Publications

Other publications

Forests and Poverty

It is now well accepted that trees and forests can contribute to reducing poverty in developing countries. ECTF has co-hosted a workshop, published several papers on Forestry and Poverty Reduction in developing countries and compiled some lessons learned.

Lessons Learned

  • The four strategies that agencies should look for are:  reducing vulnerability; improving income from forest production; helping people to "get out" of the forest where it is seen as a poverty trap and tackling inequalities
  • Agencies should focus on specific local cases
  • Before attempts to address issues can be completed, the underlying governance has to be right
  • There is a lack of knowledge and understanding about PRSPs in general.  This requires explanation and capacity building if they continue to be central to poverty reduction

Workshop

June 2002

Forests and Poverty Reduction: How can development, research and training agencies help?

This one-day workshop, hosted jointly by ECTF and IIED, reviewed the vision and practice of some UK-based groups and international development agencies in addressing poverty and its interaction with forest systems. The Outputs from the workshop suggest ways forward and some basic principles for supporters of initiatives aiming to enable forestry to help reduce poverty.

Papers

Enhancing the Representation of Environment and Natural Resources in Poverty Reduction Strategies in East Africa, March 2003, Paul Van Gardingen.

For a Paper on Forests and Poverty Reduction: Action Needed by Development Research and Training Institutes by Paul Van Gardingen, that has been published as part of a wider book about Forests in Poverty Reduction Strategies: Capturing the Potential, Tapani Oksanen, Brita Pajari and Tomi Tuomasjukka (editors) go to http://www.efi.fi/publications/Proceedings/.

To request your copy, please send your email to publications@efi.fi, (tel. +358 (0) 13 252 020; fax. +358 (0) 13 124 393)