IAWG7 Poverty Mapping as a Tool for Environment Po

Poverty Mapping as a Tool for Environment Policy and Conflict Management in Selected IGAD Countries: 

Poverty Mapping as a Tool for Environment Policy and Conflict Management in Selected IGAD Countries 7th Annual Meeting of Inter-Agency Working Group on Food Insecurity, and Vulnerability Information and Mapping Systems (IAWG-FIVIMS)

What is PAES?: 

What is PAES? Partnership for African Environmental Sustainability A regional NGO established in 1999 to promote environmentally and socially sustainable development based on science and best practices Promotes also partnership building as a tool for sound environmental management Primary focus is policy research and development revolving around addressing the causes and effects of environmental/land degradation Headquartered in Kampala with offices in Lusaka and Washington, D.C.

Why are we interested in poverty mapping?: 

Why are we interested in poverty mapping? EU funded project to study the link between environmental insecurity and armed conflict in Burundi, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Uganda. Poverty is an important dimension of the environment and conflict link. Valuable data obtained during the household survey

The PAES/EU study focused on two ecosystems:: 

The PAES/EU study focused on two ecosystems: Agricultural land (farm and pastoral) Fresh water ecosystem

Key terms: 

Key terms Human security refers to state of human conditions free from threat of hunger and poverty, and armed conflict at different societal levels--individual, group, community, country, region, and global levels.

Key terms:: 

Key terms: Environment refers to all external factors that affect species including human beings and the relationship between nature and human beings, but in this study refers to finite renewable natural resources, specifically land and fresh water resources. Environmental degradation refers to reduction and deterioration in quantity and quality of agricultural land and fresh water resources, and in flow of environmental goods and services.

Key terms:: 

Key terms: A society becomes environmentally insecure when environment scarcity becomes threats to national, community and individual under conditions of failed ecological sustainability, increased vulnerability to livelihood and survival, and heightened risk of armed conflict. Environmental insecurity is a collective expression of these manifestations (or, risks) that is particularly real where institutions and governance fail to prevent and resolve conflicts.

Key terms:: 

Key terms: Conflict refers to disputes and clashes that arise from claims and command over agricultural land and fresh water resources, and distribution of environmental goods and services. Environment-induced conflicts refers to conflicts between two or more societal groups or communities as well as between states and sub-national groups that involves the use of arms (guns, spears and other lethal weapons).

Data sources: 

Data sources Literature review Secondary Primary (household surveys + community group focused discussions)

Key findings:: 

Key findings: Farm size is small and declining High incidence of land fragmentation Increased cultivation intensity Growing landlessness Grazing land too short supply Water stress and scarcity Emerging tenure arrangements/underground/black market

Slide11: 

Plate 4. Severe soil erosion leads to gullies as found in areas adjacent to Kibale National park.

Key findings:: 

Key findings: Incidence of poverty tends to be greater in ecologically fragile marginal agricultural areas with few routes to escape poverty.

Key findings:: 

Key findings: Geographic areas with frequent occurrences of droughts (or, other natural calamities) are not only generally poor but are subject to large transitory as more people move below poverty line and become poor.

Key findings: 

Key findings Continuous shifts in coping strategies Sell small livestock Sell large animals Casual wage Reduce food consumption Relief dependent Migration

Types of environment induced conflicts:: 

Types of environment induced conflicts: Cultivator – pastoralist Cultivator - Cultivator Conflicts over inheritance Conflict over individualizing the commons Returnees and Claims to Original (or, ancestral) Land (Ethiopia) Herder – herder State – cultivator/herder

Primary conclusion: 

Primary conclusion Environmental scarcity in the context of high population pressure, low institutional and technology response, and poverty is bound to induce armed conflict between communities. Conflicts in the majority cases are related to competition over access, use and transfer of scarce natural resources

Conclusions (cont.): 

Conclusions (cont.) Population mobility and settlement tends to raise a likelihood of resource conflicts in most of the study areas. Large-scale migration translates on to conflict more likely where there are social cleavage between migrants and indigenous population. Societal heterogeneity as a contributing factor gains more strength where the migrant people assume economic and political ascendancy in their place of settlement.

Conclusions (cont.): 

Conclusions (cont.) The likelihood of armed conflict is enhanced where groups organized around social cleavage (e.g., ethnicity or religion) perceive or experience governance deficit. There are established indigenous institutional arrangements for managing conflicts in the study countries.

The project: 

The project Promoting poverty mapping as tool for developing environmental policy and conflict management PAES UNEP/GRID

Slide21: 

Table 1. Poverty Estimates by Village, 1994 Source: Elizabeth, 1997

Slide22: 

Table 2.: Conflicts Over Scarce Natural Resources: Extent, Trend and Conflict Management PAES Study in Ethiopia, 2002. Note: land scarcity in the agro-pastoral village is mainly shortage of pastureland.

Project objectives: 

Project objectives Promote cross sectoral understanding of poverty mapping as a planning and management tool Enhance the existing knowledge base on poverty and environment interaction through developing poverty profile by physical space. Identify robust poverty indicators and validate links to environment through community-based surveys in selected ecologies. Assess and demonstrate the use of poverty mapping as a tool for environment policy and other development interventions