Contents: Preface. I. Environment-Povery : the missing link in Rio: 1. Background. 2. The main events of the Dhaka workshop. 3. The three themes of the workshop. II. Commitments for environmental protection and poverty eradication: 1. Integrating environment and poverty : workshop background and objectives. 2. The basic issues in environment and poverty. 3. Poverty alleviation: a precondition for sustainability. 4. The gravest challenges: role of UNDP. 5. Poverty alleviation and sustainable development : need for a vision. 6. No caring without sharing. 7. South Asian Poverty Commission approach: poor as part of the solution. 8. Poverty and environment: the key linkages. 9. Poverty the central issue. 10. Alleviate poverty for a better environment. III. The main issues in environment and poverty: the workshop discourses: 1. Poverty and environment: identifying the linkages. 2. Harmful side-effects of piecemeal solutions. 3. The global picture. 4. Redistribution of wealth. 5. Governments and the poverty-environment conundrum. 6. Mobilization at the grassroots. 7. Pro-poor strategies. 8. The victims of development. 9. Towards an equitable international economic order. 10. Trade that doesn't "cost the earth". 11. Poverty and military budgets. 12. Next steps for research. 13. Poverty convention: the rationale. 14. Elements of a poverty convention. 15. Actions recommended. IV. Environment-poverty: the key linkages: 1. Introduction. 2. Primary linkages of environment and poverty. 3. Natural resource base and environment-poverty. 4. Demographic dynamics and environment-poverty. 5. Consumption patterns and environment-poverty. 6. Social and institutional aspect of environment-poverty. 7. Secondary linkages of environment and poverty. 8. Eco-specific linkages of poverty and environment. 9. Other related issues. V. Poverty convention : the civil society demands: 1. Introduction. 2. Rationale for a poverty convention. 3. Elements of a poverty convention. 4. Strategy for achieving a poverty convention. VI. Research agenda and action plan : the urgent needs: 1. Introduction. 2. The research agenda: major areas of research. 3. Key areas of actions. VII. Glimpses of poverty environment nexus: summary of the presented papers: 1. Linkages between environment, poverty and employment: a developing country perspective. 2. Poverty and livelihoods : whose reality counts? An overview. 3. Poverty-oriented energy strategies for sustainable development. 4. To eradicate the poor or pauperizing the system? The need for a new language of poverty. 5. People as a resource for poverty alleviation and sustainable development. 6. Urbanization, urban poverty and the environment. 7. Justice as a key element of sustainable development : poverty, power and political ecology in an inequitable world. 8. Poverty, sustainability, survival and environmental risk. 9. Militarism, poverty and international security. 10. The land of milk from water. 11. Natural resources accounting : a framework for India. 12. Consumption patterns : the driving force of environmental stress. 13. Understanding environment-poverty relationship : in the fragile Himalayan region. 14. Empowering the poor of South Asia. 15. Social justice and human-ecology issues in sustainable development. 16. Innovation and people's initiatives in environment and poverty. 17. Emerging institutions and lack of integration of poverty and environment. 18. Structural adjustment, macro-policies and poverty. 19. Mobilization and empowerment of the poor. 20. Survival through innovations and experimentation in high risk environment. 21. Health, environment and nutrition. 22. Development needs changing relationship among nation states. Appendices: 1. Introduction. 2. Declaration on environment and poverty. 3. From Rio to Copenhagen. 4. Guidelines of GEEP workshop participants. 5. International workshop on environment and poverty. 6. List of participants GEEP Dhaka Workshop 1993. 7. The partner organizations of GEEP.
"The concept of sustainable development has encapsulated the mechanisms for integrating environment and development at the Earth Summit, in 1992. Many of the key actors in the UNCED process highlighted that there could be no sustainable development without the elimination, or at least, the alleviation of poverty. Poverty-environment was identified as the missing link in UNCED and needed immediate attention.
"Over one hundred key experts, scientists, practitioners and policy planners met in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 1993 in an international conference organized by the global forum on environment and poverty to develop a better understanding of the environment and poverty issues and formulate a research and action plan.
"This book pulls together the presented papers, discussions and shared experiences at global, national and community levels that resulted in a common understanding and an action plan. The key elements of the analysis on poverty-environment linkages and their implications on global, national, regional and local levels are discussed." (jacket)
[A. Atiq Rahman is the Director of Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies.]
