Review of the Poverty - Environment Links Relevant to the IUCN programme1 April 2005 N.C. Saxena Nadine Speich Paul Steele 1 Prepared with the support and participation of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation - SDC 1 Presentation The May 2004 External Review of IUCN recommended three separate but complementary reviews to strengthen IUCN’s ability to adequately address livelihood-poverty-conservation issues. The first of these is a review of the social and economic sciences that IUCN needs to mainstream poverty-environment into the IUCN programme. This review started in August 2004, and a summary of work in progress was presented to the Programme Committee of the IUCN Third World Conservation Congress in Bangkok in November 2004. The present report contains the final version of the review. The review builds on the IUCN 3I-C (Innovation, Integration, Information, Communication) project Mainstreaming Poverty Reduction at IUCN, undertaken in 2002-2004, as well as the 2004 IUCN Study on Capacity Building on Social, Economic and Gender Issues, to: • examine in more depth what work is being done at project, programme and policy level within the various Commissions and the Secretariat, to identify how IUCN should improve the impact and influence of its work on the interface between environment and poverty; • undertake a landscape analysis of what the state of knowledge is in the area of poverty- environment to strengthen IUCN’s global policy work, programme and project work in the field, including work that is being done in the IUCN Commissions and the Secretariat; • identify what additional expertise is needed and how it might best be organized into Advisory Groups, Task Forces or new institutional partnerships and with what terms of reference. The review was coordinated by Gonzalo Oviedo, IUCN Senior Adviser on Social Policy, and prepared by Naresh C. Saxena, Nadine Speich and Paul Steele. Inputs and comments were received from a wide range of IUCN staff at Headquarters and in Regional offices, Commission members, and IUCN member and partner organizations. The review is organized in five parts covering: • state of the art knowledge of the global poverty environment debate • IUCN’s work on the poverty-environment links • a case study from the South: poverty-environment issues and actors in Asia • a case study from the South: poverty-environment links in West Africa • a case study from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC): poverty- environment experience from Swiss cooperation and research institutions. IUCN is grateful to the team of consultants, who did a very professional and conscious work, and to the many colleagues within and outside IUCN, who provided valuable inputs and insights. The review would have been impossible without the generous support and active participation of the SDC. Gonzalo Oviedo IUCN Senior Adviser on Social Policy April 2005 2 Table of contents PRESENTATION ………………………………………………………………………………... 2 ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS ………………………………………………………... 8 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY……………………………………………………..………………... 9 PART 1: STATE OF THE ART KNOWLEDGE OF THE GLOBAL POVERTY- ENVIRONMENT DEBATE ………………………………………………………. 13 1.1 SUMMARY …………………………………………………………………………………….....13 1.1.1 The changing international approach to poverty reduction and its implications for the environment and IUCN……………………………………………………………………………… 13 1.1.2 What is the relationship between poverty reduction and natural resources? Identifying poverty-environment dynamics…………………………….…………..…………….. 14 1.1.3 Why is the relationship between poverty and environment the way it is? Understanding the underlying social, political and economic processes that link poverty and the environment…………..……………………………………………………………………. 15 1.1.4 How can pro-poor natural resource outcomes be achieved? Identifying the drivers of change…….………………………………………………………………………………...…….. 16 1.2 INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE OF THIS REVIEW………………….………………………. 16 1.2.1 Objectives………………………………………………………………………………………...…… 16 1.2.2 Approach…………..………………………….……………………………………………….……….16 1.2.3 Synopsis of the review……………………………..…………………………………………..……..16 1.3 CURRENT IUCN APPROACH AND PROPOSED ACTIVITIES ON POVERTY-ENVIRONMENT…. 17 1.4 THE CHANGING INTERNATIONAL APPROACH TO POVERTY REDUCTION, AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR THE ENVIRONEMENT AND IUCN….………………..……………………18 1.4.1 The changing understanding of poverty…………………………………………………………... 19 1.4.2 The changing role of government and donors in poverty reduction…………………………. 20 1.4.3 Measuring progress in outcomes – Millennium Development Goals…………………………. 21 1.4.4 Poverty reduction linked to strategic macro issues…………………………………………….. 22 1.4.5 The importance of pro-poor growth………………………………………………………………. 23 1.4.6 Supporting pro-poor political change……………………………………………………………. 