Livelihoods, Equity and Governance

People in the tropics are facing increasing pressures from accelerating environmental and social change, and remote, rural communities are among the most vulnerable to these changes.

The Livelihoods, Equity and Governance theme of the CSTFA undertakes research that supports equitable and sustainable management, conservation and governance of coastal and marine environments to ensure improvements in the lives of people living in the tropics.

Our Mission

Our overarching goal is to work with industry, decision-makers, donors, communities and other stakeholders to support remote and rural communities in the tropics to achieve sustainable and equitable livelihoods. This includes to support people living in the tropics to maintain, adapt, and develop their livelihood aspirations in a rapidly changing world.

We aim to design and implement collaborative, applied projects that will help to achieve this goal. Moreover, we strive to complement and follow through on our projects by fostering long term initiatives and self-sustaining outcomes, and facilitating access to capacity sharing required to support people in achieving their goals. In doing so, we contribute to James Cook University’s international recognition for its strength in interdisciplinary research that improves the lives of people living in the tropics through the effective management and conservation of tropical coastal and marine environments.

Our Approach

Interdisciplinary. We have the diverse disciplinary expertise across the social and natural sciences required to support initiatives that benefit people and the environment.

Participatory. We work with local stakeholders and end-users from the early stages of project design through to completion.

Applied. Our projects are intended to result in practical, sustainable outcomes for end-users in the places where we work.

Our Goals

• Support natural resource management and conservation initiatives to achieve equitable and sustainable governance, including positive outcomes for people.
• Support tropical coastal communities to achieve food security and sustainable livelihoods in the context of accelerating global change.
• Engage industry, decision-makers, donors, communities, and other stakeholders in partnerships to achieve sustainable and equitable livelihoods.
• Facilitate access to technical training and capacity building that supports project partners in achieving livelihood goals and promotes sustained and equitable benefits from our work.

The Livelihoods team collaborate closely with staff from other themes to implement interdisciplinary research aimed at improving the lives of people through effective management and conservation of coastal and marine resources. Through interdisciplinary collaboration across our themes, the Centre can provide complete triple bottom line assessment of the full spectrum of aquatic resource use and food production considerations, identify adaptation benefits for the aquatic food production sector, and build the resilience of linked social and ecological systems.

Topics include the sustainability of fishers, producers, industries and communities involved in aquatic food production; how to deal with change in fisheries and aquaculture to ensure aquatic food security; and identification of adaptation strategies in coastal communities. Research projects span Australia, Melanesia, Southeast Asia and South America.

This theme is led by Dr Sarah Lawless (sarah.lawless@jcu.edu.au).

Livelihoods Lab

Affiliated with this theme is the Livelihoods Lab a research team dedicated to supporting rural communities in the tropics in meet their livelihood goals through collaborative research and capacity sharing. The Livelihoods team have highly developed skills in socio-cultural and economic aspects of natural aquatic resource use and farmed production. The Livelihoods Lab is led by Associate Professor Amy Diedrich (amy.diedrich@jcu.edu.au). Please contact Amy to find out more.