Dependence of the Poor on Biodiversity: Which Poor, What Biodiversity?

Abstract

The authors are grateful to Dilys Roe (IIED), Matt Walpole (UNEP-WCMC) and Joanna Elliot (African Wildlife Foundation), who commissioned the review. An earlier version of this review was presented at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) Symposium: Linking Biodiversity Conservation and Poverty Reduction: what, why and how, in April 2010. The authors are grateful to participants in the Symposium for their comments and feedback. The usual disclaimers apply.

Perceptions of and adaptation to environmental change in forest-adjacent communities in three African nations

“…Furthermore, forests have been recognised for their contribution to people's livelihoods and identity through regulating and cultural ecosystem services (MEA 2005). Forests are also considered 'safety nets' for poor households providing goods during times of agricultural shortfalls or other such unpredicted shocks (Sunderlin et al 2000, Pattanayak and Sills 2001, McSweeney 2003, Takasaki et al 2004, Belcher 2005, Akinnifesi et al 2006, Shackleton et al 2007, WB 2007, Nkem et al 2010, Vira and Kontoleon 2013. For example, Fisher & Shively (2003) found that rural households in Malawi rely on forest products during food shortages and that such reliance is proportionately higher in poorer households.…”

Finding space for wildlife beyond national parks and reducing conflict through community based conservation: the Kenya experience

“…Little attention is given to the largely traditional and rapidly disappearing skills that foster coexistence (Finger & Schuler, 2004;Vira & Kontoleon, 2010). In the concluding section we look at a few examples of traditional knowledge and practices, drawing heavily on our collective experience working within and among communities to point to a new horizon for coexistence principles rather than control as a central tenet of HWC aversion.…”

A systematic map protocol: which components or attributes of biodiversity affect which dimensions of poverty?

“…This focus on variability is often missing, however, when assertions such as those above are made. The term biodiversity is often used to refer to the amount (in terms of abundance or biomass) of species and populations or to specific elements of biodiversity rather than variety per se [20,21]. Poverty is another term with many different definitions.…”

“…Full understanding of the links between biodiversity conservation and poverty alleviation in any given context requires systematic data collected using robust methods, including where appropriate historical baselines and counterfactual 'control' sites [23,24] -and very few studies are able to do this [20,21]. This is not to infer that 'scientific' evidence is the only source of useful information on the relationship between biodiversity and poverty [25].…”