Poverty-Environment Nexus in search of an alternative scenario

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Poverty-Environment Nexus in search of an
alternative scenario

• Atiur Rahman

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• Nature, mans first love, which brought to him
  the hospitality of gods became his arch-enemy.
  Man indiscriminately destroyed forest to build
  his brick-tenement. The sylvan goddess brought
  him blessing. Man ignored her and earned her
  curse. To save ourselves from utter disaster,
  we have to propitiate the sylvan goddess our
  patron, so she makes our land fertile and
  fruitful.
• Rabindranath Tagore, Aronya Debota, Collected
  Works, Vol. 14, Page 372-3.

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Context

• Multi-dimensionality of poverty.
• Poverty reduction major challenge for
  developing countries e.g. Bangladesh.
• Economic growth versus sustainability.
• Degraded environment means less resources for the
  poorest and future generations.

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Conceptual Framework

• Two interlinked causal processes
• Poverty affecting environmental conservation.
• Degraded environment affecting the poor.

Poverty regeneration
Poverty
Environment
Environmental degradation
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The Linkages

• Environment and Health
• Pollutions having fatal consequences on the
  health of the poor.
• Future generations badly affected.
• Environment and Productivity
• Two channels of depressing ability of the poor to
  generate income
• Lowering productivity of labor
• Reducing productivity of poors natural resources.

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The Linkages

• Poverty and Resource Management
• Poor resource management (on the basis of
  day-to-day survival) due to poverty.
• Degrading CPRs affecting access of the poor to
  natural insurance
• Higher risks for the poorer.
• Limited options for the poorer for managing the
  natural resources.

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The Linkages
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Facts Awareness
US Survey

• The poor are less aware on environmental issues.

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Facts Growth Zones
US Survey

• Negative externalities of growth generating
  activities in growth zones
• Industrial pollution poor suffering from various
  diseases.
• Water logging and degraded water quality
  affecting the poor in particular.
• Example Savar EPZ

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Facts Growth Zones
US Survey

• Pollution of Savar EPZ affecting the poor
• Polluted water and air.
• Reduced fertility of land.
• Prevalence of mosquitoes and pests.
• Reduced fish production.
• 86 households consider these problems as severe.
• Earnings of poor farmers reduced.

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Facts Shrimp Cultivation
US Survey

• Negative externalities
• Increased salinity.
• Reduced land productivity.
• Reduced cultivable and pasture lands.
• Scarcity of drinking water.
• Poor farmers affected the most
• Reduced production of crops.
• Reduced income.

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Facts Shrimp Cultivation
US Survey

• 100 of the poor households do not want shrimp
  farming.

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Facts Disaster
US Survey

• Poor affected most by natural disaster e.g. river
  erosion
• Assets destroyed.
• Reduced earnings.
• Increased indebtedness.
• Poverty exacerbated
• Poor become poorer.

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Facts Disaster

• Migration as a result of disaster.

(Rahman 2001)
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Facts Disaster
US Survey

• Seasonal poverty (monga) concentrated mostly in
  river erosion areas.
• Negative impact of monga on environment
• 80 of monga affected households involved in
  activities unfriendly to environment.
• Cutting trees, over fishing.

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Facts Gender Dimension

• Women are subsistence producers and users of
  forests and CPRs.
• Likely to be hit most by environmental
  degradation.
• But the linkages between gender, poverty and
  sustainable development yet to be focused in
  Bangladesh.

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Facts Int. Trade Dimension

• Environmental requirements.
• Standards poor institutional capacity.
• Sanitary and phytosanitary measures.
• Poor equipments, laboratories.
• Market access.
• Capacity low, particularly for SMEs.
• Eco-labeling (Voluntary, yet important).

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Facts Int. Trade Dimension

• Poor capacity to assess economic and social costs
  of compliance of international standards.
• RD missing.
• Impact on cost and profitability.
• Impact on employment of poor workers.

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Lesson

• The poor bear the brunt of most of the
  environmental problems caused by economic
  activities of the relatively better off people.
• Example Climate Change

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Climate Change
Source DFID 2004.
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Impact on MDG

• Sustainability of environment difficult to
  achieve.
• Environmental damage hitting the poor the most.
• Loss of biodiversity resulting in less access of
  poor to CPRs for livelihood.
• Adverse impact on the poor making it difficult to
  achieve the goal of halving extreme poverty by
  2015.

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Way Ahead

• The poor to be a part of the solution, not a part
  of the problem.
• Environmental sustainability not to be ignored
  while in pursuit of growth.
• Environmental management to be integrated into
  efforts of poverty reduction.

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Way Ahead

• Environmental concerns of the poor to be
  incorporated in the national development
  framework.
• Environmental management to be decentralized
  through
• Sub-national policy and planning processes, and
• Sectoral investment program.

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Way Ahead

• International trade support
• RD Capacity Building to be supported for
  exports, particularly for SMEs.
• Environment-friendly exports to be supported.
• Renewable energy to be emphasized.
• Solar power, bio-gas.
• Pro-poor energy alternatives.

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Way Ahead

• The poor and marginalized to be empowered to
  influence environmental policy and planning
• Increased public access to environmental
  information, decision making and justice.
• Rights of the poor on CPRs to be strengthened.
• Reforming policy and institutions that determine
  the access.

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Way Ahead

• Environmental governance
• Mainstreaming environmental concerns in national
  policy framework.
• Promoting community participation in planning.
• Re-orientation of policy planning.
• Oversight mechanisms.
• Capacity building.
• Women in decision-making
• Social mobilization

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Way Ahead

• Environment acknowledged as one of the four
  supporting strategies for poverty reduction in
  PRSP
• A good start
• But environment yet to be mainstreamed.
• Not supported sufficiently in the budget.
• Requires strong political will.

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Thanks