for:
- identifying
potential livelihoods opportunities in the selected areas;
-
analysing the viability of these opportunities, with additional
focus on market demand, feasibility, and socio-economic
and environmental implications;
-
creating viable initiatives, taking into account financial,
human resource, social, infrastructural and other factors
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acting as models for sustainable development that could
be replicated in other rural areas, including national parks.
The
SL component was carried out in two phases: a research and
planning phase; and an implementation phase. There was a further
dimension: that of explicitly linking sustainable livelihoods
to broader strategy at national park and federal level; and
at the same time focusing on practical activities at a local
level, using four selected protected areas (two national parks
and two zapovedniki), where the emphasis was on testing different
approaches, learning from experience, and developing recommendations
for the longer term sustainability of such initiatives.
In the case of the former, a strategic framework
for sustainable livelihoods was produced, and written materials
provided for the national park management plans. In the latter,
a sustainable livelihoods programme was created in each of
the four pilot areas. The aim of the programmes was twofold.
First, it was commercial, that is to help members of the local
community to launch their own business with a view to raising
household income and reducing their exposure to external risks
and vulnerability. Second, it created a number of “support”
micro-projects, aimed at identifying and then addressing gaps
and weaknesses in the five types of capital or assets regarded
as necessary for creating sustainable livelihoods, namely
human, social, physical, natural and financial.
The key concepts characterising the approach to the practical
SL programmes are summarised as follows :
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A bottom-up process, with a distinct focus on identifying,
working with and developing local skills and experience
(also defined as assets or “capitals” under
the DFID SL framework), and with external advisors (eg from
Moscow) playing an enabling rather than a controlling role.
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A problem-solving approach, drawing also on team-building
techniques
- A
willingness to experiment and to learn from successes and
failures
- An
emphasis on replicability, the aim being to help create
processes and structures that could be transferred to other
protected areas and which had the potential for being used
more generally in rural Russia
- Clear
focus on the main target audience (households and existing
small businesses located in or near the selected protected
areas).
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Cost-effective activities, with the potential for sustainability
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Highly collaborative, the aim being to facilitate effective
communication and programme implementation and management
between a wide range of stakeholders.
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Inclusive, with the express purpose of promoting low-cost
commercial ventures, and which did not exclude interested
parties because of, for example, lack of finance, skills,
education or experience
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Local ownership and leadership
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Openness and transparency
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The clear need to ensure that any commercial venture met
three main criteria applicable in a protected area setting
: economic/financial viability; beneficial to society; and
safe for the environment
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