User:Khairul.sheikh

POVERTY AND ECOLOGICAL DEGRADATIION-A TWO WAY RELATION

Ecological degradation and poverty have direct and close relation. This statement simply means that poverty will degrade the environment more and the increasing degradation of environment will increase poverty. During last 20-30 years a number of studies has been conducted to establish this relation and their effect on each other and now it is universally accepted truth. As the World Bank (1990, p. 32) stated, “many of the poor are located in region where arable land is scarce, agricultural productivity is low, and drought, floods and environmental degradation are common.” There are hundreds of issues linked with the present topic, but here we will talk only on interlink between poverty and ecological degradation.

The increasing degradation of the environment/natural resources shrinks the livelihood resources and they become more vulnerable and insecure. After Rio Earth Summit in 1992, the link between environmental issues and sustainable livelihoods has been widely recognized. In the 7th UN Millennium Development Goal the environmental sustainability and development has been included. Is has become a worldwide issue and increasing efforts are given to tackle it. Simply speaking, environmental degradation means the destruction of natural resources (land, water and forest etc.). The rural poor as well as urban depended on those natural resources for their livelihood. These resources are the primary source of income (forests, fisheries and farming) for rural poor worldwide. So, even little degradation of these resources is clearly visible in the life of the poor.

Environment and Pro-poor Approach from time immemorial to till date our economy is based on natural resources could be divided into the following parts-

1.	Wild income- includes income from forest, marine, fisheries, grassland. Harvests from these resources are very much important source of income for the poor worldwide. Our concern is to tap these resources for ensuring livelihood of the poor. Everywhere, in every human society we find these resources in its good or degraded conditions. Our efforts should be such a way that would benefit to earn the livelihood of the poor. For instance, our aim for forest management should not be towards timber or development of big industries, it should be guided towards poverty alleviation and right of poor on it and its production for their livelihood. Thus all the above-mentioned wild income should be guided towards the earning of livelihood of poor people. 2.	Agricultural income- includes income from farmland, orchard. Farming activities should be commercial centered, or producing cash crop. This should ensure food security at first.

On the other side we could find that poverty degrades/destroy the environmental resources. It has been found that poor people destroy environmental (income) resources from which they yield their livelihood in the critical or normal time. Experience also says that hardly any option exists there to revive the situation by the people. As a result the situation become worst. Anyway, poverty is not only cause for ecological degradation. As N.C. Sasena (Ecological Security, p. 79) writes critical points of ‘vicious circle’, as given below- 	Poor people have hardly any autonomy of their action, it is decided by external socio-political forces. 	The wrong market and pricing system for environmental goods lead to its over exploitation and benefit the poor. 	Wrong governmental policies that do not give ownership of commons to the people. As a result they does not feel any responsibility to protect it. 	Technological advances (artificial capital creation) come with a cost of natural resources.

As it has been mentioned above, a number of issues concerned with poverty and ecological degradation. We are not concerned with those. It we take those as constant variables, then poverty and ecological degradation are significant causes by themselves that asks for our immediate concern for remedial action.

Reference -Pruthi, Devi and Pruthi (2002)- Encyclopaedia of Status of Women in India (Saurabh Communications, C-5/70, Atul Park, Yamuna Vihar, Delhi, India) -Cox and Pawar (2006)-International Social Work-Issues, strategies, and Programs (Vistaar Publications, B-42, Panchsheel Enclave, New Delhi, India)