Protected areas as vehicles in population development: lessons from rural South Africa

Protected areas in developing countries are increasingly expected to move beyond biodiversity protection so as also to contribute to poverty reduction and the economic development of their surrounding communities. The purpose of this article is to report on the key findings that emerged from the assessment of a poverty alleviation programme at the Golden Gate Highlands National Park in South Africa and the lessons learned from that particular programme. Designed around outcomes analysis as an analytical framework for programme evaluation, a mixed-method approach of semi-structured interviews and focus-group sessions was used to collect data from amongst programme beneficiaries, the park management and members of the park’s advisory board. The findings indicate that although programmes of this kind can indeed impact positively on poverty levels, their direct impacts do however remain limited to a relatively small proportion of households in neighbouring communities. The article concludes that by conceptualising poverty as a multidimensional state of well-being, this allows for the exploration of a much broader range of potential social, cultural and economic benefits available from protected areas.     

基于PSR模型的深度贫困县脱贫进程评价——以四川省为例

基于PSR(压力-状态-响应)模型构建深度贫困县脱贫进程评价指标体系,采用熵值法对各地区脱贫压力、脱贫状态和政府响应等脱贫进程进行定量分析和综合评价,并以四川省为例进行实证分析。结果表明:(1)到2020年,四川深度贫困县整体性脱贫目标可达成;(2)深度贫困县脱贫基础与脱贫速度各异,脱贫进程呈现"集中+分散"的分布特征;(3)深度贫困县内部脱贫进程不均衡,脱贫面临潜在挑战。脱贫基础相对较好的地区应加快由脱贫速度向脱贫质量转变,引入风险识别与防范机制,重点谨防"暂时脱贫"陷阱,将重心放在稳定脱贫,注重巩固脱贫成果和脱贫质量;而脱贫基础较弱的大凉山彝区现阶段仍需聚焦脱贫速度,依靠经济发展的益贫作用打破深度贫困陷阱。在重点支持深度贫困县的同时,还需细分片区内部差异,避免"平均主义"倾向和行动趋同,提高政策瞄准度。     

The Economic and Environmental Outcomes of Microfinance Projects: An Indian Case Study

Microfinance projects now seek to achieve improvement in environmental quality in addition to poverty alleviation. Achievement of these goals may depend upon the economic and environmental impact of microfinance businesses. This study is a quantitative analysis of these outcomes for Ecodevelopment, an Indian microfinance project, which aims to prevent forest degradation by poverty alleviation. The study divides businesses into perishable goods, non-perishable goods, simple skills, and special skills and measures their economic outcome by two indicators, repayment percentage and continuity of businesses. The study examines the effect of loan amount on the economic outcome of businesses. To quantify the environmental outcome, it analyzes the use of firewood or fodder and release of pollutants by businesses. The results show that loan amount does not affect the economic outcome, special skills have best performance, and skills cause less pressure on forest resources. These results suggest the need for development of knowledge-intensive skills, involvement of institutions in the operations of business, and inclusive policies for protected area management.     

喀斯特山区农村贫困测度与空间分异研究——以盘州市为例

以盘州市474村为研究对象,建立多维贫困评价模型对盘州市村域多维贫困进行测算,并结合GIS分析功能、地理探测器、逐步回归模型对其空间分异进行了深层次探究。结果表明:(1)盘州市自然资本维度、金融资本维度、人力资本维度和环境脆弱维度贫困村个数依次为45、101、201、17,其中人力资本维度贫困村占总行政村42.32%,空间呈聚集化分布;(2)盘州市43个行政村处于多维贫困,约占行政村总数9.1%,主要分布在盘州市北部地区与南部地区,中部地区呈现零散分布状态;(3)盘州市多维贫困空间异质性的主导因子是行政村到县的距离、路网密度、生态保护红线面积比重、起伏度,平均高程、村到乡镇的距离起次要作用,各驱动因子间交互作用对多维贫困空间异质性的影响大于单因子作用产生的影响。对盘州市多维贫困进行定量测度,并对其空间分异的驱动力进行探究,结果对石漠化地区脱贫政策制定,区域可持续发展具有重要意义。     

