Content uploaded by Brian Belcher
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Brian Belcher on Mar 25, 2014
Content may be subject to copyright.
A preview of the PDF is not available
Development of a Village-Level Livelihood Monitoring Tool: A Case-Study in Viengkham District, LAO PDR
Abstract and Figures
Effective monitoring is a fundamental requirement for adaptive management. The need for better tools for monitoring livelihoods is particularly acute. A simple indicators-based livelihoods monitoring tool to be used at the village scale was developed and tested. Participatory methods were used to elicit local perceptions and aspirations about development and conservation. That information was used to develop a prototype set of indicators, organized using the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework. Data were collected for the indicators in six villages to calibrate and test the tool. Indicators of financial and physical capital worked well. Social capital and natural capital were more difficult to capture with low-cost indicators. Most of the indicators are applicable in rural areas of the district and beyond. Despite some shortcomings, the tool shows good potential as a way to focus attention on key aspects of rural development and as a way to inform and facilitate discussion and negotiation between communities and other stakeholders.
Figures - uploaded by Brian Belcher
Author content
All figure content in this area was uploaded by Brian Belcher
Content may be subject to copyright.
... Horsley et al., 2015). Some of these scholars take their reflections a step further and develop novel indicators based on participatory approaches (Belcher et al., 2013) or on context-specific literature combined with the evaluators' own extensive experience (Pandey et al. 2017). We contribute to these valuable studies by explicitly evaluating how commonly used livelihood indicators work in practice and how the process of selecting indicators can be improved. ...
... Physical assets or Cultural capital (Scoones, 2015). 2 Among the many graphic representations of the original framework is a simplified and commonly used diagram, namely a central asset pentagon (Fig. 1) that has been widely used for visual presentations of comparative qualitative measures (e.g. Belcher et al., 2013;Liu & Xu, 2016;Manlosa et al., 2019;Pandey et al., 2017). Despite the appealing look and popular graphic features of the livelihood framework and its assets, the assets are difficult to operationalize in practice. ...
... Instead, participatory development of indicators (e.g. Belcher et al., 2013;Reed & Dougill, 2002) or pilot studies to adapt surveys (e.g. Pour et al., 2018) could better tie indicators to local contexts, but such efforts are not always prioritized or possible within the time and resource constraints of a research or intervention project (Agol et al., 2014). ...
Social outcomes from conservation and development activities on a local scale are often assessed using five livelihood assets—Natural, Physical, Human, Financial and Social—and their associated indicators. These indicators, and the variables used to measure them, are typically based on ‘common practice’ with limited attention being paid to the use of alternative indicators. In this article, we present a typical survey of socioeconomic benefits for ecological restoration workers in South Africa, and ask whether the common livelihood indicators used are adequate and sufficient, or whether any relevant indicators are missing. Results from the livelihood survey show the value of income, food and education as strong indicators of financial and human assets, and the importance of open-ended questions in eliciting details of workers’ perceived changes in their livelihoods. However, by complementing the survey results with qualitative data from semi-structured interviews and stakeholder workshops, we show how unconventional livelihood indicators and aspects provide a deeper understanding of changes in livelihoods that are tied to restoration projects. We guide scholars and practitioners to advance their process of selecting livelihood indicators, in particular to include three additional types of indicators: intangible indicators to assess life quality; relative indicators reaching across spatial and temporal scales to capture community outcomes and livelihood resilience; and, political indicators to uncover causal relationships.
... Using the frameworks is flexible because there is no fixed mandated method ( Tang et al., 2013 ). However, stakeholder participation in the assessment is highly recommended ( Belcher et al., 2013 ;Morse et al., 2009 ). Livelihood sustainability can be investigated at individual, household, and community levels ( Singh and Hiremath, 2010 ). ...
