ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an exploration of the possible direct and indirect environmental impacts of current policies and strategies on the peri-urban interface (PUI). Here, the terms ‘policies and strategies’ refer to guiding principles formulated by public agencies operating at the national, regional or local level, usually arising from a political process, to inform specific planning and management interventions with intended or unintended environmental, social and economic effects on a given locality or sets of localities. For purposes of this review, the effects of these interventions on the PUI are perceived as changes in its natural resource endowment and in the type and volume of flows (of people, goods and waste) between urban and rural areas. The environmental focus of this chapter does not deny that there are other crucial dimensions in peri-urban processes, such as social and economic change, particularly in the way that they affect the poor. These are covered in, among others, Brook and Dávila (2000) and Allen and Dávila (2002).
