“We need a mindset change as well as a ‘heart-set’ change. Ultimately it’s what we care about, not what we’re trying to figure out.”
FB: There’s a challenge to how we’ve done development work where we tend to focus on short-term outcomes and there’s a very different mindset to how do we support capacity building at the local level that will eventually yield the kinds of outcomes we need. So, when funding is based on short- term target impacts as opposed to longer-term capacity building we need to be able to support these communities to embrace their own capability in order to understand and address the kind of giant climate vulnerabilities they face as well as other challenges.
So how do we help these communities make a viable living that will support the environment, though becoming environmental stewards as well as sustainable earners rather than just clearing land and bringing in the cattle as has been done for hundreds of years? Mother Nature cannot support this kind of plunder much longer, one that supports more growth and more profit which is a really closed system. So we have to figure out how to do this differently very quickly so that we can have resilient communities that also supports our natural world and climate.
LC: Thank you for your insights Flynn, it’s been a pleasure to chat to you and look forward to hearing more about your upcoming projects.
Author
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As the Creative Advisor and Lead Storyteller, Lisa comes to Nature for Justice passionate about restoring and protecting our natural world and with a wide range of experience in the creative world of storytelling. She has worked in the art industry, publishing, education and literary fields. She has also worked in Communications for an ocean-based NGO and run’s her own small social media campaign for beach clean ups in her city in South Africa.
lcloete@nature4justice.org Cloete Lisa