ABSTRACT
Environmental conservation has been a persistent theme in discourses on rural and agricultural development. The past four decades have seen the emergence of major environmental organizations such as The World Conservation Union (IUCN), the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), as well as a number of powerful environmental campaigning organizations such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth. Bilateral agencies, the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and other United Nations organizations, Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) institutions and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from developed countries have also invested substantial sums in environmental programmes and projects in developing countries. The 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio and the establishment of the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) and several environmentally oriented commissions and the ratification of a number of environmental conventions are evidence of the attention being given to conservation. It is commonly believed that environmental degradation and rural poverty exist in the same locality, and that environmental rehabilitation is important for poverty reduction in addition to the provision of improved production technologies and
services. But the relationships between poverty and environmental health are highly complex. The social structures and processes producing poverty and environmental decay interact at all levels, from individual households in particular areas to transnational organizations, policies, institutions and markets (Barraclough, Ghimire and Meliczek, 1997). In many cases, the processes and structures that render local livelihoods vulnerable are responsible for environmental decline as well.
