ABSTRACT
This chapter describes Conservation and Development in Sparsely Populated Areas (CADISPA) operations as the framework on which a trans-European partnership is structured; and a process of engagement which seeks to place at the heart of all discussion and decision making the very local people who will be most affected by any change to their locality. It outlines the thinking and assumptions underpinning the CADISPA approach, and its relevance to the issues which lie at the heart of the sustainability debate. The chapter illustrates the problems faced by local people and match these to preferred local solutions. It also illustrates how the CADISPA methodology allows local people to own the solution and call it theirs. Local people build their understandings of the global issues by reference to their intricate relationship with their local place. The chapter concludes by posing and attempting to address the central assumption of the CADISPA process: that education can deliver.