21世纪以来中国产业扶贫研究脉络与主题谱系

反贫困历来是发展研究中的最重要议题之一,尤其是进入21世纪以来,产业扶贫已日趋成为具有中国特色的反贫工作重心任务,受到学界和社会的热切关注,因此有必要对其研究脉络与热点主题等内容进行深入探索,以更好地促进产业扶贫实践的发展。本研究以2000—2015年间CNKI数据库收录的1 982篇产业扶贫研究的期刊论文为样本,采用文献计量分析法和可视化知识网络分析工具Cite Space,首先对中国产业扶贫研究总体现状进行了概述,然后着重分析了产业扶贫研究历经的四个演进阶段:初创期、探索期、爆发期和深化期,并描述了研究的整体发展脉络所沿着的四条轨迹,即产业扶贫主体由政府主导逐渐演变为政府主导、市场力量和社会参与并重;扶贫对象由农村贫困地区和人口逐步转向城市贫困人口,农村和城市扶贫两者并重;扶贫渠道由财政资金扶持逐步扩散到科技扶贫、智力扶贫、旅游扶贫等多元化方式;扶贫思路由农村推进向城市扶贫过渡,再到协调区域发展的精准扶贫战略。在此基础上挖掘和探讨了当前研究的热点主题,包括产业扶贫的发展历程、内涵与理论基础、模式与机制、现实困境与对策,以及经济效应等五个方面。最后指出当前研究成果在理论深度与体系构建、实践模式提炼、研究视角和地域、实证研究方法等方面存在不足,并提出了未来重点研究方向需要从高度重视产业扶贫与精准扶贫和参与式治理之间的内在逻辑,加快推进产业扶贫的本土化特色研究,以及鼓励跨学科视角的研究、注重规范研究与实证研究的协同三大方面展开探索。     

Impacts of arsenic contamination in groundwater: case study of some villages in Bangladesh

The contamination of groundwater in Bangladesh by arsenic is a widespread and serious environmental problem, affecting mainly the rural population who rely extensively on groundwater for drinking and cooking. The study conducted survey work in a few affected villages of the Northwest region in Bangladesh. The household survey gathered information on the respondents (affected by arsenic) water usage and sources, knowledge of the arsenic problem, changes in the source of water for drinking and cooking, arsenic mitigation technologies and socio-economic information on the households. The survey work shows that percentage of male patient is higher than female patient among the same level of household income in each study villages. Prevalence of arsenicosis is more among poorer sections and it is directly related to the poverty situation of the community. People know more about the health problems caused by arsenicosis but lack knowledge about mitigation aspects. In one of the study areas, every year an extra 4% tubewell is getting contaminated by arsenic. Arsenic contamination in groundwater also affects the environment and the ecology negatively. The NGOs have been found contributing to a knowledge creation process in the village community as the villagers are showing marked behavioral changes in water-use practice.

Study of poverty alleviation strategy based on labor force quality improvement and ecological protection in Western China

Fragile ecological environment and poverty correlate to and reinforce each other closely in Western China.At the same time,Western China is also the most prominent area of the knowledge and human poverty with very low labor force quality.On the basis of analyzing the characteristics of poverty in Western China,this paper studies the coupling relationship between fragile ecological environment and poverty in Western China,including the impacts of fragile environment on poverty occurrence and the effects of ecological construction on poverty alleviation.It also analyzed how low labor quality causes persistent poverty in the western region.At the end of the paper,strategies of diversity poverty alleviation in Western China are suggested based on sustainable development,including education improvement,ecological construction,industries development,infrastructure construction,planning institution innovation,and so on.     

Vietnamese Uplands: Environmental and Socio-Economic Perspective of Forest Land Allocation and Deforestation Process

Vietnam, in the ongoing transition to market economies, has to cope with high rural poverty and a dramatic process of forest loss and environment degradation, particularly in the mountainous regions. The government considers rural poverty as the main cause of environment degradation, associated with slash-and-burn cultivation and to an unclear definition of property rights on forest land. In 1993, the government launched a Forest Land Allocation programme aiming to lease forest lands to individual households and, on this basis, to solve food security problems, halt the increasing environment degradation and preserve the remaining forests.To evaluate the results of this land reform policy, two upland pilot communes have been intensively monitored. The environmental and economic impacts of the forest land reform allocation in the two study areas are presented, after providing a background on the Vietnamese situation of mountain zones. On the basis of these findings, it is discussed as to whether the current forest land allocation process may actually promote local development and natural resources conservation, and under what conditions. Deforestation problems must be tackled also with new macroeconomic policies (e.g. credit programmes to support sustainable agriculture practices) and social policy (e.g. reduction of demographic pressure), together with the reform of the State institutions (e.g. State Forest Enterprises) involved in management of the forest areas.     

