Trade, Poverty, and the Environment
Contact Information
- Owen Cylke
Senior Program Officer
Macroeconomics for Sustainable Development
World Wildlife Fund
1250 24th ST, NW
Washington, DC 20037
Owen.Cylke@wwfus.org
Lead Institution
WWF’s Macroeconomics Programme Office (MPO)
Project Description
Launched in 2002, the trade assessment project will be working through
2007 with partners in Chile, China, India, Madagascar, Mexico, South Africa,
and Viet Nam, to identify impacts of trade liberalization on rural
poverty and the environment (particularly land and water) but also to
work with business, civil society, governments, and international bodies
to minimize the adverse impacts and to assure the maximum contribution of
global trade to rural livelihood and sustainability goals. The project is
divided in two stages. The principal focus of the first stage is on analysis,
undertaken by research teams in each of the participant countries, complemented
by research and policy activities at the WWF-World Bank coordination unit
in Washington, D.C. The principal focus of the second stage is on communication
and outreach to be carried out by the WWF Network and WWF-MPO. The goals
of the project are to develop knowledge, mechanisms, and platforms for business,
civil society, governments, and international organizations to:
-
identify trade polices, rules, and related institutional and management
interventions that can better
achieve human development and sustainability goals;
-
better understand the trade-offs involved—for the environment and
the rural poor—in decisions
concerning trade policy and rules; and
-
align institutional, management, and policy options with the level
of governance where they can be most effective.
These goals are drawn directly from the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
(MA) framework for assessment. Our intent is to:
-
establish an open dialog with business, civil society, government,
and international agencies;
-
develop an analytic understanding of impacts, opportunities, and
options from a combination of
country-based case studies and the international literature and debate;
and
- promote institutional, management, and policy options emerging from
the work—through advocacy, capacity-building, and partnerships—at all
scales, from the local to the international, and within the organizations
engaged and supporting the project itself
The focus on case studies is based on the hypothesis that to identify
the impacts and opportunities associated with trade liberalization we need
to go beyond national averages and look at real people in real places. The
case study countries are Chile: conversion of the Valdivian Forest to plantation
and industrial production; China: intensification of agricultural production
in the Central Yangtze; India: conversion of forest land and mangroves for
aquaculture in West Bengal; Madagascar: conversion of forest areas to sisal
and maize production in the Spiny Forest; Mexico: expansion of cattle ranching
and related agricultural products in the Chihuahuan desert areas; South
Africa: conversion of commercial agriculture to export; Viet Nam: expansion
of coffee, rice and shrimp production in Truong Son Mountains. Further information
may be found at:
Project Regional Components
The first project component to become associated with the MA is in India.
It was undertaken by the Institute of Economic Growth at Delhi University.
The related outreach program is the responsibility of WWF India. The Principal
Investigator and Project Leader is Dr. Kanchan Chopra (kc@ieg.ernet.in);
the Co-Project Investigator is Dr. Pushpam Kumar (pl@ieg.ernet.id).
Dr. Sejal Worah, Programme Director, WWF India, is the contact person for
Communications & Outreach (sworah@wwfindia.net).
The case study addressed the Sunderbans region of West Bengal, India. It
is located at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, and is characterized by sandy
beaches, mud flats, coastal dunes estuaries, creeks, inlets, and mangrove
swamps. It is also home to national parks, tiger reserves, and other wildlife
sanctuaries. The region is under ecological threat from a growing aquaculture
industry.
The case study addressed the following principle issues: the conditions
in the coastal and marine ecosystem prior to acceleration of aquaculture
for export; the associated level of well-being of different groups as a
consequence of ecosystem services provided by the system; the plausible
future changes in health, livelihood, and security made available to different
groups in the region; the implication of these changes for disruption in
the capability of the ecosystem to provide the level of services provided
in the base-year; and recommendations to enhance the well-being and conserve
the ecosystem (examining the trade-offs and synergies set in motion by different
responses, strategies, and policy interventions).p>
ThThe second project component to become associated with the MA is in
China. It was undertaken by the Asian International Rivers Center at Yunnan
University in Kunming, Yunnan. The related outreach program is the responsibility
of WWF China. The Principal Investigator and Project Leader is Dr. Damihg
He (hedaming@public.km.yn.cn);
the Co-Project Investigator is Dr. Jiang Liu (8504175@sohu.com).
Ms Wu Yusong, Policy Officer, WWF China and MPO, is the contact person for
Communications & Outreach (wuyusong@wwfchina.org).
This study presents the case of one such area, Pingbian County, located
in Yunnan Province along China’s southern border with Vietnam. Pingbian
is remote, is 99 percent mountainous, and of its 147,047 people in 2004,
90 percent are farmers and 62 percent belong to ethnic minorities. As eastern
China began liberalizing trade in 1978, Pingbian was struggling to achieve
food security in a subsistence economy. Pingbian and other impoverished
mountain areas are dependent on the services provided by ecosystems, such
as clean drinking water, soil for growing crops, and regulation of natural
disasters. The direct impacts of trade on Pingbian’s economy, landscape,
and people are difficult to trace. Instead, the Pingbian case is a story
of how rural communities anticipate and adjust to ongoing economic, environmental,
and social change.
For Pingbian, and many rural communities throughout the world, the transition
from subsistence living into integrated global marketplace will draw from
ecosystem services. Agricultural production, collection of non-timber forest
products, ecotourism, and water for drinking and irrigation have provided
the backbone of Pingbian’s achievement of food security and will continue
to support the transition into commercial agriculture. Livelihoods, well-being,
and the global supply of ecosystem services will be shaped by the ability
of these local communities to conserve ecosystems. Without functioning ecosystems,
poor, rural communities and biodiversity are exposed to increasing risks
of drought, floods, disease, and other major shocks. These shocks are buffered
by ecosystems, which in combination with free trade, provide greater potential
for improving the quality of life for the rural poor.