NABU | International | Poverty reduction

NABU.de English Version Issues International Poverty reduction

Fighting Poverty

poverty reduction and nature conservation

Around the world just around 1.1 billion people are living in extreme poverty. Two thirds of the world’s poor live in rural areas in developing countries and the majority of them are heavily dependant on their local natural resources to survive. Firewood is needed to cook food everyday. The local population gather fruit, seeds, nuts and other non-wood products from the forests and other ecosystems. Poverty forces many farmers to destroy the forest and convert the land into farmland simply to survive.

What is the significance of poverty reduction for nature conservation?
From experience, we know that simply introducing bans is pointless if it takes away the local population’s livelihood. Nature conservation can only be successful if it works with the people, not against them. The essential basic needs of the local population need first to be met before the people can have the opportunity to think about their protecting their livelihood and surrounding environment.

This is NABU’s starting point – by reducing poverty, we hope that flora, fauna and their habitats can be protected in the long term.

What we do
In the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest in Kenya, NABU has chosen to work with a partner with experience in development cooperation, Kindernothilfe. Communities from around the edge of the forest have all received water wells, the farming methods have been improved and alternative sources of income have been created so that the local people are not just dependant on resources from the forest.

In Ethiopia, we also have projects that aim to reduce poverty: microcredit schemes help to open up new outlooks and enable even the poorest people to receive an income. To protect the wild coffee forests, a protected area will be established with the intention of setting up new sources of income from ecotourism or from the marketing of regional products.

NABU uses ecotourism as a means to fight poverty so that regions can be developed sustainably. Some of our model projects are carried out in the Republic of Adygea, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Kazakhstan.

Contact
Svane Bender-Kaphengst
Officer for International Species Protection
Email: Svane.Bender@NABU.de