Acting locally: community strategies for equitable sustainable development

The concern expressed in this article is that current interpretations of sustainable development, even if achieved, will not address problems at the heart of the sustainability crisis. Equitable sustainable development depends upon both a better understanding and satisfaction of non-material human needs in the developed nations, and a reorientation of the social and economic behaviour of the industrialized minority - the world's affluent - towards a lifestyle in which "quality of life' is measured in other than material terms. Only with such a reorientation can the monopolization of resources by the advantaged be loosened, freeing resources to meet the needs of the world's poor. Finally, we take two of these strategies, community land trusts and co-management, and examine them in more detail. -from Authors