Visions of Sustainability : Stakeholders, Change and Indicators

This title was first published in 2000:  Previously published theories represent a vision of ’sustainable development’ that the local farmers working on the projects do not recognize. This volume puts forward a new set of ’sustainable indicators’ which is based on a detailed case study of a Nigerian development project spanning six years. For the first time, this takes into consideration the views and perspectives of the local farmers and in doing so addresses key issues and will prove important to anyone putting sustainability into practice.

This title was first published in 2000:  Sustainable development has grown to compass cultural, socio-economic, political and environmental issues, and the use of Sustainability indicators (SIs) is seen by many as central to its implementation. After all, how can one ’do’ sustainable development unless one knows when it has been attained? The adoption of SIs in such a context is logical, but does present a number of practical difficulties. So far much of the published material consists of theoretical SI frameworks, with little practical experience on their use in development scenarios. In contrast, this volume is based on the results of a six year project designed to develop and evaluate the use of SLs in a Nigerian village. For the first time this takes into consideration the views and perspectives of the local population, and in doing so addresses key issues that are vital for anyone attempting to put sustainable development into practice.