On biodiversity conservation and poverty traps
Abstract
This paper introduces a special feature on biodiversity conservation and poverty traps. We define and explain the core concepts and then identify four distinct classes of mechanisms that define important interlinkages between biodiversity and poverty. The multiplicity of candidate mechanisms underscores a major challenge in designing policy appropriate across settings. This framework is then used to introduce the ensuing set of papers, which empirically explore these various mechanisms linking poverty traps and biodiversity conservation.
Acknowledgments
We thank participants in the February 2010 workshop held at Cornell University, cohosted by the David R. Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future and the Cornell Center for Wildlife Conservation, as well as Elinor Ostrom for helpful comments and guidance.
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AJ Dickman, EA Macdonald, DW Macdonald, A review of financial instruments to pay for predator conservation and encourage human–carnivore coexistence. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 108, 13937–13944 (2011).
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Cover image: Pictured is a national forest in the Luangwa Valley of Zambia, where deforestation has been inadvertently spurred by economic interventions to promote cotton farming. Christopher B. Barrett et al. describe several mechanisms linking poverty traps with biodiversity conservation. Unintended consequences can result when social institutions fail to reconcile human needs with sustainable natural resource management practices, necessitating monitoring and evaluation of both social and biodiversity metrics�in these closely coupled systems. See the article by Barrett et al. on pages 13907–13912, which introduces the Biodiversity Conservation and Poverty Traps Special Feature.�Image courtesy of John Fay.
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Published online: August 22, 2011
Published in issue: August 23, 2011
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Acknowledgments
We thank participants in the February 2010 workshop held at Cornell University, cohosted by the David R. Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future and the Cornell Center for Wildlife Conservation, as well as Elinor Ostrom for helpful comments and guidance.
Notes
†
These concepts are developed with greater detail and precision by Dasgupta (8).
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Competing Interests
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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