The Deliberative Landscapes Wanderer
It’s not always a collective action problem
by landscapewanderer | May 18, 2020
Commons thinking has had a profound influence on how we understand sustainability, land rights, and natural resource management. This school of thought traces its origins most notably to Nobel laureate Elinor Ostrom and believes that under the right circumstances...
Disconnect, Reconnect Differently: Pandemic as Opportunity
by landscapewanderer | Apr 25, 2020
Connectivity and resilience Are you also having a feeling of déjà vu? The events of the past few months surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic are retelling a story that was told during the 2007-2008 financial crisis. The characters in the story have different names, but...
What religion has to offer sustainable landscapes
by landscapewanderer | Apr 4, 2020
The nature-religion connection Those of us working toward sustainable landscapes should be ready, in fact should actively seek out, to engage with religion. For huge numbers of people, religion frames what life is about and for and what is important. It guides how...
When Participatory Approaches Mess up Your Plans
by landscapewanderer | Feb 19, 2020
I never imagined that this man who had brought his herd into this other community’s pastures and flouted the community’s grazing rules, and whose actions had disrupted our training workshop would become a champion of our approach. The Interrupted Workshop I had...
False Dichotomies and Suspicious Phrases in Environment and Development
by landscapewanderer | Jan 19, 2020
Trust in God AND tether your camel! In one version of the story behind this Middle Eastern proverb, which is sometimes attributed to the Prophet himself, two Bedouin herders get into an argument, one claiming that reality is harsh and that people have to take care of...
Problem Trees, Brainstorming and Storytelling
by landscapewanderer | Dec 19, 2019
I’m sick of problem trees and brainstorming exercises. In initiatives based on a landscape approach, once the various stakeholders with some connection to the landscape have been brought together, often one of the first things they are asked to do is some kind of...
Science, Development, and Pizza Delivery
by landscapewanderer | Nov 19, 2019
For the past seven years I have been working with an international agricultural research institute doing what is often called “research for development”, but I’m about to leave and embark on the next step in my career. And so it seemed like the right time to reflect...
Communal Land Tenure is a Hammer
by landscapewanderer | Oct 6, 2019
It has become accepted wisdom that effective land governance is an unavoidable prerequisite for investment in the future and secure land tenure is the cornerstone of land governance. It is seen as a pillar in the fight against poverty and a precondition for...
Interconnectedness
by landscapewanderer | Aug 28, 2019
We cannot segregate the human heart from the environment outside us and say that once one of these is reformed everything will be improved. Man is organic with the world. His inner life moulds the environment and is itself also deeply affected by it. The one acts upon...
Are all ecosystems meant to be forests?
by landscapewanderer | Jul 19, 2019
Are all ecosystems meant to be forests? The implied answer to this question, embedded in the way that the increasingly influential sustainable landscapes movement describes itself, is apparently “yes”. The title of one of the leading initiatives—the Global...
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