Does Land Degradation Increase Poverty in Developing Countries?

Abstract

Land degradation is a global problem that particularly impacts the poor rural inhabitants of low and middle-income countries. We improve upon existing literature by estimating the extent of rural populations in 2000 and 2010 globally on degrading and improving agricultural land, taking into account the role of market access, and analyzing the resulting impacts on poverty. Using a variety of spatially referenced datasets, we estimate that 1.33 billion people worldwide in 2000 were located on degrading agricultural land (DAL), of which 1.26 billion were in developing countries. Almost all the world’s 200 million people on remote DAL were in developing countries, which is about 6% of their rural population. There were also 1.54 billion rural people on improving agricultural land (IAL), with 1.34 billion in developing countries. We find that a lower share of people in 2000 on DAL, or a higher share on IAL, lowers significantly how much overall economic growth reduces poverty from 2000 to 2012 across 83 developing countries. As the population on DAL and IAL in developing countries grew by 13% and 15% respectively from 2000 to 2010, these changing spatial distributions of rural populations could impact significantly future poverty in developing countries.

Land Use and Land Cover Change in the Bale Mountain Eco-Region of Ethiopia during 1985 to 2015

“…For example, forests contributed 40.2% and 18.8% to the household income in Harenna Buluk and Nansebo Districts, respectively. A recent publication on land degradation [59] concluded that people living in and around degraded lands are actually poorer than those in areas that are not degraded.…”

“…The annual loss of GDP from the agriculture sector in the country has been estimated at 2.3% due to land degradation [67]. Land degradation is linked to food insecurity, vulnerability to climate change, and poverty [59]. Hence, land degradation and poverty are becoming inseparable problems for the rural poor.…”

Farmer Exchange Rate and Agricultural Land Conversion Analysis to Agricultural Sector Poverty in Indonesia

“…Relative poverty is a poverty because of incapability to fulfill live standard decided by surrounding society, it is closely related to the income distribution. A citizen with poor categories is a citizen which have outcome per month below the poverty line (BPS, 2013). Poverty line determined by BPS constitutes a sum of food poverty line and nonfood poverty line.…”

Biophysical Conditions and Land Use Methods Contributing to Watershed Degradation in Makueni County, Kenya

“…The African continent is faced with the unparalleled environmental degradation with about 70% of its population being rural, directly depending on land and natural environment for its livelihoods and wellbeing [5]. Rapid population growth, poverty and social inequities contribute to watershed degradation [6,7]. The African savanna landscapes provide economic and ecological services sustaining livelihoods, now threatened by the twin problems of soil erosion and decrease of vegetation cover and depletion of wood land cover [8].…”

“…It is important to make distinction between human induced degradation and that is caused by climate change which land users have no control over. According to Barbier et al [7] land degradation is linked to food insecurity and vulnerability to climate change as well as poverty, which impacts negatively on farmers livelihoods and land management practices. It is also important to note that land/watershed degradation is a social problem affecting all the people at all stages of development not only as a causative factor but also as victims of these actions [18].…”