... There are several research methods emphasizing farmer participation, for instance; farmer field schools ( Olanya et al., 2010 ), field or on-farm trials ( Haggar et al., 2001 ), participatory monitoring ( Belcher et al., 2013 ;Dangles et al., 2010 ), and participatory rural appraisal (Shamsuddin et al., 2007). In addition, the methods employing data collection tools such as activity profiles, flow diagram, interactive timelines, mobility diagrams, photoelicitation, pie charts, matrix ranking, preference ranking and scor- ing, seasonal calendar, social mapping, storytelling, system analysis diagram, systematization matrix, vignettes, and workshops require participation of stakeholders as well (Bartels et al., 2103;de Souza et al., 2012 ;Naylor et al., 2014 ;Shamsuddin et al., 2007;Sherren and Verstraten, 2013 ;Sow et al., 2015 ). ...
... The FGD is shown to be robust in exploring livelihoods of farmers ( Rahman et al., 2017 ;Sarkar, 2012 ;Tahiru et al., 2019 ). The method is also powerful in participatory determination and evaluation of sustainability indicators ( Belcher et al., 2013 ;Reed and Dougill, 2002 ;Yegbemey et al., 2014 ). Hence, FGD was selected as the method for this study. ...
Sustaining the growth of Thailand's bioethanol industry depends markedly on security of feedstock supplies. However, being exposed to crises may impact livelihoods of farmers and discourage them from farming the energy crops. Farmer livelihood sustainability may need to be assessed and monitored. This study was carried out to propose sustainable livelihood outcomes and indicators, and determine causal mechanisms to achieve such outcomes. The UNDP's sustainable livelihood framework was applied. A novel method of data collection, Participatory Process Tracing (PPT) was introduced through which farmers were able to identify achieved sustainable livelihood outcomes and indicators, and causal mechanisms to achieve the outcomes. A variety of sustainable livelihood outcomes primarily related to natural resources, sufficiency of food and income, and social inclusion were encountered by the group farmers. On the other hand, rice growing activity indicated that the solitary farmers were either achieving a single sustainable livelihood outcome of ‘own food production’ or not achieving any outcome at all. The results indicate that group formation is key to enhance farmer livelihood sustainability. There were 10 sustainable livelihood outcomes and 22 indicators proposed and agreed by all farmers for determination of livelihood sustainability. They were proved to be suitable and applicable to Thailand's context. The creation of a livelihood sustainability index based on these sustainable livelihood outcomes and indicators should be encouraged. Nevertheless, the results are sufficiently useful for stakeholders in understanding farmer livelihood outcomes, paths, interconnection and complexity; this can enable policymakers to formulate effective policies and programs.
... It is an approach that combines technological, organizational, and policy solutions for risk management in vulnerable communitiesthat are implemented by active institutions at various levels. Belcher et al. (2013) studied the re silience of farming families exposed to drought in northern Laos. The results indicated that the lack of resilience pushes systems toward constraints. ...
Drought is considered a potential natural disaster and threat. Despite all the scientific and technical advancements, in developing countries the management of this hazard is still complicated. Drought management is an important step toward reducing its adverse impacts. The main purpose of the research is to investigate the relationship between community capital and resilience against drought in selected villages in Ilam province, in south west of Iran. The research is applied in terms of purpose and is implemented quantitatively. The data have been collected using the library and field methods (questionnaire). Chalab (Mehran), Jihadabad (Dare-Shahr), Goluzeh (Dehlran) villages have been selected as sample rural settlement communities from the four geographical directions which had severe droughts in Ilam province. Using Cochran's formula, the sample size of the studied villages was 283 people, which reached 285 people after applying proportionality to the quorum of the questionnaire. In order to check the state of community funds before and after the measures were taken, the paired T-test was used, which showed the significance of the differences. The findings showed that the physical, human, financial and natural capitals are the most important factors in improving resilience; and social, political and cultural capitals have the least effect in the selected villages. It seems that executive programs in line with drought management in Ilam province show more tendencies toward top-down approach, the first result of which is the low rate of people's participation and less attention to the engagement of people's capacity for better management.
