Integrating Insights from Social-Ecological Interactions into Sustainable Land Use Change Scenarios for Small Islands in the Western Indian Ocean

Abstract

Small islands are vulnerable to the synergistic effects of climate change and anthropogenic disturbances due to the fact of their small area, geographical isolation, responsive ecologies, rapidly growing and developing populations and exposure to sea level and climate change. These changes exert pressures on ecosystem services, such as the provisioning of resources, and therefore threaten the sustainability of livelihoods. We reviewed key sustainability and livelihoods literature to bring together concepts of environmental livelihood resilience and stability across temporal and spatial scales and integrated them to produce a new conceptual framework for dynamic environmental livelihood sustainability (DESL). This framework aims to facilitate the incorporation of local community perspectives into water, energy and food nexus thinking about sustainable land use to support local livelihoods. Finally, we provide insights from this case study to evaluate the effectiveness of the DESL framework in addressing gaps in existing frameworks. We suggest this framing provides a mechanism for enhancing the agency of communities to produce more cohesive and inclusive land use management plans that can lead to enhanced environmental sustainability pathways.

Pristinity, degradation and replacement: The three dimensions of human impact on island vegetation

“…differential coastal inundation and/or erosion, water deficit and the corresponding vegetation responses, drought-induced/favored fires, population growth, changes in settlement and land use patterns, migrations and relocations, construction of protection and/or touristic infrastructures, etc. (Newman et al, 2020; Nurse et al, 2014) – and therefore, such diagrams could be sensitive tools for quickly identifying changes in each specific island or archipelago, which would be useful for informing conservation and adaption strategies.…”

“…The contingent nature of these anthropogenic modifications has challenged the explanatory capacity of theoretical island biogeography models aimed at interpreting the island biota in terms of a dynamic equilibrium between immigration and extinction over geological time scales (Borregaard et al, 2016). Human disturbance of insular biota and ecosystems is a worldwide feature that has affected the islands and archipelagos of all oceans and constitutes a global conservation concern (Hay and Mimura, 2013; Newman et al, 2020; Nogué et al, 2017; Nurse et al, 2014). Insular terrestrial ecosystems have been especially affected by humans through vegetation disturbance and the introduction of vertebrates (Flenley, 2007; Gillespie and Clague, 2009; Kemp et al, 2020; Prebble and Dowe, 2008; Prebble and Wilmshurst, 2009; Rick et al, 2020; Rull et al, 2017b; Whittaker and Fernández-Palacios, 2007).…”

Adaptation of Seaweed Farmers in Zanzibar to the Impacts of Climate Change

“…Where previous literature has emphasized the challenges that environmental change can pose (Hassan and Othman 2019;Makame and Shackleton 2019) more attention needs to be paid to if, and how, people are responding. Therefore, this study adopts principles from the dynamic environmental sustainability of livelihoods (DESL) framework, which focuses on dynamic responses to change (Newman et al 2020). Typically, those who are unable to cope, by making temporary adjustments, or to make long-term adaptations are vulnerable and unlikely to attain sustainable livelihoods (Scoones 1998).…”

“…Alternative and diversification of livelihood activities are popular intervention options aimed at elevating the socioeconomic status of coastal communities and reducing the pressure on marine resources (Sievanen et al 2005). To be successful, however, these alternative livelihood activities must be resilient to fluctuations in ecological, economic, and social systems (Allison and Ellis 2001;Newman et al 2020).…”

The Water-Energy-Food Nexus as an Adaptation Strategy for Achieving Sustainable Livelihoods at a Local Level

“…Livelihoods security, the basis for sustainable development, is determined by socio-ecological interactions, which themselves are driven by population growth, urbanisation, climate change and natural hazards [26,27]. Some of the evidence of socio-ecological changes are manifesting through the increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events and emergence of novel infectious diseases with origins from wildlife [28].…”