LIVELIHOOD SECURITY

'A livelihood comprises the capabilities, assets (stores, resources, claims and access ) and activities required for a means of living: a liveihood is sustainable which can cope with and recover form stress and shocks, maintain or enhance its capabilites and assets, and provide sustainable livelihood opportunities for the next generation; and which contributes net benefits to other livelihoods at the local and global levels and in the long and short term.' Chambers and Convey (1992)

Moving away from income or consumption criteria , many a times poverty has been equated with the lack of livelihood security . Stated briefly, livelhood security comprises of multidisciplinary safety nets for furtherance of physiological and psycholgical well being of the people . Accordingly, sustainable livelihood approach permeates the entire concept of People's Protected Area.

As a corollary to this, to begin with food security, health cover and dependable wage labor become areas of prime concern.
Goods and services form the PPAs , more importantly non wood forest products (NWFP) originating form diverse sources ranging from large plants to micro flora consisting of heterogenous products, constitute a critical life line for poor forest dwellers by providing family sustenace and livelihood . Due to their recurrent availability on annual / seasonal basis and immense socio- cultural, economic , environmental and industrial development potentials , NWFP hold a promise for developing interesting mechanism for sustainable livelihood approaches.