Poverty Alleviation And Forest Conservation

The report offers a simple framework for policy analysis by identifying three forest types: frontiers and disputed lands; lands beyond the agricultural frontier; and, mosaic lands where forests and agriculture coexist. It collates geographic and economic information for each type that will help formulate poverty-reducing forest policy.

'This book aims to inspire the conservation community not to regard poverty reduction as someone else's job but to take responsibility for it as part of ecosystem restoration. Though no solutions are perfect,the text and examples given offer encouraging and useful guidance.' Gill Shepherd, poverty and landscapes thematic leader, IUCN Forest Conservation Programme. 'This book could be the catalyst for a real paradigm shift - not just in capital cities and international conference centres, but also on the ground in locations where poor people are struggling to make a living.' Policy Matters (praise for the first edition). High levels of rural poverty in many of the world's ecosystems make it an ethical and practical imperative to find more equitable and realistic ways of achieving conservation. Livelihoods of the rural poor and options for conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity are so intimately entwined that they are better addressed through an integrated approach, irrespective of whether the primary motivation is one of development or one of conservation. This highly accessible book, a revised edition of the 2005 book Poverty and Conservation: Landscapes, People and Power, offers a grand overview of the issues and a conceptual framework for addressing poverty reduction in the context of conservation, and conservation in the context of poverty reduction. It will appeal to professionals working in the field as well as to students across the fields of conservation, development and sustainability. It looks at the rationale for addressing the links between conservation and poverty reduction, arguing that such a focus is both ethically essential and a source of opportunities. It alsoreviews experiences in dealing with people and conservation and identifies some key lessons and concepts. The book presents cases studies illustrating various approaches and a discussion of some of the issues that appear when implementing combined conservation and poverty reduction. The book emphasizes the importance of multiple spatial scales and negotiating trade-offs between scales. It also tackles the complex issue of institutional landscapes and the way in which changes at various institutional levels can lead to different and often more positive outcomes. The Final part summarizes some of the main features of the authors' integrated approach and identifies some of the challenges involved in efforts to combine conservation and poverty reduction. Published with IUCN - The World Conservation Union.

This book narrates personal stories of people from around the world who have used natural products, in particular Non Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) as a means to come out of poverty. Ending poverty remains a major worldwide challenge and is the number one goal under the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The book fills an important knowledge gap; that of personal stories of NTFP users. This has not been part of past publications on NTFPs which tend to focus on statistics and analysis of numbers, thus, the human faces of NTFP users are missing. Narrative stories provide a wealth of data about people and their experiences rather than aggregated classifications, categories and characteristics of poverty. The objective of this book is to illustrate the poverty alleviation potential of NTFPs through documenting the personal life stories of individuals and households that lifted themselves out of poverty through trade of NTFPs. This book is for all who are interested in poverty alleviation and NTFPs.

The link between poverty and deforestation in developing countries is of increasing global concern. The authors of this clear, hope-filled book explore the diverse causes of tropical deforestation and offer remedies appropriate to the biology and culture of different regions. They show how modern forestry techniques enable us to alleviate poverty without destroying forests.

At head of title: World Bank Operations Evaluation Department.

This paper examines poverty and deforestation in developing countries as linked problems and focuses on policies that can favour poverty alleviation in forested regions. The paper encompasses two elements: analysis of the spatial coincidence between poverty and forests, and proposed policy options for reducing poverty in forested areas. It is assumed that three key frames of reference must be borne in mind in order to produce the best possible policies: (1) the location of the rural poor and types and levels of poverty in relation to forest resources; (2) variations in the density of forest cover in relation to distance from urban areas (the von Thünen scale); and (3) variations in forest cover over time (high, low, then partial restoration) in relation to a country's forest transition experience. There are three main conclusions linked to these frames of reference. (1) Although relatively few people live in areas of high forest cover, they tend to be characterised by high rates of poverty and they are among the 'poorest of the poor'. (2) Four policy approaches are recommended for lifting people out of poverty: transfer of ownership of forest lands from governments to forest dwellers; facilitation of access to forest product markets; promotion of commercial-scale community forestry and company-community partnerships; and establishment of payments for forest environmental services that are pro-poor. Implementation of these four strategies must take into account the implications of the four von Thünen zones (periurban, agricultural mosaic, forest frontier, and relatively undisturbed forests). (3) One cannot place blind faith in economic growth and laissez-faire for reducing poverty in forested areas. Strategic policy interventions are necessary to assist the process of livelihood improvement.

Despite endorsements of the concept of sustainable development and the linking of sustainable development with the Millennium Development Goals, progress towards the eradication of poverty has been disappointing. The underlying principles of sustainable development need to be more critically and actively applied to both poverty reduction and biodiversity conservation. While recognizing the need for better integration of poverty reduction and conservation objectives by both developmental and conservation agencies, particular attention is paid to the reasons why conservation should do better in contributing to long-term sustainable development and more immediately to poverty reduction.