Linking Conservation and Poverty Reduction: Landscapes, People and Power

Linking Conservation and Poverty Reduction: Landscapes, People and Power


Product Description
High levels of rural poverty in many of the world’s ecosystems make it an ethical and practical imperative to find more equitable and realistic ways of achieving conservation. Livelihoods of the rural poor and options for conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity are so intimately entwined that they are better addressed through an integrated approach, irrespective of whether the primary motivation is one of development or one of conservation.

This fully updated and revised book, first published by The World Conservation Union (IUCN) as Poverty and Conservation, provides a grand overview and a conceptual framework for addressing poverty reduction in the context of conservation and conservation in the context of poverty reduction. Additions to the second edition include recent developments in theory, fieldwork and new case studies from Francophone Africa and Latin America. The book begins by looking at the rationale for addressing the links between conservation and poverty reduction, arguing that such a focus is both ethically essential and a source of opportunities. This is followed by a review of experiences in dealing with people and conservation and identifies some key lessons and concepts. The next section presents key illustrative case studies followed by a discussion of some of the issues that appear when implementing combined conservation and poverty reduction. The emphasis is on the importance of multiple spatial scales and seeking negotiated trade-offs between scales. The book also tackles the complex issue of institutional landscapes and the way in which changes at various institutional levels can lead to different and often more positive outcomes. The final part summarizes some of the main features of the authors’ integrated approach and identifies some of the challenges involved in efforts to combine conservation and poverty reduction.

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