Community-based economics

In 2001, China began a community-driven program for the purpose of reducing poverty levels. “Participatory village planning” was seen to have been used to promote public investments in targeted villages with higher levels of poverty. There had been programs prior to 2001 in China where investments were made to try to reduce poverty, however, these did not include much participation from the communities themselves. In the current program, each village conducts a public investment plan where projects are voted on by the village residents themselves. The government-initiated program being run in China since 2001 is one of few examples of community-based economics at play, with limited to no participation from international donors.[6]

Cooperatives play a vital role in community-based poverty reduction programs. The first multipurpose cooperative in Nepal was established in 1956.[10] The purpose of establishing the cooperative was to help support the rehabilitation of flood victims.

The Amish community are an example of economic development being possible without complete modernisation. Profit is given less importance to religion and its values.[11] Farmers in the Amish community refrain from using modern technological equipment and still find ways to sell their products at market prices and make profits.[12] By engaging in the wider economy, the Amish community are better able to deal with population growth, land price increases, as well as rises in costs of goods and services not being produced by the Amish community itself. As such, the Amish still find themselves subject to the economic factors of supply and demand changes, rapid changes in legal and political environments, as well the impacts of globalisation.

Government agencies and community groups have protocols for engaging with Aboriginal communities. In regional Australia, resource management practitioners apply projects according to engagement protocols transferred from remote Australia.[15] Various state governments in Australia devolve powers to regional organisations to decide how to invest public funds in environmental management.[16] This model is an example of a community based economic approach to ecological management. This approach is one that the Australian state governments have justified based on the potential benefits of developing the capacities of landholders and other stakeholders. Stakeholders then respond self-reliantly (both as individuals and in groups) to the environmental challenges.[16]

The state government of Nepal set up the Community Forestry programme in 1978, an initiative that saw community members being given full rights for the protection of forests. Around twenty thousand community forest user groups, including under two and a half million households are involved in the management of around two million hectares of community forest in Nepal.[17]

In many rural communities across the west of the United States, (community-based organisations (CBO)), grassroots non-profit entities focusing on revitalising their respective communities through linked natural resource stewardship and rural economic development activities, have emerged to provide direction and practical solutions to natural resource management dilemmas and social conflict.[18] CBOs seek to help communities cope with policy and economic transitions.

Since the 1970s, Indigenous communities in Australia have played leading roles in building procuring community-based services in areas such as local governing; health; housing; as well as welfare.[19]

In Australia, a five-year research project called 'People on Country (POC), Healthy Landscapes and Indigenous Economic Futures' was undertaken by the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research at the Australian National University.[20] This project was collaborative in nature, where the University worked with a number of community-based Aboriginal land and sea management groups in northern Australia. Work was carried out on a number of cultural and resource management issues.

Many community-based economies have been seen in the Kasungu district of Malawi. These economies have concerned themselves with the tasks of sustaining agriculture; managing natural resources; facilitating small and medium enterprises; as well as dealing with health problems in their communities such as HIV and AIDS.[21]

The Ngolowindo Horticultural Cooperative Society (NHCS) is one such example of community-based economies at play. It is located in the “Maganga Traditional Authority in the Salima District of Malawi's Central Regions”. The NHCS includes members from the eleven villages surrounding it and was initially known as the “Ngolowindo Self Help Irrigation Scheme (NSHIS)”.[4] The NSHIS had seen support from the areas’ indigenous leaders. Apart from seeking to implement subsistence farming, the NHCS deals with generational income issues by focusing on achieving stability at the household level.[4]

The importance of relationships was seen in the early Māori economy. Concepts such as reciprocity; flexibility; sustainability and sharing (trade) underpinned these relationships. Not only were these relationships regarded as between people, but between people and the physical world, as well as between people and the spiritual world.[22]