Description

Development approaches have traditionally emphasized material resources, ignoring the less tangible forms of capital. But sustainable development, especially in relation to land use and production systems, calls for an integration of environmental, economic, human, and social capital. Emphasis on only one type of capital can in fact undermine sustainability. By examining the interaction of different kinds of capital in four buffer zone communities, the study identifies features of economic, social, and political organization that are positively related with the potential for building environmental capital.

This brief draws from an article by Jan Flora, Mary Garcia Bravo, Cornelia Butler Flora, and Segundo

Andrango Bonilla in Bridging Human and Ecological Landscapes: Participatory Research and Sustainable

Development in an Andean Hillside Frontier. Edited by Robert Rhoades, Kendall/Hunt, Dubuque, Iowa, 2001.