CSS Forums - View Single Post

mtgondal · #27 Monday, May 21, 2007

Poverty alleviation through resource conservation By Mohammad Niaz

Poverty alleviation is one of the greatest challenges facing the communities and governments of developing nations, and the donor agencies working in those countries

The need for conservation of natural resources has emerged as an urgent discipline in light of the current environmental trends by integrating the concept of co-management for sustainability of resources and financial implications. Wildlife and forests are the renewable resources but can be easily exploited that render the utilisation index reaches to an extreme.

In Pakistan the rural poverty constituting about 36.3 percent is significantly higher than the 22.6 percent urban poverty. Mostly, poverty is associated with the rural set up of an area due to lack of developmental means and facilities that otherwise serves as a wheel for giving momentum to boost up the rural economy at large. In an attempt to bring the living standard up, many people leave the rural areas with a quest to find jobs in the urban areas, that has twofold effect on the rural economy; firstly, the manpower creates a vacuum in the rural economy, secondly, the manpower going out to urban areas bring good financial prospects and opportunities to earn money and utilise them in the rural set up by establishing some sort of the small scale business. The latter scenario puts up shackles onto the better prospects of all others as well in terms of sanitation, health and medical facilities.

Pakistan’s total population is estimated at over 156 million, which places it as the sixth most populous country in the world, and this population is going to be twofold by 2040 with a growth rate of 1.9 per cent per annum. With increasing households in the rural areas, the general picture of poverty gets more prominent. In order to improve the rural economy, it’s vital to boost up the economic conditions of the people by plugging their mass flow to urban areas through provision of developmental means at the threshold. Besides the rural population being 65 per cent is huge task to be provided with the basic amenities and needs.

Pakistan is bestowed with large diversity of natural resources in its different geographical regions whose weight can be gauged from the fact that these areas attract many donor agencies for the uplift of the poor rural local people in general and the environmental resources in particular. Towards the last two decades of the 20th century, adequate attention to environmental concerns at the preliminary stages has contributed significantly to pave way for the ‘sustainable growth’ i.e. by sustaining the resource base of the biosphere through community participation in different componential aspects. Poverty alleviation is one of the greatest challenges facing the communities and governments of developing nations, and the donor agencies working in those countries. Generally, most national policy to fight unemployment and generate economic growth is focused at the community level. Community engagement is indeed crucial to the success of income generation programmes focused on poverty alleviation.

Natural resources provide important platform to promote economic activities and subsequent benefits for many local rural communities. In developing countries, harvesting of natural resource products offers significant opportunity to improve the livelihoods of local communities living in rural areas. Sustainable management strategies of these natural resources are therefore the next most essential steps. Effective strategies that integrate sustainable natural resource management, micro and small enterprise for livelihoods of community will enhance both economic benefits for local people and conservation of different components of natural ecosystems.

In this grave social scenario, management of natural resources play a pivotal role in poverty alleviation in target regions both to some extent in urban and to a greater degree in the rural areas having huge potential of natural resources, through active participation of the local communities who are more dependent on these resources for subsistence. In rain-fed and upland zones, poverty forces people to exploit natural resources with short-term gain. Increase in population and fewer crops yield result in lower per capita income that worsens poverty and food security. More often they resort to only one consumptive use of the resources at the cost of depletion of resources with an unsustainable utilisation approach without any economic output and benefits in the long run.

However, to halt this degradation trend in resource utilisation more specifically in the hilly and ecologically fragile areas of the region, several projects have been implemented to ensure economic growth through incentives and developmental interventions to earn support of local people and achieve the sustainability target in resource conservation. Many projects and sectors and non-government organisations are helping the local communities in basic water supply schemes, basic infrastructures and others to improve their socio-economic condition. Local people are also hired as porters in different resource surveys that serve as a means of income generation. In many areas like Chitral and Swat the local people are facilitated to grow orchards of walnuts and apple with technical assistance and incentives to improve their earning capacity, marketable skills and expose them to better marketing techniques. Provision of small and medium sized enterprises, besides financial returns, help the local people through local level employment generation, Improved seed quality and agricultural practices help them get more crop yield and income.

