ABSTRACT
Many of the poorest people in the Third World both live in and suffer from impoverished and degraded environments. They may create or exacerbate environmental degradation because their poverty forces them to do so. Piers Blaikie comments, ‘small producers cause soil erosion because they are poor, and in turn soil erosion exacerbates that condition. A set of socio-economic relations called underdevelopment is at the centre of this poverty’ (1985, p. 138). Thus agropastoralists enduring drought and poor soil fertility in the Sahel, or women forced to travel miles to collect fuelwood, or fishing people suffering the effects of pollution from mine tailings in tropical rivers are all experiencing environmental degradation that relates directly to their ability to achieve sustainable livelihoods and an acceptable quality of life.