Water, Workfare and Poverty: The Impact of the Working for Water Programme on Rural Poverty Reduction

In 1995, the government of the Republic of South Africa launched the Working for Water (WfW) programme that links environmental and developmental goals through the removal of high water-consuming alien plants with pro-poor rural employment opportunities. Whilst bio-physical evaluations have widely reported on the hydrological, ecological and conservation components of the programme, there exists growing uncertainty over the programme’s role as a poverty reduction mechanism. This paper evaluates three projects in the Luvuvhu catchment, Limpopo Province, against five socio-economic workfare criteria and the underlying biophysical rationale. Results show that asset creation from incremental streamflow is economically efficient and is likely to improve significantly if biodiversity benefits, community harvesting of riparian goods and services, ecological non-use values and seasonal water demand values are incorporated into the analysis. However, socio-economic benefits are more questionable: poverty targeting is weak with wage rates failing to self-select the poor; a minor proportion (0.5%) of catchment households benefit from the highly-valued employment opportunities; high variability in monthly employment causes financial difficulties for labourers; labourers are not ‘empowered’ as is evidenced by the failure of the 2-year exit strategy; and programme efficiency is high in proportional allocation of cash-flow to non-management wage labour. It is concluded that the Working for Programme is a potentially replicable model in other semi-arid contexts in developing countries if based on its core biophysical remit but is a transitory and limited poverty reduction mechanism for improving rural livelihoods.     

Threatened access, risk of eviction and forest degradation: case study of sustainability problem in a remote rural region in India

Degradation of common pool resource (CPR) in developing countries has often been traced to high rate attached by poor people in discounting future flow of benefits, market failure, pressure on carrying capacity or sometimes property right failure. However, the concept of poorly enforced property right and particularly risk of eviction as a measure of insecurity of land tenure has not been adequately examined in the context of degradation of CPR. A game theoretic framework is developed where degradation of forest grazing land is explained in terms of changes in perceived risk of eviction from the encroached land. Logit regression is applied to empirically analyse the impact of perceived fear of reduced access and other variables on the state of degradation. For this purpose, a sample of seven villages is considered in tribal dominated region in West Bengal, India. It is observed that apart from a number of socio-economic variables like poverty, mutual trust and other incomes, perceived fear of eviction (represented as a dummy variable) arising from insecurity of forest land tenure, has a significant impact on forest degradation status in the study region.     

亲贫式增长刍议:论少数民族地区的扶贫政策取向

考察了经济增长和扶贫政策之间的跨国证据,突出了区域差异和国家经验这两个层面上形成的促进共同发展的多样性。对亲贫式增长的定义表明经济增长和扶贫这两个发展战略之间可能存在一种权衡问题。跨国证据表明,平均收入增长率和低收入者的收入增长率之间关系的巨大差异性,使得扶贫战略完全基于经济增长政策的论断存在争议。持续的快速增长显然有益于贫困人口,但是,如果整体的快速经济增长伴随着收入分配的缓慢恶化,这对贫困人口的福利比对经济增长影响更大。如果一国总体处于低增长环境,那么经济增长将难以获得贫困人口的支持。同时面向经济增长和旨在明确经济增长所带来的好处的混合策略被证明在实现持续减贫中可能是最为成功的。研究认为,在中国长期高速经济增长的支撑下,少数民族地区在收入改善和贫困人口数量显著减少方面取得了另世人瞩目的成就,为促进经济增长的倡导者和干预式扶贫的拥护者提供了实践支持。然而,普适的经济增长有利于贫困人口,但不会以相同的程度发生在少数民族地区。显然,一项公共政策更关注经济增长是必要的,但也同时必须关注经济增长所带来的收益是否会反映在提供贫困人口收入和贫困人口不可能轻易放弃的福祉上。针对于少数民族地区最有效的发展政策,是那些主张共同发展和利用公共政策创造增长的战略,同时还有利于贫困人口的共同参与,以确保他们成为积极的参与者和增长的受益者。自然资源收益管理,原生态农产品开发和区域经济带建设被列为促进这种增长战略实施的三个最有前途的领域。     