International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has also promoted relevant projects for improved environmental and Natural Resource Management. It helped the local communities to explore market opportunities for local business enterprises, based on the observation of environmentally sound production methods. According to its report environmental parametres like forestry, agriculture, wildlife, fisheries, natural resource based manufacturing industries etc. has contributed 45 per cent to the national economy, 75 per cent foreign exchange earnings and 60 per cent employment of the country.

The initiatives aim at increasing and diversifying income while observing the basic sustainability elements. They also highlight the existing linkages between food security, livelihoods and sustainable management of natural resources. A number of potential business areas were identified including apiculture and other non-timber forest products (e.g. handicraft using seeds, dry fruits, burnt poles, etc.), wildlife, consortium between cash crops business and natural resource use as ensured means of income generation.

In some countries the governments actively develop community based wildlife management utilisation schemes where benefits and revenues from natural resources like wildlife may accrue directly to several communities. In NWFP (Chitral), the Markhor and Ibex (wild goats) trophy hunting programme initiated by the NWFP wildlife department for benefiting the local communities has helped the communities significantly that fetch more than US$50,000 for one trophy of Markhor and $3000 per Ibex trophy, 80 per cent of which goes to the community in wake of their support of the species conservation in the community and private owned game reserves in the area. This co-management has created a sense of resource management on sustainable basis, with a major financial outcome to benefit the community as whole through conservation initiatives as an income generation activity.

Better prospects of income generation through awareness and developmental interventions have increased the capacity of local people to earn more income as compared to the orthodox and unsound techniques. The poverty struck areas are ecologically very rich in natural resources like Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) that are value added products. There are instances that the projects like Palas Conservation and Development Project and its subsequent projects in district Kohistan of the North-West Frontier Province have rendered the economic growth in the area through several income generation activities and facilitation.

The much-ignored sector of NTFPs has been focused to fetch more income to the local people through improved techniques and capacity building. Alone from the NTFPs, like Chalghoza the financial return was increased from 0.5 million which was based on crude means to 1.4 million during 2004-05 due to imparting technical support and input. Mushroom, the most important NTFP has greater contribution of Rs8 million per year in the economic growth of the area at large.

Traditionally, the extracted honey usually earned the local people less amount (Rs500/kg) as compared to the sound techniques (Rs700/kg) through better apiculture techniques that increased per hive production. Similarly, Chalghoza nut was sold earlier at Rs300/kg, which increased to Rs500/kg. Walnut, another important NTFP earned them Rs2000/40 mond, Mushkbala Rs4000/40 mond and Moral Rs6000/40 mond through improved techniques and awareness regarding production, harvesting, storing and marketing.

Development of recreational resources and facilities based on the concept of non-consumptive uses that attract tourists from far and near and boost up the local economic conditions by enabling people to establish means of income generation like restaurants, shops, hiring of tourists guides, sale of handicrafts etc. For a very small investment, rural communities can earn significant income. There are several projects like the Natural Resource Conservation Project in Galliat (1997-2003) NWFP, where local tourists guides were hired and trained to facilitate tourists by promoting the concept of ecotourism. This was a promising prospect for the people to tap recreational resources. Similarly, in the Northern Areas of Pakistan, the concept of community guesthouses had a great potential to provide financial opportunities of earning money to the local people by establishing management codes.

Over the country, other important projects like Environmental Rehabilitation in NWFP and Punjab, Kalam Integrated Development Project, Agha Khan Rural Support Programme, Malakand Social Forestry Project, Forestry Sector Project, Indus For All, Pakistan Wetlands Project, IUCN and WWF besides provincial government departments through their projects have contributed to the environmental rehabilitation with contribution to the rural economy at large in form of different sectoral interventions.

Need of the day is to achieve sustainable development through equitable distribution of benefits, encouraging community based natural resource conservation and integrating of environmental issues into socio-economic development planning.