Hunger, Poverty and Biodiversity in Developing Countries
A paper for the Mexico Action Summit, Mexico City, Mexico, June 2-3, 2003
By
Sara J. Scherr
Senior Policy Analyst, Forest Trends and
Director, Ecoagriculture Partners, Washington, D.C.
HUNGER, POVERTY AND BIODIVERSITY IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
In 2000, the United Nations committed themselves to achieve key Millennium
Development Goals by the year 2015, including to halve the incidence of hunger, to halve
the rate of poverty, and to conserve biodiversity and environmental services (United
Nations 2000). The scale of this challenge is daunting:
•
Nearly 800 million people suffer from chronic undernutrition. Nearly 80 percent
of these live in rural areas: roughly half are in farm households, a quarter in
landless households and a tenth depend mainly on herding, forests or fisheries. Of
the undernourished, 170 million are infants and pre-school children. Some 60
million people each year face famine due to natural disasters or civil conflict.
Nearly 2 billion people (including a high proportion of the hungry) suffer from
debilitating micronutrient deficiencies (Scherr and the Hunger Task Force 2003).
•
Nearly 1.2 billion people worldwide live on the equivalent of less than US$1 per
day. Of these, about 75 percent live in rural areas. Chronic poverty is a major drag
on economic development, reducing productivity, depleting assets during
financial crises, and increasing dependency (IFAD 2001).
•
The expansion of agriculture, human settlements and infrastructure has led to
massive ecosystem conversion and degradation. Over 83 percent of the earth’s
land ...