Beyond sustainable development

Sustainable development is not a new idea: at the time of writing, it is 30 years since the Brundtland Commission report Our Common Future was published and brought attention to it. Although sustainable development is a widely accepted paradigm and enshrined in legislation from global to local levels, implementation continues to be a challenge. It has been argued that the term is an oxymoron and also that sustainable tourism is an excessively narrow concept for sustainability is at root a multi-sectoral concept. What is to be sustained is not self-evident and can be debated. As a minimum, it is necessary to develop indicators and this can be done through top-down or bottom-up procedures or a combination of both. In fact, the development of indicators has become a 'growth industry'. In an attempt to further broaden an already broad discussion and drawing upon the author's experiences primarily in Indonesia and Taiwan, as well as recent literature on resilience, the important role of culture will be emphasised and the potential utility of the notion of resilience will be discussed. Finally, a modified sustainable livelihoods framework that incorporates these ideas is presented as a possible way forward.