Environment and Poverty: Perspectives, Propositions, Policies

This paper reviews what insights environmental and ecological economics have provided regarding the 'poverty-environment'- nexus within the 'EnvironmentDevelopment'-system. Various perspectives are discussed, such as 'the poor as agents' and 'the poor as victims' hypotheses, (a) institutions oriented approaches, (b) livelihood based analyses, (c) capabilities frameworks, (d) rights-oriented approaches, (e) pricing of environmental services (PES). Policies forwarded at the international level are discussed. Some of the new perspectives identified are beginning to penetrate into these proposals. The validity of PES as an overall recipe to dealing with the nexus is examined critically.