Cambridge Conservation Initiative (CCI)
Bio
Author Biography
Professor Melissa Leach was a co-founder of the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) Environment Group in 1990. With a background as an anthropologist and geographer, her interdisciplinary, policy-engaged research in West Africa and beyond in subsequent decades has linked environment, health, and social change, with particular interests in knowledge, power, and the politics of science and policy processes. In 2006 she co-founded and co-directed the ESRC STEPS (Economic and Social Research Council Social, Technological and Environmental Pathways to Sustainability) Centre and from 2014–24 was overall Director of IDS. She is now Executive Director of the Cambridge Conservation Initiative (CCI) – a partnership between the university and ten organisations linking research with practical action for people and nature. She is also Professor in Social Anthropology, Cambridge and remains connected with IDS as an Emeritus Fellow.
World Bank
Bio
Author Biography
Robin Mearns is Global Director for Social Development at the World Bank. Since joining the Bank in 1997, he has led operations, policy dialogue, and analytics in various regions, served as global lead on the social dimensions of climate change, as Programme Leader for sustainable development in Southern Africa, and as Regional Manager for Social Development in South Asia and Africa regions. Robin was previously a Fellow of the Institute of Development Studies (where he co-founded the Environment Group with Melissa Leach in 1990) and a research associate with the International Institute for Environment Development (IIED) in London. He holds MA, PhD (Geography) University of Cambridge and MPhil (Development Studies) University of Sussex.
Institute of Development Studies (IDS)
Bio
Volume 56
Number 1A
Published: February 3, 2025
In the 1990s 'community-based' approaches to environment and development have become de rigeur. With the environment firmly on international development agendas, and in the wake of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), there is an emerging global consensus that the implementation of what has come to be known as 'sustainable development' should be based on local-level solutions derived from community initiatives.
This IDS Bulletin seeks to add to and complement an emerging set of critiques and offers some reflections on the practice of community-based sustainable development. It does so by taking to task several key, base assumptions embedded in community-based sustainable development: assumptions concerning the existence of homogeneous, consensual 'communities'; the existence of stable, universally valued 'environments', and of a potentially harmonious relationship between these. By taking a different starting point – one grounded in an appreciation of social and ecological difference, and of differential perspectives on and command over environmental goods and services – the IDS Bulletin suggests that conflict, rather than consensus, may be the key defining feature of the situations which such initiatives address. This, in turn, carries very different implications for policies and practical strategies in the environment and development field. The existence of conflict should certainly not be a justification for rejecting community-based approaches, but it does require them to be pursued differently.
Leach, M.; Mearns, R. and Scoones, I. (2025) 'Editorial: Community-Based Sustainable Development: Consensus or Conflict?', IDS Bulletin 56.1A: 21–3, DOI: 10.19088/1968-2025.104
