Innovation Emerging from Livelihoods: Natural Resource Management in Lake Malawi

Abstract

The eradication of poverty is an urgent global challenge. However, the solution to this issue is difficult, especially given uncertainty of the behavior of complex social-ecological systems. This chapter considers the nature of transdisciplinary (TD) research that is necessary to deal with such complex and wicked problems. Through collaborative TD research conducted with the socially vulnerable people, in this case people living in poverty in Lake Malawi riparian communities in East Africa, it became apparent that various autonomous innovations (tools) were emerging which contribute to the improvement of well-being and sustainable management of natural resources among people living in poverty who have been regarded as the targets of aid. Through the construction of a toolbox that promotes societal transformation toward sustainability, this chapter proposes a new approach of TD researchLivelihoodsNatural resource managementResource managementLake Malawiconducted with socially vulnerable people to visualize values of knowledge and technologies that promote autonomous natural resource management and pluriactivity in livelihoods to improve well-being of these people and achieve natural resource sustainability.