Linking the Environment and Poverty: Key to Achieving the Millennium Development Goals

Frances (Yu-Chun) Chen, intern at UNIC in Washington DC


With only six years left, countries and international organizations strive to accelerate their progress to realize promises made in 2000. While many worry about halving the world population living in poverty by 2015 (MDG 1), the ensuring of environmental sustainability has grasped increasing attention (MDG 7). It is now obvious that the poor are the most affected by the effects of environmental degradation. The two issues may seem independent yet they must be connected: sound environmental management is not only key to alleviating poverty, it is moreover essential to achieving all of the other Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

75% of the world’s poor lives in rural areas today. With the lack of access to sophisticated infrastructure and technology, the rural poor rely heavily and directly on nature for their livelihood through agriculture, fishing, logging and other activities. It is only logical that we protect and manage natural resources in these areas, as they are fundamental for rural development. Yet if natural ecosystems are not well-managed, it will precipitate a resort to unsustainable environmental practices that will disable nature’s ability to feed people. Alternatively, poverty also causes negative impacts on the natural systems. To escape poverty, people tend to abuse the environment or migrate from rural to urban areas and create slums; these actions result in the straining of both rural and urban areas. To prevent such a vicious cycle from occurring, the environment needs to become a focal point in all poverty reduction strategies.

Nevertheless, the initial attempts to eradicate poverty did not take into account the significant role that ecosystems play in the lives of poverty-stricken populations as sustainable sources of income. For example, practices have shown that the vast majority of poverty reduction strategy papers (PRSPs), which are development blueprints proposed by the governments of developing countries to the IMF, have failed to acknowledge the importance of environmental sustainability for development. The PRSPs are not mainstream environmental concerns and lack long-term environmental sustainability strategies; furthermore, there is a general tendency to focus more on large-scale development projects and global-scale issues such as aids and debt reliefs.

To reverse previous poverty reduction strategies, a UN report, called Environment and Human Well-being: a Practical Strategy, as well as the MDG 7a, urge the incorporation of environmental sustainability into all development project proposals. As enabling the local population to manage natural resources is key to eradicating poverty, national development strategies should take an ecosystem-based approach to environment management. Sound natural resources management will strengthen the resource base, generate income throughout the management process, and thus decrease the vulnerability of the poor, allowing them to escape poverty. Such re-orientation of strategies need to be adapted by both developing countries as well as international donors.

Today, in recognition of the imperative relation between poverty reduction and environmental management, the UN system continues its poverty reduction efforts through many initiatives, notably the UNDP-UNEP Poverty-Environment Initiative (PEI). This joint programme works to bring about better pro-poor environment management by providing financial and technical support to better mainstream the poverty-environment linkages into national development planning processes, such as PRSPs and MDG Achievement Strategies.

For the world to be one step closer to attaining the MDGs, it is crucial that the relevant international actors immediately act with tireless efforts to help implement policies and projects that reflect the vital connection between the poor and their lands.■


Further Reading:
Black, Richard. “Environment key to helping poor,” BBC News Website, available from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4199138.stm (accessed 26 September 2009).
Hugé, Jean, and Luc Hens. 2009. "The greening of poverty reduction strategy papers: a process approach to sustainability assessment." Impact Assessment & Project Appraisal 27, no. 1: 7-18. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed 28 September 2009).
“Millennium Development Goals”, United Nations Development Programme, available from http://www.undp.org/mdg/ (accessed 26 September 2009).
UN Millennium Project Task Force on Environmental Sustainability. Environment and Human Well-Being: a Practical Strategy (2005), http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/documents/Environment-complete-lowres.pdf (accessed September 2009)
“UNDP-UNEP Poverty-Environment Initiative”, United Nations Environment Programme, avaialbe from http://www.undp.org/mdg/ (accessed 26 September 2009).
World Resources Institute. The Wealth of the Poor: Managing Ecosystems to Fight Poverty (2005), http://pdf.wri.org/wrr05_lores.pdf (accessed September 2009)