A new agenda for forest conservation and poverty reduction : making markets work for low-income producers

Abstract

The late 20th century saw a dramatic transformation in global forest resources, their use and management, and people’s perception of their value. Since 1961 tropical countries lost over 500 million hectares of forest cover (FAO 2000) and consumption of forest products rose by 50 percent (Gardner-Outlaw and Engelman 1999). The role of forests in environmental protection and biodiversity became the focus of active international and local policy. At the same time, forests’ critical role in the livelihoods of the poor became more widely recognized. Indeed, rural poverty is concentrated in many areas of the world’s most threatened forest biodiversity (McNeely and Scherr 2003), and over 90percent of the world’s poorest people depend on forests for their livelihoods (World Bank2001). More than a billion people live within the world’s 19 forest biodiversity “hot spots”1and population growth in the world’s tropical wilderness areas is 3.1 percent, over twice the world’s average rate of growth (Cincotta and Engelman 2000). As we enter the 21stcentury, the debate is intensifying, especially in developing countries, over how to reconcile the seemingly incompatible goals of conserving forests, meeting market demand, and promoting broad-based sustainable development that reduces rural poverty.