Papua, adalah salah satu provinsi Indonesia yang masih memiliki sejumlah besar hutan dan sumber daya alam lainnya. Namun, perhatian terhadap keberlanjutan pemanfaatan sumber daya tersebut masih belum memadai. Hal ini ditandai dengan berkurangnya tutupan hutan, meningkatnya emisi gas rumah kaca dan belum meratanya pertumbuhan ekonomi. Perwujudan pengelolaan bentang lahan berkelanjutan di Papua membutuhkan dukungan dan partisipasi dari semua pihak yang berkepentingan. Dukungan dan partisipasi tersebut selayaknya diberikan untuk seluruh rangkaian proses pengelolaan bentang lahan berkelanjutan termasuk proses pemantauan dan evaluasi. Sistem pemantauan dan evaluasi yang dirancang, dijalankan dan dikelola secara partisipatif akan menjamin terciptanya proses yang transparan, berintegritas dan memiliki legitimasi tinggi di mata semua pihak. Sistem pemantauan dan evaluasi partisipatif tersebut selayaknya dilakukan terhadap seluruh aspek pengelolaan bentang lahan berkelanjutan.
Papua, adalah salah satu provinsi Indonesia yang masih memiliki sejumlah besar hutan dan sumber daya alam lainnya. Namun, perhatian terhadap keberlanjutan pemanfaatan sumber daya tersebut masih belum memadai. Hal ini ditandai dengan berkurangnya tutupan hutan, meningkatnya emisi gas rumah kaca dan belum meratanya pertumbuhan ekonomi. Perwujudan pengelolaan bentang lahan berkelanjutan di Papua membutuhkan dukungan dan partisipasi dari semua pihak yang berkepentingan. Dukungan dan partisipasi tersebut selayaknya diberikan untuk seluruh rangkaian proses pengelolaan bentang lahan berkelanjutan termasuk proses pemantauan dan evaluasi. Sistem pemantauan dan evaluasi yang dirancang, dijalankan dan dikelola secara partisipatif akan menjamin terciptanya proses yang transparan, berintegritas dan memiliki legitimasi tinggi di mata semua pihak. Sistem pemantauan dan evaluasi partisipatif tersebut selayaknya dilakukan terhadap seluruh aspek pengelolaan bentang lahan berkelanjutan.
Papua, adalah salah satu provinsi Indonesia yang masihmemiliki sejumlah besar hutan dan sumber daya alam lainnya. Namun, perhatianterhadap keberlanjutan pemanfaatan sumber daya tersebut masih belum memadai.Hal ini ditandai dengan berkurangnya tutupan hutan, meningkatnya emisi gasrumah kaca dan belum meratanya pertumbuhan ekonomi. Perwujudan pengelolaanbentang lahan berkelanjutan di Papua membutuhkan dukungan dan partisipasi darisemua pihak yang berkepentingan. Dukungan dan partisipasi tersebut selayaknyadiberikan untuk seluruh rangkaian proses pengelolaan bentang lahanberkelanjutan termasuk proses pemantauan dan evaluasi. Sistem pemantauan danevaluasi yang dirancang, dijalankan dan dikelola secara partisipatif akanmenjamin terciptanya proses yang transparan, berintegritas dan memilikilegitimasi tinggi di mata semua pihak. Sistem pemantauan dan evaluasi partisipatiftersebut selayaknya dilakukan terhadap seluruh aspek pengelolaan bentang lahanberkelanjutan.
Impact assessments are crucial for measuring the effectiveness of developmental projects. However, hurdles such as the complexity, limited applicability, and lack of empirical evidence of impact assessments are hinderances to use impact assessments more widely. Computer-based tools could help ease these problems as they can help the implementation process and foster usage. However, currently there are no computer-based tools available to support ICT for development (ICT4D) impact assessments in the educational domain. For this research, a computer-based tool was developed to support impact assessments of ICT4D projects in education (EDU4D). A literature study was performed and interviews with field experts were conducted to decide upon the requirements. Subsequently, a computer-based tool was developed that aims to guide the user to accurately perform a situational impact assessment method for EDU4D (SIAM-Ed) and to work in low resource environments. Finally, a small pilot study was conducted that showed positive results on the effectiveness of the tool.
