ABSTRACT
To better understand the nexus of poverty reduction, natural resource management, and successful project implementation, many scholars and practitioners look at system-level approaches that go beyond efforts focused on individual action or behavior. The Sustainable Livelihoods Approach (SLA) focuses on livelihoods options in order to gain an appreciation of the decisions and opportunities available to households within a local context. SLA emphasizes natural, fi nancial, social and human capital assets. A second approach widens the lens to better understand the local context and its connection to the wider world by focusing on assets related to the seven community capitals which adds to the SLA approach cultural, built, and political capital A third approach encourages local participation and decision making in order to ensure implementation and long-term sustainability of development efforts. Each of the articles included in this issue makes use of one or more of these approaches to guide the reader in thinking more broadly and systematically about system-level impacts of community change efforts.
