jp8589 WRI.qxd - World Resources Institute

CHAPTER 1
NATURE, POWER, AND POVERTY
poverty plan emphasizes the importance of increasing environmental
income through community forestry and small-scale
fisheries management, as well as better market access for small
farmers (Cambodia PRSP 2002:53, 60-61). Still, few PRSPs
contain quantified, time-bound targets for improved environmental
conditions or better resource management (Bojö et al. 2004:xii).
Since PRSPs provide a national roadmap to poverty
reduction, it is particularly important that they do a better job
of highlighting the role of natural resources in rural development
and prioritizing the need to strengthen local capacity to
manage ecosystems. This means they must grapple with the
issue of how best to devolve control over natural resources to
local communities in a way that empowers the poor rather than
simply transferring power to local elites. PRSPs must also adopt
a long-term perspective that identifies lasting poverty reduction
with sustainability, rather than focusing totally on short-term
economic growth. Typically, PRSPs do not reflect long-term
strategic thinking about the environment (Bojö and Reddy
2003:1, 9) or the consequences of possible environmental
change from climate instability, land use change, pollution,
population, or other forces.
From Vulnerability to Wealth
Progress on incorporating ecosystems and governance into the
Millennium Development Goals and the PRSP process is only
a first step in the effort to make the environment a way out of
poverty, rather than another source of vulnerability for the
poor. Completing this transition will require much more. It
will demand local institutions that are accessible to the poor
and empowered to manage local ecosystems; secure tenure
that gives the poor a legal stake in good resource management;
and viable models to commercialize nature-based
products and services, including access to credit, transportation,
and marketing savvy. And it will demand scientific
guidance and technical help to optimize ecosystem management
at low cost, and to ensure that local uses of nature do
not threaten ecosystems at larger geographical scales and are
consistent with national environmental goals. Facilitating this
must be pro-poor political change that increases the accountability
of government officials and service providers to the
poor, and recognizes the potential role of the poor in national
economic growth.
The chapters that follow expand on these themes, providing
examples of the vital role that nature can play in poverty
alleviation if governance, economic, and management factors
are aligned. In doing so, it shows how both social and environmental
goals depend on each other for their achievement and
must be pursued simultaneously. World Resources 2005: The
Wealth of the Poor is not only an exploration of the power of
nature to provide sustainable livelihoods and support rural
growth that increases the incomes and options of the poor. It is
equally an exploration of the power of nature as a means
toward democratic change and greater social equity.
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