村镇路网通达性与空间出行研究——以武汉市李集镇为例

道路网络是乡村地区社会经济发展的基础。综合道路网络分析和通达性分析方法,构建路网密度、公路可达性、接近中心性、直达性等指标研究了武汉市李集镇村镇范围内各行政村路网通达性空间格局,并结合农户调查将路网通达性与村民空间出行进行关联分析。结果表明：（1）境内部分行政村道路密度低、断头路较多,导致局部地区通达性较差;（2）受地理区位和公路覆盖两方面因素影响,境内行政村接近中心性呈现出明显的核心-边缘分布模式;（3）高等级道路覆盖不足,未能形成完善的路网体系,极大限制村民的对外出行效率、出行范围,显著影响居民出行满意度,并阻碍地区农业机械化推广和农业产业规模化发展。最后,结合路网通达性特征和居民出行需求,提出李集镇道路网络整治建议,研究结果对完善农村地区道路体系研究、指导新农村建设有一定意义。     

基于村级尺度的湖南农村水贫困比较研究

为综合评价湖南农村水贫困现状,找出有效应对措施,以国外最新的水贫困理论为依据,构建湖南农村水贫困评价指标体系;通过实地调查和访谈获取并整理出湖南3种地貌类型区6个行政村的水贫困评价数据;采用非均衡法测算水贫困状况并分析其驱动因素。结果表明：湖南农村水贫困具有明显的地域分异现象,即湘西山区最为严重,RWPI值均小于20;湘北洞庭湖平原区最弱,其值在55~56之间;而湘中丘陵区介于其间。不同地区水贫困各系统的综合得分不同,只有提高且均衡各系统的综合得分才能有效减轻地区水贫困程度。供水设施欠佳、利用能力偏低是地区间水贫困状况不同的主要驱动因素,而水资源状况是其次要驱动因素;农村环境问题和低效用水是省内各村水贫困评价的短板,因此地区水贫困是区域水资源自然禀赋与社会经济发展的综合结果。针对评价结果,提出了发展农村经济、提高综合实力、做好环保工作和提高用水效率等措施应对农村水贫困问题,可为新农村建设中的水资源管理提供新思路     

Is the Clean Development Mechanism delivering benefits to the poorest communities in the developing world? A critical evaluation and proposals for reform

This paper explores whether the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), a flexibility mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol, has contributed to poverty alleviation in countries that host CDM projects. We argue that the CDM should deliver pro-poor benefits to the communities in which projects are established, since poverty alleviation is integral to sustainable development, which is one of the main purposes of the CDM. After briefly discussing the background of the CDM, we discuss assessment difficulties to which research is prone when evaluating CDM projects for alleged sustainable development contributions. Section 4 brings together and analyses available empirical research on the pro-poor benefits the CDM purportedly delivers to host country communities, concluding that the CDM has failed to deliver poverty alleviation. Therefore, without attempting to be exhaustive, we suggest policy reforms that aim to redirect the CDM to those most in need of assistance.     

Involving local farmers in rehabilitation of degraded tropical forests: some lessons from Ghana

The role of community-based plantation development in forest rehabilitation and poverty alleviation is a pressing issue for the government of Ghana. In this paper, we present an analysis of the prospects of a community-based plantation using taungya systems and indigenous trees as means to forest rehabilitation and livelihood improvement in Ghana. The project management strategies, communication process and incentive mechanism and their impact on local participation are discussed with the aim to recommending a mechanism through which local farmers can best be involved in rehabilitation of degraded sites in the future in Ghana. Data were collected through a survey using personal interviews of 431 farming households and ten key informants from ten communities living in scattered hamlets in and around forests reserves. The results show a high rate of local participation in project tree planting activities. Four years after the project’s initiation, about 250 ha of plantations had been established using twelve priority indigenous and one exotic species and farmers had indicated improvement in their farming practices and availability of food and forest products. Restoring forest quality as a timber resource and associated values, getting money, food stuff and timber and non-timber for domestic use, and having access to fertile land for farming were the top three issues prioritised by respondents as motivational factors for engaging in the project activities. Overall, this project demonstrates that reversing tropical forest degradation is possible. For this we need local involvement in tree domestication combined with activities that addresses livelihood needs and environmental concerns. This case also demonstrates the prospects of utilising indigenous tree species, not only exotic species that dominated tree planting in the past, for plantations and landscape rehabilitation in Ghana. Readers should send their comments on this paper to BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

