World Ark Magazine - November/December 2007 - (Page 46)

hoods, and migrating out of distressed areas. But the poorer people are, the more difficult adaptation can be. Lacking adequate insurance, savings and credit, the rural poor may have to respond to emergencies by selling off assets such as animals that they worked so hard to acquire. This may provide them with immediate food and medical attention or building materials, but can reverse progress against poverty. If forced to flee to cities in search of work, the poor may lack the education and connections needed to be successful. Women especially may be constrained by cultural barriers and lack of empowerment. Policy changes can help make the poor more resilient to environmental stresses while providing other development benefits—implementing early warning systems to anticipate environmental emergencies and to prevent disasters; restoring and expanding natural ecosystem barriers such as mangroves; reforestation; establishing micro-insurance programs for farmers; constructing storm shelters, flood barriers, and protected roads and bridges; and empowering the poor and their organizations. In many countries more government transparency and accountability are needed. Environmental problems tend to be mutually reinforcing, so we should not treat impacts of global warming as an isolated category. Successful programs often benefit from a combination of scientific environmental management and traditional knowledge. Many outstanding examples, such as the Suledo Forest Community and the HASHI project in Tanzania, are found among winners and runners-up of the United Nations Equator Prize, which recognizes “local efforts to reduce poverty through the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity” (see http://www.undp .org/equatorinitiative/). Many people in developing countries are taking part in restoration efforts. The U.N. Development Programme has chronicled the efforts by coastal farmers in Vietnam to plan and replant mangroves to reduce storm damage. In Africa, the tree planting by the Greenbelt Movement, for which Wangari Maathai won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, has resulted in better soil management and a decrease in erosion. There are many win-win solutions. Measures in developing countries that can cost-effectively support development—such as energy conservation, shift to tropical biofuels using crops grown by small farmers, rural electrification with renewables, and improvements in urban transportation— also help reduce greenhouse gases. Preventing forest loss, and reforestation, can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and restore traditional income sources for the poor. To help protect forest cover many experts believe it may be most effective to employ the poor as guardians of these resources. Living on site, they are more likely than absentee owners to pay attention to poaching and illegal logging. Not only can rich countries afford such strategies, it is in their interests. The world’s richer nations must do more to help. THE INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE Even if we could cap greenhouse gases at their current levels, global temperatures would continue to rise for some time, due to the Earth’s naturally slow responses. So we must work actively to assist the poor and policymakers in low-income countries to adapt to the negative climate change already occurring and on the way. “The poorest developing countries will be hit earliest and hardest by climate change,” concluded the “Stern Review,” “even though they have contributed little to causing the problem. Their low incomes make it diffi cult to finance adaptation.” Even as we fund adaptation, we must recognize that adaptation alone will not succeed. We also need to 46 November/December 2007 | WORLD ARK www.heifer.org http://www.undp.org/equatorinitiative http://www.undp.org/equatorinitiative http://www.heifer.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of World Ark Magazine - November/December 2007

World Ark - November/December 2007 Contents Letters For the Record The Good Life Asked & Answered Pursuing Happiness (PRODUCT) RED: Consumer Power Fights AIDS in Africa Rwanda Reconciles End Hunger Now Protecting the Poor from Climate Change Mixed Media Heifer Bulletin Heifer Spirit Heifer Calendar Reflection

World Ark Magazine - November/December 2007

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