Poor communities are often closely connected to natural resources. Despite this, natural resource conservation efforts are separate from poverty reduction and livelihood programmes; conservation and development practitioners often work with different priorities. The Millennium Development Goals could provide a framework to integrate poverty reduction efforts and natural resource conservation. Yet, the current state of the Millennium Development Goals enhances this divide.

Many people still see environmental sustainability as a separate issue from development, despite recognition over 30 years ago of the need to integrate the two. Research from the International Institute for Environment and Development in the UK examines the links between natural resource conservation and poverty reduction in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). MDG 7, which aims to ‘ensure environmental sustainability’, considers conservation in association with development but is not included in other goals. Within MDG 7 there are references to land covered by natural forests (indicator 25) and to biodiversity (indicator 26). However, these indicators refer to ‘quantity’, such as the area of land and the number of species. They do not consider the ‘quality’ of conservation indicators.

The research notes that:

• The focus on quantity ignores their management and governance, the rights of the people living in and around them and the different costs and benefits of protected areas.
• The indicators overlook the environmental value of many natural ecosystems, such as agricultural land and agro-forestry areas.
• The focus on state-run conservation areas excludes other types of community conservation such as areas designated for protection by indigenous people and local communities and those under private ownership

Including conservation-related indicators only in MDG 7 reinforces the distinction between conservation and poverty reduction efforts. Given the high dependence of many poor communities on natural resources, combining conservation and poverty reduction efforts through the MDGs could strengthen both aims. The MDGs could better reflect this potential in several ways by:

• Integrating environmental considerations into all MDGs.
• Considering a wider range of land uses and resource types.
• Including indicators that reflect local perceptions of the environment as well as global conservation and development priorities.
• Indicators should focus less on quantity objectives and more on the quality of resources being conserved.
• Encouraging different types of management structures such as community-conserved or co-managed areas which build on the knowledge and management practices of local communities.
• considering local values and include local rights and responsibilities and involving indigenous and marginalised groups in state-run protected areas.

Poverty reduction and sustainable development are the main ideas behind the MDGs. Ensuring environmental sustainability is vital to achieving these aims. This will require integrated action by both conservation and development communities. The expansion of the MDG indicators to link conservation and poverty concerns explicitly would provide a framework that could achieve both aims.

Source(s):
‘The MDGs and natural resources management: reconcilling sustainable livelihoods and resource conservation or fuelling the divide?’ The MDGs and local processes, International Institute for Environment and Development, 2004 Full document.

Funded by: International Institute for Environment and Development, UK

id21 Research Highlight: 24 February 2005

Further Information:
Dilys Roe
International Institute for Environment and Development
3 Endsleigh Street
London WC1H 0DD, UK

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7388 2117
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7388 2826
Contact the contributor: dilys.roe@iied.org

International Institute for Environment and Development, UK

Other related links:
'Mainstreaming participation in global conservation'

'Buying and selling wildlife conservation in Kenya'

The MDGs and IIED

UN Millennium Development Goals

World Bank - Development Goals