Ecological Literacy - Agri-culture: Reconnecting People, Land and Nature - page 167

proceed in encouraging transformations that will lead to sustained
progress?
Building Assets for Sustainable Futures
What lessons have we learned from programmes that successfully promote
social learning and sustainable natural resource management? The first is
that sustainability is an emergent property of systems that are high in
social, human and natural capital. When these assets are in decline, then
we are retreating from sustainability. Next is the recognition that farmers
can improve their agroecological understanding of the complexities of
their farms and related ecosystems, and that new information can lead to
improved agricultural outcomes. In turn, increased understanding is also
an emergent property, derived, in particular, from farmers engaging in their
own experimentation, supported by scientists and extensionists, and
leading to the development of novel technologies and practices. These
practices are more likely to spread from farmer to farmer, and from group
to group. These conclusions strongly suggest that social learning processes
should become an important focus for all agricultural and natural-resource
management programmes, and that professionals should make every effort
to appreciate the complementary nature of such social processes with
sustainable technology development, and the subtlety and care required
in their implementation.
What can be done both to encourage the greater adoption of group-
based programmes for environmental improvements, and to identify the
necessary support for groups in order to evolve to maturity (and thence
to spread and connect with others)? Clearly, international agencies,
governments, banks and non-governmental organizations should invest
more in social and human capital creation. Building human capital and
establishing new forms of organization and social capital are not without
their costs. The main danger lies in being satisfied with any degree of
partial progress, and therefore not going far enough. As Elisabeth Ostrom
has put it, 'Creating dependent citizens rather than entrepreneurial citizens reduces the
capacity of citizens to produce capital.' 40 Of course, group-based approaches are
not, alone, sufficient conditions for achieving sustainable natural-resource
management. Policy reform is an additional requirement for shaping the
wider context, in order to make it more favourable for the emergence and
sustenance of local groups. This has clearly worked in countries such as
India, Sri Lanka and Australia.
One way to ensure the stability of social connectedness is for groups
to work together by federating in order to influence district, regional or