K. Joy

Poverty, livelihoods and the conservation of nature in biodiversity hotspots around the world

The high incidence of poverty in biodiversity hotspots around the world has given rise to a debate about the potential of integrated development-conservation approaches to help alleviate poverty and protect biodiversity at the same time. Specifically, involving local communities in the management of protected areas is expected to improve biodiversity protection and reduce poverty and possible adverse livelihood effects, assuming that there are poverty-nature linkages and that local communities are willing to cooperate in rule enforcement and control. Using data from four biodiversity hotspots around the world (South Africa, Costa Rica, Vietnam and India) the analysis in this paper indicates that livelihoods in biodiversity hotspots do not necessarily depend on nature and that for households to contribute to rule enforcement some conditions have to be met. In order to effectively improve biodiversity protection and alleviate poverty specific attention needs to be paid to local community characteristics, household livelihood strategies, the organization of protected area management and the wider context in which decision-making takes place. Key-words: poverty-nature linkages, protected area management, co-management, conservation-development trade-offs. 1 Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM), VU University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. E-mail: Jetske.bouma@ivm.vu.nl 2 Society for Promoting Participative Ecosystem Management (SOPPECOM), Pune, India. E-mail: joykjjoy@gmail.com 3 National Institute of Agricultural Planning and Projection (NIAPP), Hanoi, Viet Nam. E-mail: htqtniapp@hn.vnn.vn 4 Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica (UNA), Heredia, Costa Rica. E-mail: alope@una.ac.cr 5 Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR),Natural Resources and Environment (NRE), Stellenbosch, South Africa. E-mail: MSteyn@csir.co.za

Understanding Water Conflicts in South Asia

Conflict rages on: replace the river Rohini with any of our rivers in South Asia, and the Sakiyas and Koliyas tribes with the riparian nations, states, groups and users around that river. Except that while the Sakiyas and Koliyas abound, there is no Buddha in our midst. There is much selfinterest but little wisdom, very little of Buddha’s ‘self-enlightenment’ about either the issue – the enlightenment of the people themselves. This article makes an effort to understand the nature of water conflicts in South Asia. It begins with a discussion on the cultural and historical context of water and agriculture in South Asia and then gives a brief description of the status of water resources in the different South Asian countries highlighting the tensions between increasing demands and Contemporary Perspectives Vol. 1, No. 2, July – December 2007, 29–57