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significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities' (UNDP,
2014), illustrate the continued prominence of the environment in develop-
ment discourse which continues into the global development paradigm dis-
cussed later.
In addition to increased environmental awareness, the concept of sus-
tainability recognises the role of local communities in development. The fol-
lowing comment illustrates the need to understand culture in relation to
sustainability:
Specialists trained in western science often fail to recognise indigenous
ecological knowledge because of the culture and religious ways in which
indigenous peoples record and transmit that learning. Ways of life that
are developed over scores of generations could only thrive by encoding
ecological sustainability into the body of practice, myth and taboo that
passes from parent to child. (Durning, 1993: 91)
Pretty (1994) developed a typology of seven forms of how people participate
in development programmes and projects. Participation ranges from passive
participation, where people are told what development project is proceed-
ing, to self-mobilisation, where people take initiatives independent of exter-
nal institutions. Pretty argues that for development to be sustainable, then
at least the fifth level of participation (functional participation) must be
achieved. Functional participation includes the forming of groups by local
people to meet predetermined objectives related to the development project.
The sixth level is interactive participation, which involves people partici-
pating in joint analysis of the development projects, which leads to action
plans and institutional strengthening. The seventh stage of participation is
self-mobilisation as outlined above.
Criticisms of alternative development are as varied as its approaches.
Criticisms of the basic needs approach include: it may impede economic
growth in the long term, it underestimates the importance of political
change, and it can lead to too much state control (Van Der Hoeven, 1988).
Critics of indigenous development theories cite problems of consensus build-
ing, barriers to participation, lack of accountability, weak institutions, and
lack of integration with international funding sources (Brinkerhoff & Ingle,
1989; Wiarda, 1983).
More generally, the term sustainable development is criticised for being
vague (see Chapters 9 and 15). There are multiple definitions of the term
depending on the problem being addressed (Arnold, 1989). Policymakers are
forced to decide what constitutes sustainability criteria and at what level
they should be applied (project, regional, national, global). Questions are
raised as to what should be sustained, and who decides what should be sus-
tained. One consensus surrounding the definition is that it may be defined
differently in terms of each culture. However, Redclift (2000) argues this is
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