The livelihood potential of non-wood forest products: The case of Mbooni Division in Makueni District, Kenya

Forestry is a productive sector with significant effects on meeting national socio-economic and environmental functions as well as the improvement of rural livelihoods. Non-wood forest products (NWFPs) in particular have been widely advocated by conservation and development organisations as potential alternative livelihood strategies, particularly among vulnerable forest dependant households. Like in most tropical countries, NWFPs are relevant in the sustainable development of Kenya that is particularly endowed with important forest resources. Kenya hosts about 17 million ha of forested land (about 3.51% of the total Sub-Saharan Africa forest cover by 2000), of which about 16,865,000 ha is under natural forest (EarthTrends: Forests, grasslands and drylands, 2003). Outside the gazetted forests, there are other large tracks of forests in trust lands, including national parks and reserves, hill forest reserves and privately owned lands covering about 0.5 million ha (Kenya’s forest resource assessment in the EC-FAO Partnership Programme Report, 2000; The Kenya Forests Act, 2005). Woodlands, bushlands and wooded grasslands, mainly found in the arid and semi-arid lands cover 37.6 million ha, while forest plantations (started in 1946) cover about 170,000 ha of land (The Kenya forestry master plan, 1994–2020, 1994). In most NWFPs endowed regions of the country however, this socio-economic and environmental potential is still unrealized. We illustrate the latter by a case study of NWFPs use and management in four villages in Mbooni Division of Makueni District, Kenya. The division was chosen because of its relatively high NWFPs availability, particularly from South Mbooni forest that is located at a distance less than 5 km for an estimated 80% of the interviewed households. Data used for the analysis was collected through a fieldwork survey carried out on women (35+ years) in August, 2005. One hundred and sixty (160) NWFPs are harvested (from plant and animal species) and used mainly for food, income generation (supplemental) and medicinal purposes. A number of challenges limit women’s enjoyment of the full benefits from NWFPs exploitation, the overriding problem being their inadequacy (in quantity and/or quality). In this paper we discuss these commonly utilized and managed NWFPs plant species in Mbooni and their potential contribution to improved livelihoods and sustainable development in Mbooni, Kenya and Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) in general.     

Tigers,Tribes, and Bureaucrats: the voluntariness and socioeconomic consequences of village relocations from Melghat Tiger Reserve,India

Relocations of indigenous peoples from protected areas to promote wildlife conservation have typically resulted in negative socioeconomic results for those displaced. The international indigenous peoples’ movement has begun to coalesce around the use of free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) as a legal mechanism to prevent disadvantageous relocations. In 2006, India’s parliament passed the Forest Rights Act, which requires any village relocation of tribal people be conditional upon their FPIC. I used household surveys and qualitative interviews of relocated and forest (not-yet relocated) villagers from Melghat Tiger Reserve, Maharashtra, to examine (a) the extent to which putatively voluntary relocations were conditional upon FPIC and (b) how such relocations affect socioeconomic metrics and overall quality of life for those relocated. I found that while consent to relocate was mostly free, consent was not fully informed across the villages examined. The socioeconomic results indicate that relocated villagers make a trade-off, leaving a familiar, healthier environment for better access to modern services and employment. Finally, I found that forest villagers in favor of relocation emphasized how the social and economic costs of remaining in the forest had become greater due to the relocation of neighboring villages. This field study suggests that strong implementation of FPIC and state responsiveness post-relocation are both necessary to safeguard forest-dwelling people from disadvantageous relocations.     

