Poverty and Environment: an Essay on the Poverty-Environment Linkages
Poverty and Environment: An Essay on the Poverty-Environment Linkages
Josiah Mwangi Ateka
School of Economics , Kenyatta University
November 2012
1.0 Background
Poverty reduction and environmental conservation represent two of the main global challenges. The two targets constitute part of the eight Global Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Arising from the thinking that Environmental degradation and poverty reinforce each other since the poor are both agents and victims of environmental destruction; the poverty-environment hypothesis has become a major concern of international development agencies and policy makers. It is often argued that the poor are often the biggest victims of environmental destruction since they depend heavily on the resources provided by natural environment and therefore are less able to escape the effects of environmental damage. According to the UNDP report of 1998, environmental damage almost always hits those living in poverty the hardest. The implication is that there are indeed strong links between the environment and poverty. The important question however is not whether the two should be linked, but rather how to link them. Based on theoretical underpinnings and empirical evidence, this paper attempts to explore how poverty and environment are linked within the context of poor developing countries. The thinking is that the heavy reliance on the environment by the poor for their livelihoods creates complex, dynamic interactions and relationships between environmental conditions, people’s access to and control over environmental resources, and poverty. Understanding the nature of these relationships is a crucial for policy formulation and the practice and execution of poverty reduction and environmental management strategies (Kimalu, et. al. 2001). Within the Kenyan context, the government recognizes that “the full integration of environmental concerns in development planning at all levels of decision making remains a
Josiah Mwangi Ateka
School of Economics , Kenyatta University
November 2012
1.0 Background
Poverty reduction and environmental conservation represent two of the main global challenges. The two targets constitute part of the eight Global Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Arising from the thinking that Environmental degradation and poverty reinforce each other since the poor are both agents and victims of environmental destruction; the poverty-environment hypothesis has become a major concern of international development agencies and policy makers. It is often argued that the poor are often the biggest victims of environmental destruction since they depend heavily on the resources provided by natural environment and therefore are less able to escape the effects of environmental damage. According to the UNDP report of 1998, environmental damage almost always hits those living in poverty the hardest. The implication is that there are indeed strong links between the environment and poverty. The important question however is not whether the two should be linked, but rather how to link them. Based on theoretical underpinnings and empirical evidence, this paper attempts to explore how poverty and environment are linked within the context of poor developing countries. The thinking is that the heavy reliance on the environment by the poor for their livelihoods creates complex, dynamic interactions and relationships between environmental conditions, people’s access to and control over environmental resources, and poverty. Understanding the nature of these relationships is a crucial for policy formulation and the practice and execution of poverty reduction and environmental management strategies (Kimalu, et. al. 2001). Within the Kenyan context, the government recognizes that “the full integration of environmental concerns in development planning at all levels of decision making remains a
References: Arild Angelsen (1995)Poverty and the Environment.Edited by Arild Angelsen and Matti Vainio. Proceedings from the CROP/ADIPA/UNCTAD workshop ”Poverty and the Environment” held in Sabah, Malaysia, October 1995. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) 1998. Human Development Report 1998. New York: Oxford University Press. Usman Ali Iftikhar, (2003). NASSD Background Paper: Population, Poverty and Environment.IUCN Pakistan, Northern Areas Progamme, Gilgit. x+48 pp.