Examplesofenvironmentaldeterminants-Local.docVIP

[Final Draft – Submitted 10 June 2002 for Agency Review/Clearance] Linking Poverty Reduction and Environmental Management Policy Challenges and Opportunities A contribution to the World Summit on Sustainable Development Department for International Development, United Kingdom (DFID) Directorate General for Development, European Commission (EC) United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) The World Bank July 2002 Foreword One in five people on the planet – two-thirds of them women – live in abject poverty. While the last century saw great progress in reducing poverty and improving well-being, poverty remains a global problem of huge proportions. Of the world’s 6 billion people, 2.8 billion live on less than $2 a day, and 1.2 billion on less than $1 a day. To address this challenge, the world’s governments committed themselves at the United Nations Millennium Summit to the Millennium Development Goals, including the overarching goal of halving extreme poverty by the year 2015. Yet, our planet’s capacity to sustain us is eroding. The problems are well-known – degrading agricultural lands, shrinking forests, diminishing supplies of clean water, dwindling fisheries, and the threat of growing social and ecological vulnerability from climate change and loss of biological diversity. While these threats are global, their impacts are most severe in the developing world – especially among people living in poverty who have the least means to cope. Is this environmental decline inevitable in order for poverty to be reduced? We argue not. Indeed, quite the opposite is true. If we do not successfully arrest and reverse these problems, the world will not be able to meet the Millennium Development Goals, particularly the goal of halving extreme poverty. As this paper demonstrates, tackling environmental degradation is an integral part of effective and lasting poverty reduction. The 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) provides the international community with a piv