Following on from the 'Earth Summit' held in Rio in 1992 and the resulting Agenda 21, the key to successful implementation was believed to be that each country would choose its own solutions to the problems that needed to be overcome in order to move to a more sustainable path of development.
This book examines the discontinuities that exist between national aspirations and local implementation of sustainable development strategies. It compares what is happening on the ground with formal national environmental action plans, sectoral plans and less formalized policies. It examines whether local knowledge, aspirations and actions are undermining national aspirations or whether they are being ignored at the national level with detrimental consequences to sustainable development.
Using case studies from Zimbabwe, Botswana, Peru, South Africa, Burma, Namibia, the Caribbean, Indonesia, Tunisia and Brazil, the book compares progress, or lack of progress, between different sectors, cultures, regions and resources throughout the developing world, situating these within a global context. In doing so, it draws lessons from those cases which appear to be experiencing positive moves towards sustainability and sees whether common frameworks exist which point to the possibility that good practice may be transferable from one milieu to another.
Uniting national aspirations and local implementation in sustainable development: an introduction, Alan Terry, Jennifer Hill and Wendy Woodland; Gathering evidence: the challenge of assessing sustainability after a resettlement programme in Zimbabwe, Jennifer Elliott, Bill Kinsey and Dominik Kwesha; Frameworks for community-based rangeland sustainability assessment: lessons from the Kalahari, Botswana, Andrew Dougill and Mark Reed; Sustainability indicators and forest wealth in the developing world, Giles Atkinson; Sustainable Water Resource Management in South Africa: A Decade of Progress?, Nevil Quinn and Susan Marriott; Environmental education and constructions of sustainable development in Jamaica, Therese Ferguson and Elizabeth Thomas-Hope; Children, education and sustainable development in Lesotho, Nicola Ansell; Gender responsive approaches to sustainable agricultural extension: the case of Namibia, Julie Newton; Sustainable food for sustainable tourism in the Caribbean: integrated pest management and changes in the participation of women, Janet Momsen; Factors Affecting the sustainability of cotton production: changing rural livelihoods in the North-West region in Zimbabwe, Nick James; How compatible is customary tenure with the aims of the Swaziland environmental action plan?, Eric Van Waveren; Water management for agriculture in Tunisia: towards environmentally sustainable development, Wendy Woodland and Jennifer Hill; Managing Indonesia's marine resources: the role of indigenous communities, Alan Terry and Samantha Shepherd; Environmental policies for modern agriculture? evaluating the case of Western Bahia State, Brazil, Christian Brannstrom and Anthony Filippi; Uniting national aspirations and local implementation in sustainable development: lessons learnt and ways forward, Alan Terry, Jennifer Hill and Wendy Woodland; Index.
Drs Jennifer Hill, Alan Terry and Wendy Woodland are all at the School of Geography and Environmental Management, Faculty of the Built Environment, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK.