The Role of the Environment in Poverty Alleviation

The new millennium raised hopes for a better future for humanity through a new spirit of international cooperation. This book draws on contributions to the People and the Environment lecture series at Fordham University, organized in partnership with the United Nations Development Program Equator Initiative and The Nature Conservancy. The essays offer a wealth of fresh perspectives and strategies to promote both environmental conservation and poverty eradication across four interrelated topics: The link between poverty reduction and the environment; environmental disasters; conservation knowledge; and legal empowerment of the poor. Demonstrating the roles that the environment can and should play in poverty alleviation, the essays deepen our understanding of the some of the world's most difficult challenges – and provide a toolkit of ideas and techniques for addressing them