Achieving Sustainable Development Through Sustainable Livelihood: The Wetland Communities in Malaysia

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For development to be sustainable, it must create and preserve sustainable livelihoods. Sustainable Livelihood is an approach to leading fulfilling, productive and environmentally responsible lives; by balancing our economic, cultural and environmental needs, to meet the needs of all generations. However a prerequisite to sustainable livelihoods is the absence of poverty. Poverty is prevalent among the Malaysian wetlands communities. Major weaknesses in human, social, physical, natural, and financial capitals contribute to poverty. Many parts of wetlands are being converted to urban areas, industrial, tourism and aquaculture; causing damages and disruption to the ecosystem functions and services. Under such a scenario how best can the community adopts the “sustainable living” concept? An economic valuation of the natural resources available in Setiu Wetlands revealed that the services provided by the ecosystem do not contribute to the economic wellbeing of the local communities. Therefore other strategies must be used to ensure a sustainable livelihood of the ecology based communities. The Sustainable Livelihood Framework can be employed in order to reduce poverty in the wetlands and ensure the attainment of environmental, economic, social and cultural sustainability.

Stream: Economic Sustainability

Paper: A paper has not yet been submitted.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nik Fuad Kamil is an academic staff of Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT). He obtained BSc and MSc in agricultural economics from University of California, Davis, and PhD in agricultural economics from Washington State University in 1984. Nik Fuad began his career as an economist at Malaysian Agricultural Research and Developmnet Institurte (MARDI)and joined UMT in 1996. He has conducted research in many areas including policy analysis and resource valuation. His current research interest is economic development, sustainable livelihood, and resoure valuation.

Dr Nur Azura is a lecturer in the Department of Economics. Her research interests include sustainable economic development, policy, and finance.