The sustainable livelihood approach is a way of thinking that rests on a set of core principles and provides a conceptual framework for analysis. The sustainable livelihoods thinking emerged in the 1990s aligned with the emerging development approaches of participatory, bottom-up planning that challenged the dominant economic growth-led development paradigm. It recognizes that the poor have resources, capabilities, and the agency, and draw on the concepts of the capability approach, equity, and environmental sustainability. This approach was widely adopted in international development policy and practice and resulted in a shift from a top-down sectoral approach to household-level investments. Over time, this approach was criticized for being too household focussed and abstract to provide insights on general patterns and policy analysis. That it does not automatically lend itself to macro-level analysis, comparative studies, impact evaluation, and policy analysis. However, over time several studies have innovated to combine this framework with participatory methods and quantitative techniques to enhance its utility in livelihood assessment, project management, and impact evaluation.
معیشت پایدار در دهه 0891 بهعنوان یک رویکرد جدید در مبحث توسعه روستایی و باهدف کاهش و
ریشهکنی فقر روستایی مطرح شد. دستیابی به معیشت پایدار روستایی، بدون توجه به داراییها و سرمایههای معیشت
در روستاها امکانپذیر نیست. پژوهش حاضر ازنظر هدف کاربردی و ازلحاظ گردآوری دادهها از نوع پیمایشی
محسوب میشود و باهدف طراحی الگوی معیشت پایدار )تأثیر سرمایههای معیشتی( با رویکرد روستا تعاون انجام
( شد. جامعه آماری پژوهش حاضر را مدیران تعاونیهای طرح روستا تعاون تشکیل میدهند ) 514 N= که با استفاده
فرمول کوکران و روش نمونهگیری انتساب متناسب 089 نفر از آنها مطالعه شدند. از پرسشنامهای محقق ساخته
بهعنوان ابزار گردآوری دادهها در این تحقیق بهره گرفته شد. روایی محتوایی و صوری پرسشنامه بهوسیله پانل
متخصصان تائید شد. با استفاده از پیشآزمون و محاسبه ضریب آلفای کرونباخ از پایایی آن اطمینان حاصل گردید.
یافتهها نشان داد، متغیرهای سرمایه مالی ) 508 /.(، سرمایه فیزیکی ) 514 /.(، سرمایه اجتماعی) 405 /.(، سرمایه
انسانی) 442 /.( و سرمایه طبیعی ) 444 /.(، به ترتیب مؤثرترین متغیرها بر معیشت پایدار اعضای تعاونیهای تحت
پوشش طرح روستا تعاون میباشند. نتایج بهدستآمده از تحلیل یافته با استفاده از روش بیزی ) Baysian SEM )
نشان داد که میزان پایداری و استمرار در کسبوکار در سرمایه مالی، دسترسی به وسایل ارتباطی، در سرمایه فیزیکی،
مشارکت در فعالیتهای مرتبط با بحرآن های اجتماعی در سرمایه اجتماعی، علاقه به کار جدید و نوآوری در سرمایه
انسانی و امکانات بالقوه طبیعی روستا برای گردشگری در سرمایه طبیعی بیشترین تأثیر را روی معیشت پایدار داشتهاند.
Johnson, A. 2012. A Landscape Summary for the Nam Et-Phou Louey National Protected Area, Lao PDR. Pages 73-90 in T. C. H. Sunderland, J. Sayer, and H. Minh-Ha, editors. Evidence-based conservation: lessons from the lower Mekong. Earthscan, London.
This review synthesizes some of the main themes of social sustainability indicators for forest management, and addresses conceptual categories, issues, and limitations associated with the use of social indicators. Socio-cultural values and conditions associated with quality of life, public access to non-market benefits and resources, governance, and community stability are discussed. The paper illustrates how a selection of social indicators has been prescribed and used within various sustainable forest management (sfm) systems of criteria and indicators (c&i) at different scales from the international to the local in British Co- lumbia. Social indicators are, in general, weakly developed relative to ecological and economic indicators. Standard c&i systems often omit crucial social indicators, or include them without specific definitions or measurable benchmarks. Recommendations are made for future research that examines the fundamental nature of social indicators and their underlying cause-and-effect relationships, and supports improved methods and tools for integrating social indicators into forest management and decision making. The role of forestry in contributing to broader social indicators, such as sense of place and community cohesion, needs to be clarified.
