In the Uplands of Southeast Asia, poor and near-poor farm households endure considerable livelihood vulnerability. Access to formal insurance services is scarce. Rural farm households in mountainous Northern Vietnam h...In the Uplands of Southeast Asia, poor and near-poor farm households endure considerable livelihood vulnerability. Access to formal insurance services is scarce. Rural farm households in mountainous Northern Vietnam have developed alternative risk management strategies. This article investigates the theoretical links between poverty, vulnerability and risk. The concept of vulnerability to poverty lays the analytical framework. Based on empirical evidence from more than 200 ethnic minority households, major risks and risk management strategies are presented and analyzed. Results suggest that households suffer from limited endowment with and access to capital assets and service institutions. Human and economic risks （e.g. illness of family members and loss of livestock） were identified as the main components affecting rural livelihoods. Constrained access to adequate risk management strategies increase household＇s vulnerability, drowning them more and more in poverty. Major policy implications are that anti-poverty programs should focus on a broader target group, the currently poor as well as the vulnerable households.展开更多
Valuation of ecosystem services has been sought as effective tools that enable the decision makers in designing the cost effective response policies for management of ecosystems towards alleviating the poverty especia...Valuation of ecosystem services has been sought as effective tools that enable the decision makers in designing the cost effective response policies for management of ecosystems towards alleviating the poverty especially in economically poor regions like South Asia. Various directions and linkages between poverty and degradation of ecosystem and reduced flow of ecosystem services can better be understood if the regulating services like hydrological flow and carbon sequestration by forest, and nutrient cycling and bioremediation： by wetlandv can be captured in monetary unit. South Asian Countries including India. Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh are the hotspots of poverty where poor depend upon various ecosystem services for their livelihoods and allocation of resource for conservation of ecosystems would have additional merit if regulating services are captured and internalized into the pubtic policy.The paperfirst raises problematic issues in valuation of regulatig ecosystem services, and attempts to link it withthe dependence of poor. Second, complexities of poverty-ecosystem dynamics are discussed. Thirdly, the possible in-tervention to achieve poverty alleviation goal is analyzed with the help of some examples from accounting and valua-tion of regulating services of lndian forest. Finally, the paper suggests that greater attention is needed to do credibleand better valuation of regulating Services so that insight from these ean be used in understanding the impact of degradation of ecosysterns On poor people.展开更多
文摘In the Uplands of Southeast Asia, poor and near-poor farm households endure considerable livelihood vulnerability. Access to formal insurance services is scarce. Rural farm households in mountainous Northern Vietnam have developed alternative risk management strategies. This article investigates the theoretical links between poverty, vulnerability and risk. The concept of vulnerability to poverty lays the analytical framework. Based on empirical evidence from more than 200 ethnic minority households, major risks and risk management strategies are presented and analyzed. Results suggest that households suffer from limited endowment with and access to capital assets and service institutions. Human and economic risks （e.g. illness of family members and loss of livestock） were identified as the main components affecting rural livelihoods. Constrained access to adequate risk management strategies increase household＇s vulnerability, drowning them more and more in poverty. Major policy implications are that anti-poverty programs should focus on a broader target group, the currently poor as well as the vulnerable households.
文摘Valuation of ecosystem services has been sought as effective tools that enable the decision makers in designing the cost effective response policies for management of ecosystems towards alleviating the poverty especially in economically poor regions like South Asia. Various directions and linkages between poverty and degradation of ecosystem and reduced flow of ecosystem services can better be understood if the regulating services like hydrological flow and carbon sequestration by forest, and nutrient cycling and bioremediation： by wetlandv can be captured in monetary unit. South Asian Countries including India. Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh are the hotspots of poverty where poor depend upon various ecosystem services for their livelihoods and allocation of resource for conservation of ecosystems would have additional merit if regulating services are captured and internalized into the pubtic policy.The paperfirst raises problematic issues in valuation of regulatig ecosystem services, and attempts to link it withthe dependence of poor. Second, complexities of poverty-ecosystem dynamics are discussed. Thirdly, the possible in-tervention to achieve poverty alleviation goal is analyzed with the help of some examples from accounting and valua-tion of regulating services of lndian forest. Finally, the paper suggests that greater attention is needed to do credibleand better valuation of regulating Services so that insight from these ean be used in understanding the impact of degradation of ecosysterns On poor people.