空间贫困分异特征、陷阱形成与致贫因素分析

消除贫困是中国共产党的一项重要历史使命。目前,中国脱贫攻坚进入关键的决战决胜阶段,精准脱贫成为实现乡村振兴及全面建成小康社会的关键问题。本文以贫困突出的江西革命老区为例,采用ESDA空间探索性分析和空间计量模型,探究其空间贫困分异特征、陷阱形成机制及影响因素,发现:①从时间维度看,2000—2016年,受国家贫困标准线大幅调整影响,江西革命老区贫困人口和贫困发生率呈现三个断点下降时期,总体脱贫进程加快。②从空间维度看,江西革命老区各县(市、区)的贫困人口和贫困发生率明显减少,贫困分异特征表现为高贫困地区集聚于南部的集中连片区或国家级贫困县,低贫困地区主要集聚于北部的非贫困区。③进一步通过空间检验发现,江西革命老区贫困以"高-高"集聚模式为主,并形成"空间贫困陷阱",均属于集中连片特困区或国家级贫困县;少数地区的贫困还存在"低-低"集聚模式,形成"脱贫溢出效应",均属于非贫困区。④实证结果表明,城乡收入之比和中学教师负担学生数显著加剧了江西革命老区贫困水平;而农民人均纯收入、卫生技术人员比例和农业机械化水平对减贫具有显著正向作用;贫困空间滞后项的显著为正也再次验证了江西革命老区"空间贫困陷阱"及"脱贫溢出效应"的存在性;相邻地区的农民人均纯收入和卫生技术人员比例的减贫效果存在显著的空间溢出效应。为此,本文提出实现江西革命老区精准脱贫建议。     

中国旅游扶贫地空间分布格局及成因

旅游扶贫试点村是中国实施旅游扶贫的重要载体,是精准扶贫理念的集中体现。本研究以全国560个旅游扶贫试点村为研究样本,综合运用空间分析、相关性分析等方法探究了中国旅游扶贫地的空间分布格局和成因。研究表明:1试点村在地理空间上呈现凝聚型分布状态,地带间分布差异较小,西部分布稍多于东部,中部相对最少,与传统认知上的贫困村分布格局存在错位现象。2试点村系统分形特征明显,存在局部围绕贫困山区集聚的情况,空间分布上呈现不等概率分布状态,分形结构较为复杂。3试点村分布密度最大区域为燕山-太行山、罗霄山、沂蒙山和武夷山-南岭山区,其次为六盘山、秦巴山、武陵山、大别山和滇桂黔等山区,且大都高密度分布在各省区边缘和交界地带,呈现"大集聚、小分散"的空间分布格局。4中国旅游扶贫地的空间格局的形成主要原因有旅游资源禀赋、地形海拔高度、交通因素及政府政策导向四个方面。5优质的旅游资源禀赋、较高的地形海拔高度、落后的交通条件以及强有力的地方政策支持可以作为试点村的评选标准;并从空间上建议增加中西部试点村布点;对空间上集聚在贫困山区的试点村其旅游扶贫应注意保护性开发利用原生态的自然环境,深挖地域文化符号;各省区边缘和交界地带试点村应加强区域旅游合作。最后结合试点村的分布和致贫的原因,把试点村划分为资源利用不足型、山地环境制约型、交通区位非优型、政策支持欠缺型四种类型,从而提出针对不同类型试点村旅游扶贫路径。     

A survey-based evaluation of community-based co-management of forest resources: a case study of Baishuijiang National Natural Reserve in China

Community-based co-management (CBCM) mechanisms for forest management have matured through the development of new economic analysis and common property theory. However, while many local CBCM mechanisms have been initiated in Chinese Natural Reserves, there are few objective, data-based evaluations of whether these mechanisms improve forest conservation and local livelihoods. This research uses Baishuijiang National Natural Reserve (BNNR) as a study case to evaluate China’s current CBCM mechanisms. The evaluation is based mainly on three criteria: efficiency, equality and sustainability of project operation. Survey data indicate that local CBCM mechanisms provide a wide-participation platform for local villagers, associated administration managers, research institutions and NGOs to join in forest resource protection work while improving local livelihood. CBCM projects have also facilitated a reduction in forest resource dependency, the improvement of household income and encouragement of local people to participate in forest resource protection. Our analysis suggests that most CBCM organizations have made progress in efficiency, equity and sustainability. However, further study should focus on how to deal with the lingering problems of inequity in responsibility and rights among CBCM committee members, poor distribution of benefits, insufficient program-design and management expertise, faulty information dissemination, and insufficient capital investment.