Used in the discourse of sustainability, advocates of community-based resource management often depict indigenous communities as homogeneous sites of social consensus. While proving successful at advancing local involvement in the management and decision-making process these idealized images fail to represent the plurality of values and personal interests nested within indigenous communities. Thus by failing to account for internal diversity, indigenous communities who are now regaining management responsibility for their traditional homelands risk furthering the traditional 'top-downism' long inherent in institutionalized resource management. However, in regaining these responsibilities, indigenous communities have an opportunity to implement new and locally-defined approaches to management. This paper describes one such community-based process, and builds upon the experiences of the Little Red River Cree Nation of Alberta, Canada, to illustrate the challenges and opportunities involved. Specifically, through the use of criteria and performance indicators, derived from multiple community perspectives, the Little Red River Cree Nation has developed a self-improving forest management system that is proving responsive to the values, expectations and changing needs of community members.
Adaptive management has the potential to make environmental management more
democratic through the involvement of different stakeholders. In this article, we examine three case studies at different scales that followed adaptive management processes, critically reflecting upon the role of stakeholder participation in each case. Specifically, we examine at which stages different types of stakeholders can play key roles and the ways that each might be involved. We show that a range of participatory mechanisms can be employed at different stages of the adaptive cycle, and can work together to create conditions for social learning and favorable outcomes for diverse stakeholders. This analysis highlights the need for greater reflection on case study research in order to further refine participatory processes within adaptive management. This should not only address the shortcomings and successes of adaptive management as a form of democratic environmental governance, but should also unpack the links between science, institutions, knowledge, and power.
The visual landscape of forests is an important source of information for the public in judging the sustainability of forest resource management, and there is an increasing recognition of the importance of the linkage between forest ecology and aesthetics among foresters and environmental scientists. Forest resource managers pursuing the goals of ecosystem management must consider the aesthetic consequences of timber harvesting operations and find ways to explain the ecological benefits of their activities. This book addresses the relationship between people's perceptions and sustainability. It arose from a workshop organized and funded by the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies and the Faculty of Forestry of the University of British Columbia. After a foreword (by Gobster, P. H.), it has 17 chapters by various authors arranged in 6 parts: I. Linking ecological sustainability to aesthetics: do people prefer sustainable landscapes? (one introductory chapter by the editors); II. Seeing and knowing: approaches to aesthetics and sustainability (4 chapters); III. Perspectives on forest sustainability (3 chapters); IV. Theories relating aesthetics and forest ecology (4 chapters); V. Visualization of forest landscapes (4 chapters); and VI. Reconciling forest sustainability and aesthetics (one concluding chapter discussing priorities). Twelve (unpaginated) pages of colour plates, and a subject index are included. All the chapters are noticed separately on the CAB ABSTRACTS database.
This paper describes the evolution of research on socio-economic indicators of community sustainability in several Canadian Model Forest locations since 1994. In the Foothills and Western Newfoundland Model Forests, we employed an "expert-driven" approach to indicator selection and reporting. We used census data to document change over time on key community profile variables such as age, employment, income, population mobility, education attainment, poverty, and real estate values. Objective measures of these variables were supplemented with personal interviews in order to construct a more dynamic picture of community well-being. The early work of our group focused primarily on "profile" indicators - essentially static, descriptive indicators that allow one to create a snapshot of a community in time. Work is currently underway on the next generation of socio-economic indicators we describe as "process" indicators. Process indicators deal more with causal affects than outcomes. They include things like sense of place or attachment to place (which has implications for population mobility and education attainment). Process indicators also include variables such as leadership, volunteerism, entrepreneurship, and social cohesion - all of which we are attempting to include in a combined measure of community capacity.
Summary As tools for improving the sustainability of forest management, criteria and indicator (C&I) frameworks have grown in popularity over the last decade. Such frameworks have been largely derived from top-down approaches to determining critical measures of forest management success. While useful, they fail to capture many C&I of critical importance to local populations, who experience forest management strategies fi rst hand and who have their own defi nitions of sustainability. Using archival materials, our research begins to identify one First Nation's forest values and compares these local-level C&I with three well-known C&I frameworks for sustainable forestry. We demonstrate that local-level defi nitions can provide additional C&I, as well as additional levels of detail to C&I that they share with the national and international frameworks. Both are crucial to developing strategies for sustainable management that meet local as well as broader needs and desires.