Three-quarters of the 2.6 billion people living on less than $2 per day (almost 2 billion) live in rural areas; that number is virtually unchanged in 20 years. Climate change, therefore, adds a real urgency to the efforts of the many institutions that work to improve the lives of the poor. The previous World resources report published in 2005 examined the relationship between ecosystem management, good governance, and poverty reduction. It argued that poverty and the environment are inextricably linked, that the world’s rural poor could enhance their livelihoods by capturing greater value from ecosystems.
The latest report, jointly produced by WRI, UNEP, UNDP and the World Bank argues that properly designed enterprises can create economic, social, and environmental resilience that can cushion the impacts of climate change, and help provide needed social stability. It argues that successfully scaling up environmental income for the poor requires three elements:
Ownership — a foundation of good governance that both transfers to the poor real authority over local resources and elicits local demand for better management of these resources.
Capacity — building the capacity of local communities to manage ecosystems competently, carry out ecosystem-based enterprises, and distribute the income from these enterprises fairly.
Networks — establishing adaptive networks that connect and nurture nature-based enterprises, giving them the ability to adapt, learn, connect to markets, and mature into businesses that can sustain themselves and enter the economic mainstream.
The full report is available from the World Resources Institute
Picture from Creative Commons: Flickr: Bluecherry1408
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