Masters Thesis Abstract: Tammy Korndoerfer
Natural resources dependency in poor rural communities in the developing world: Yelwa village as a case study
Environmental protection and poverty reduction have been highly topical issues in the last four decades, appearing both together and separately in many publications by influential international organizations (such as the United Nations, the World Bank and the World Commission on Environment and Development). However, proponents of either environmental protection or poverty reduction have frequently been in conflict, leading to the development of two diverging schools of thought: One which believes that poverty alleviation and environmental protection are synergistic goals, and one which believes that environmental protection and human development are conflicting goals, and for one to succeed it must be at the cost of the other.
My research has approached this debate by asking what natural resources the livelihoods of a rural community in the developing world rely on. Understanding this is the basis of understanding when development and environmental protection can be united, and how best to do so.
Based on my research I believe that communities in transition from traditional to industrialized lifestyles are at their most vulnerable, both environmentally and socially. However, rather than concluding that this makes development and environmental protection conflicting agendas, this means that the greatest opportunity for SUSTAINABLE environmental protection lies in two-way education (the sharing of western scientific understanding and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK)) and partnership between conservation organizations and communities as they undergo this transition.