Forest conservation and the rural poor: a call to broaden the conservation agenda
2001
P. Gutman
This paper begins by asking why forest conservationists should consider poverty reduction. It argues that, since poverty reduction is such a global priority, if the forestry community do not develop good proposals that contribute to that agenda, forest depletion may increase.Second, the author argues, there is growing frustration among conservation and social development practitioners with policies that have not lived up to their claims of being able to deliver both poverty alleviation and forest conservation. These include many market-oriented reforms, agricultural intensification programs, and integrated conservation and development projects. The paper describes the process that led to integrated conservation and development projects (ICDPs), which were viewed as a win-win strategy that could deliver both environmental conservation and poverty alleviation and that WWF adopted in the 80s. The author describes a common sense of frustration where this approach has not delivered.The paper goes on to describe new strategies that have been developed to answer four questions:what are the immediate, intermediate, and root causes of deforestation?are the rural poor a threat to forests?are forests an important source of current or potential income for the rural poor?how might the conservation movement better mainstream forests–poverty issues into its policy and activities?The paper explores these questions and strategies that have been developed to address these issues. The author ends by making a number of programmatic and policy level recommendations for the conservation community to include poverty reduction in their plans and policies.
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