The Role of the Environment in PovertyAlleviation

1996

IES is a non-profit research institute, based at Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. The Institute's primary objective is to carry out multi-and interdisciplinary research on environmental issues, based on crossfertilisation of monodisciplinary sciences. Environment and the Third World is one of eight major IVM research programmes.

2012

Payments for Environmental Services (PES) Programs can be useful policy instruments for achieving conservation objectives through incentive mechanisms. However, the success of such programs depends on the particular solutions that are given to political economy constraints and challenges. The Mexican case provides helpful lessons on this topic, in addition to design and implementation insights. The Mexican PES program has been in place since 2003. It strives to protect well-conserved forests and to have a social impact through payments made to the most marginalized communities. Nevertheless, its impact in terms of avoided deforestation is not very high. This is due to targeting failures that arise from an internal trade-off between social and conservation goals. In order to align both objectives the continuous negotiation of goals and targeting mechanisms between the different stakeholders: government, bureaucracy, nongovernment organizations (NGOs), and local communities must be ke...

Geo. Int'l Envtl. L. Rev., 2011

Least developed countries (LDCs) are the primary victims of environmental changes, including present and future impacts of climate change. Environmental degradation poses a serious threat to the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources, thus hindering development in LDCs. Simultaneously, poverty is itself both a major cause and effect of global environmental problems. Against this backdrop, this essay argues that without recognition and protection of a collective right to development, genuine environmental ...

The study attempts to reject the common perception that lack of education and/or lack of environmental awareness is the primary cause of environmental destruction and that poverty is the most significant factor why the destruction of forests and mangroves still continue up to this day in spite of the massive campaign by the different government and non-government agencies on environmental conservation. Respondents of this study were thirty residents coming from six barangays of the municipality of La Libertad in Negros Oriental. Three of these barangays are located in the coastal areas, thus fifteen of the respondents are mostly exposed to the mangrove forest destruction. The other fifteen respondents reside in the mountain barangays where they are exposed to the inland forest denudation. Half of the respondents have not have any schooling or at least have gone through primary school while the other half are high school, high school graduates, have gone through college and college graduates. The age range of the respondents is from ten years old up to sixty years old. The findings of the study shows that even if the respondents were environmentally aware yet they were not able to practice what they learned from the forest and coastal management trainings they have attended simply because of the economic situation they are in - they live in poverty. The conclusion of the study is that poverty is really one of the main reasons why environmental destruction remains to be unabated. Although as mentioned in the introduction that there are two more important factors that have been culprits of this phenomenon and in which poverty is very much entangled. These are the greed of capitalism and politics. It is also concluded that lack of education and/or lack of environmental awareness do not in any way directly cause the destruction of the environment. People may be well informed about the environmental issues but this does not stop them from cutting trees and mangroves if it is for their own survival. However, the researcher made a recommendation that a policy and management intervention for effective Implementation of anti-poverty program of DSWD so that effective implementation of the integrated coastal management, community-based forest management project and the national greening program of DENR. There is also a need for a convergence approach of these two government agencies for an effective implementation of their programs and projects.

International Affairs and Global Strategy, 2019

This writing clearly shows as Human Rights and Environmental protection on one side, and Human Rights and Poverty Reduction on the other side are complementary than competing concepts. Results of different literature review indicate that human rights and environment are mutual supportive because damage to one of them undermine the enjoyment of the other. At same time poverty mean infringement on human rights but not social problem from human rights perspective. Environmental protection may be cast as a means to the end of fulfilling human rights standards. Also human rights serve as tool to achieve adequate levels of environmental protection and promotion of procedural or participatory rights, right to information, and right of access to justice and redress in connection with environmental concerns. International treaties show that poverty and environmental concerns are closely linked and cannot be tackled in isolation. Poverty reduction and improved environmental outcomes mean improvement in the health of poor peoples'. Economic development and poverty reduction strongly depend on improving management of the environment and natural resources, the natural capital of the poor. Environmental management cannot be treated separately from other development concerns, but requires integration into poverty reduction and sustainable development efforts.