ProFound was established in 1990 to support the professionalisation of organisations and programmes dealing with sustainable development. ProFound's approach towards sustainability starts with regarding people and communities as participants or partners rather than targets or beneficiaries. Interventions in the field of sustainable development involve specific areas of expertise, i.e. capacity building, income generation and conscious natural resources management. In the field of capacity building, assistance is generally aimed at organisational and institutional strengthening, policy and programme development, staff capacity building, monitoring and evaluation of systems and financing strategies. Income generation aims at providing underprivileged groups assistance in the field of economic analyses and surveys, production selection, design, quality control and marketing. ProFound's support for natural resource management comprises land use analyses, environmental impact assessments and community-based sustainable land use planning. Specific areas of experience relate to sustainable agriculture and tourism, food security, non-timber forest products (NTFPs), community-based forestry, off-farm employment, waste management, small business development, savings and credit programmes, gender, fair trade, relief and rehabilitation.