Growing the Wealth of the Poor - World Resources Institute

ROUTESTORESILIENCEIN THIS REPORT WE ARGUE THAT COMMUNITY-BASED NATURALresource management that springs from genuine community demand can nurture enterprisesthat both generate considerable income and improve the state of local ecosystems.Under the right conditions, these enterprises can scale up, achieving a significant povertyreduction effect. The case studies in this chapter chronicle three instances where significantscale and income effects have been achieved. The cases detail the governance conditions,principal actors, and enabling conditions that allowed these successes to go forward, as well asthe challenges they have faced and must continue to deal with in order to sustain their success.The cases also demonstrate that enterprises founded on a basis of good environmental governance cannot only improve the livelihoods of the rural poor but increase their resilience to continuing challenges.They can become more economically resilient—better able to face economic risks. They and theircommunities can become more socially resilient—better able to work together for mutual benefit. Andthe ecosystems they live in can become more biologically resilient—more productive and stable.C H A P T E R 3 C A S E S T U D I E SThe three case studies in this chapter are as diverse in their geography as they are in the ways thecommunities involved have worked to improve their lives through the management of local naturalresources. They illustrate the power of self-interest and community ownership, the enablingvalue of intermediary organizations, and how communication and networks can provide new ideasand support.These cases also illustrate simply how hard this all is—that nothing achieves the perfection of planson paper, that progress takes time and support, but that lives can improve and communities canget stronger.Fisheries for the Future: Restoring Wetland Livelihoods in BangladeshA change in how the government grants access to freshwater fisheries in three major watershedshas restored these fisheries and the lives of the poor in the communities around them. Page 112.Green Livelihoods: Community Forestry Enterprises in GuatemalaGovernment-granted forestry concessions in the Maya Biosphere Reserve have reducedillegal deforestation while slowly improving the economies of the communities responsiblefor them. Page 126.Turning Back the Desert:How Farmers Have Transformed Niger’s Landscapes and LivelihoodsLong-term engagement by NGOs has transformed traditional and sustainable agriculturalpractices and in the process has literally changed the landscape of this arid country even as it hasimproved lives. Page 142.