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Poverty, development, and environment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2010

EDWARD B. BARBIER
EDWARD B. BARBIER*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics and Finance, University of Wyoming, 1000 E University Ave, Laramie, WY 82071, USA. Email: ebarbier@uwyo.edu
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Abstract

This paper examines the complex relationship that exists between poverty and natural resource degradation in developing countries. The rural poor are often concentrated in fragile, or less favorable, environmental areas. Consequently, their livelihoods can be intimately dependent on natural resource use and ecosystem services. The relationship between poverty and natural resource degradation may depend on a complex range of choices and tradeoffs available to the poor, which in the absence of capital, labor, and land markets, is affected by their access to outside employment and any natural resource endowments. The paper develops a poverty–environment model to characterize some of these linkages, and concludes by discussing policy implications and avenues for further research.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Environment and Development Economics , Volume 15 , Issue 6: 15 YEARS OF EDE – ADVANCES AND CHALLENGES IN ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS , December 2010 , pp. 635 - 660
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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