Reducing Poverty and Sustaining the Environment

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There are growing dangers that developmental work by governments, aid agencies and NGOs is driven to ignore the fact that environmental quality matters to the poor. There are also signs that some environmental work is pushing `people-out' protection methodologies. Yet recently an extensive range of work at the project, programme and policy level has begun to reveal the important links between poverty and environment and to ensure that these links are reflected in policy-making processes at all levels. The role that politics plays in all of this is of overriding importance. This volume is the first to address the role of politics in environmental issues that matter to the poor through a series of case studies of experiences at regional, national and local levels in low and middle income countries, including China, Egypt, Tanzania, East Africa, Nigeria, South Africa, Pakistan, Colombia, Peru, India, Thailand and St Lucia.

Ultimately the book demonstrates how understanding the national and local political context is crucial for addressing poverty-environment issues, such as environmental health, access to key natural resources for livelihoods and security and coping with environmental disasters. The editors advocate ways in which political processes can be used to change things for the better - from both poverty reduction and environmental perspectives.