poverty, environmental degradation, and human rights: exploring the nexus
TRANSCRIPT
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Poverty, Environmental Degradation, and Human Rights: Exploring the Nexus
Josh Gellers, PhDPPD132: Sustainability IIUniversity of California, IrvineApril 13, 2016
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Outline
Define poverty
Interrogate the connections
Examine evidence of the nexus
Evaluate potential solutions
Design a field experiment
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What is poverty?
Lack of income Lack of assets
• Natural resource assets
• Human resource assets
• On-farm and financial assets
• Of-farm physical and financial assets
Lack of entitlements
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Poverty Environmental Degradation
Human Rights?
Exploring the Nexus
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Environmental Kuznets Curve
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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
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• “The failures that we need to correct arise both from poverty and from the short-sighted way in which we have often pursued prosperity. Many parts of the world are caught in a vicious downwards spiral: Poor people are forced to overuse environmental resources to survive from day to day, and their impoverishment of their environment further impoverishes them, making their survival ever more difficult and uncertain.”
Our Common Future (1987)
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So poverty causes environmental
degradation, right?
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Is it really that simple?
• EKC is spatially myopic• Studies tend to focus on the
state, not households• Difficult to generalize across
different kinds of environmental changes
• Fails to explain future-oriented behavior
No!
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Hypotheses
H1: Exogenous poverty Environmental degradation
H2: Power, wealth, and greed Environmental degradation
H3: Institutional failure Environmental degradation
H4: Market failure Environmental degradation
H5: Environmental degradation Poverty
H6: Endogenous poverty Environmental degradation
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What does the evidence say?
Power, wealth, and greed Environmental degradation Poverty
Institutional/market failures + Lack of information Environmental degradation Poverty
Poverty Environmental degradation
• BUT only 10% chose these activities freely; 90% were forced into unsustainable practices
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Solutions?
Property RightsEnvironmental Rights
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Property Rights
• Up to 2.5 billion people depend on land and natural resources that are held, used, or managed collectively
• Only 1/5 of these lands are formally recognized as owned by them
• This leaves 1/3 of the world’s population vulnerable
How do property
rights relate to global
poverty?
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Property Rights
Provide shelter, dignity, and a means for accumulation
In particular, land:
• Can be used as collateral for credit or exchanged for capital
• Provides a buffer to smooth consumption in times of shocks
• Confers social standing, increases bargaining power
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Property Rights
So to reduce poverty, we should pass laws that give land to individual poor people, right?
If only it were that easy!
• Understand the context (i.e. legal pluralism)• Pay attention to the bundle of rights, including use,
management, exclusion, and alienation• Might negatively impact those with joint or secondary
rights (i.e. women)
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Procedural Environmental Rights
Information
Participation
Access to Justice
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Procedural Environmental Rights
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Do PERs work?
• Courts in Ecuador, India, Peru, South Africa, South Korea, and Slovenia have upheld PERs
• A global quantitative study shows that that PERs to information are associated with greater access to improved water and sanitation sources
Limited evidence, but so far promising:
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Limits of Rights-Based Approaches
Litigation can be slow and expensive
Property rights suggest a ‘win-win’ situation, but poverty still driven by market forces
Procedural environmental rights require enforcement and resources
Might conflict with cultural practices
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Exercise: Design a field experiment• 1) Partner up with someone nearby (friend or enemy)• 2) Decide whether you’ll test property rights or PERs• 3) Design a specific research question• 4) Generate a hypothesis based on this lecture• 5) Develop an intervention that tests your hypothesis• 6) Identify the country, scale, and number of subjects• 7) Describe any ethical concerns that might arise• 8) Write it all up and be prepared to share!
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What can *I* do?
Mobilize others to support campaigns and programs • #LandRightsNow, #EnvironmentalRights
Donate to organizations• Landesa, EarthRights International
Start or join a student group• Global Environmental Brigades at UCI, Students for Sustainability
Volunteer your time with the less fortunate