23 1.4.7 Harnessing the benefits of globalization and addressing industrialized country policies………………………………………………………………………………………………... 25 1.4.8 Poverty reduction, conflict and the security agenda……………………………………………. 25 1.4.9 Conclusions: engaging with the mainstream agenda, but also holding governments and development agencies accountable for their own environment rhetoric…………..….... 26 1.5 WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN POVERTY REDUCTION AND NATURAL RESOURCES? IDENTIFYING POVERTY-ENVIRONMENT DYNAMICS……………………………………………. 26 1.5.1 Generally high dependence of poor men and women on natural resources…………………. 26 1.5.2 Natural resources and poverty focused growth…………………………………………………. 27 1.5.3 More complex analysis of poverty and household dynamics that highlights the “myth” of homogenous communities, for example in terms of gender disparities…………. 28 1.5.4 Population, poverty and the environment………………………………………………………… 29 1.5.5 Health, poverty and natural resources: a complex, emerging area…………………………... 29 1.5.6 Vulnerability to disasters, migration and conflict: a key area………………………………… 30 1.5.7 Poverty, environment and ecosystems: an emerging area……………………………………… 30 1.5.8 Importance of politics in understanding links between poverty reduction and natural resources…………………………………………………………………………………………….... 31 3 1.6 WHY IS THE POVERTY-ENVIRONMENT RELATIONSHIP THE WAY IT IS? UNDERSTANDING THE UNDERLYING SOCIAL, POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC PROCESSES THAT LINK POVERTY AND THE ENVIRONMENT……………………………………………………………………………… 31 1.6.1 Inequitable distribution and insecure access to natural resources, particularly for women…………………………………………………………………………………………………. 32 1.6.2 Growing inequality in resource access for poor people………………………………………... 33 1.6.3 Wealthier groups constrain poor people from benefiting from natural resources………….. 34 1.6.4 State policies penalising resource use by the poor……………………………………………… 34 1.7 HOW CAN PRO-POOR NATURAL RESOURCE OUTCOMES BE ACHIEVED? IDENTIFYING THE RIVERS OF CHANGE……………………………………………………………………………………. 35 1.7.1 Pressure from below: poor people in innovative alliances…………………………………….. 35 1.7.2 Political institutions driving change………………………………………………………………. 36 1.7.3 Taking advantage of wider political change……………………………………………………... 37 1.7.4 Responding to external pressure – the role of donors…………………………………………... 37 PART 2: IUCN’S WORK – IMPROVING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF POVERTY- ENVIRONMENT LINKS & ITS POLICY IMPLICATIONS………………………………… 39 2.1 SUMMARY……………………………………………………………………………………… 39 2.1.1 New challenges…………………..………………………………………………...………………… 39 2.1.2 Greater efforts needed…………………………………………………………………………….… 40 2.1.3 Extension of projects beyond parks and wetlands…………………………………………………… 40 2.1.4 Policy advocacy……………………………………………………………………………………… 40 2.1.5 Governance…………………………………………………………………………………………… 41 2.1.6 Tenurial security………………………………………………………………………………...…… 41 2.1.7 Gender………………………………………………………………………………………………… 41 2.1.8 Technology………………………………………….………………………………………………… 41 2.1.9 NTFPs………………………………………………….……………………………………………… 42 2.1.10 Measurement…………………………………….…………………………………………………… 42 2.1.11 Transaction costs for different resources………………………………………………….……… 42 2.1.12 Promotion versus consolidation…………………………………………………………………… 42 2.2 OBJECTIVES………………………………………………………………………….………… 43 2.3 GENERAL ISSUES ON POVERTY-ENVIRONMENT LINKS……………..………………… 43 2.3.1 Towards a ‘virtuous circle’………………………………………………………………………… 45 2.4 THE ROLE OF IUCN…………………………………………………………………………… 46 2.4.1 IUCN’s commitment to the poor…………………………………………………………………… 46 2.5 EXPERIENCE FROM THE FIELD…………………………………………………………..… 47 2.5.1 Uganda………………………………………………………………………………………………................ 48 2.5.2 Lao PDR…………………………………………………………………………………………….… 49 2.5.3 Viet Nam…………………………………………………………………………………………….… 50 2.5.4 Cameroon…………………………………………………………………………………………...… 50 2.5.5 Sri Lanka……………………………………………………………………………………………… 51 2.5.6 Nepal…………………………………………………………………………………………………... 52 2.6 EMERGING LESSONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS………….…………………………… 53 2.6.1 Focus on policy issues…………………………………………………………….………………… 54 2.6.2 Policy advocacy……………………………………………………………………………………… 56 2.7 ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE…………………………………………………….…… 57 2.8 LIVELIHOODS AND LIVELIHOOD SECURITY………………………………………..…… 58 2.8.1 Normative shifts………………………………………………………………………………………………. 59 2.8.2 Operational shifts……………………………………………………………………………….…… 59 2.8.3 Vulnerability of human communities and approaches to counter it……………………...…… 60 4 2.9 TENURIAL SECURITY………………………………………………………………………… 61 2.9.1 Problems of open access……………………………………………………………………………. 61 2.9.2 Positive examples……………………………………………………………………………………. 63 2.9.3 Tenurial issues in groundwater………………………………………………………...………….. 63 2.10 OPERATIONALISING BENEFIT-SHARING AND PARTICIPATION………………………