Building Livelihood Sovereignty for the Mekong Region

• Values, faith, religion, and spirituality, as the main elements of the heartware approach, are proven to have direct consequences with how local communities perceive and practice ecological sustainability. Based on research and engagement in five Asian local communities, the heartware of sustainability was present, except in the dire case of Tasik Chini, Malaysia, where a “crisis of transcendence” (Duara 2015) seems to be unfolding due largely to unbridled capitalism and the over-exploitation of natural resources. For the most part, local communities in these five localities in Southeast Asia and Japan have displayed a strong affinity with their surrounding ecology and enthu siasm in engaging the sacred through rituals and festivities. The inclination toward ecological sustainability is clearly and deeply conditioned by their faith, religious conviction, and spirituality, which altogether have maintained, expanded, and culti vated their heartware. This is manifested by the local communities’ commitment, initiatives, and activism toward creating a balance between nature and culture. This inner dimension perspective on the heartware of ecological sustainability is “still a working concept” (Mohamad et al. 2015) and needs further elaboration and theoretical underpinnings. Having said that, the heartware approach is relatively stable and seems more durable and dependable in contrast to the more rational hard ware approach and the more predictable software approach. Rituals and festivities are commonly transferrable from one generation to the next through collective memory and consciousness, which foster respect and appreciation for the ecology. The heart ware approach is also dependable because faith, religion, and spirituality form a specific worldview that sits comfortably with ecological sustainability.
  
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