PRSPs need to do a better job of recognizing the importance of environmental income and the role it can play in reducing poverty. The approach taken in PRSPs to enhancing rural livelihoods should be based on an awareness of the importance of ecosystems as the ultimate basis for all economic activity and a key contributor to human welfare, and should seek to ensure the long-term sustainability of ecosystem services and the livelihoods derived from them.
One of the strongest PRSPs in terms of recognizing the potential of environmental income for poverty reduction is that of Cambodia. The Cambodian PRSP identifies land, water, agriculture, forests, and fisheries as key to increasing rural incomes and sets out an 11-point program to improve rural livelihoods by increasing income from the development of small-scale aquaculture, establishing and strengthening community forestry, promoting sustainable, community-based management of fishery resources, and improving market access for small-scale farmers and rural producers (Cambodia 2002:v, 53, 61).
Similarly, Bolivia highlights the potential contribution of biodiversity to rural incomes and the economy as a whole. It cites preliminary studies indicating that within 15 years biodiversityrelated activities (such as ecotourism, mitigation of climate change, and services related to biotechnology) could increase GDP about 10 percent (Bolivia 2001:133). Biodiversity resources could provide near-term gains to disadvantaged rural populations from projects featuring sustainable use of wild animal species, including vicuna, lizard, and peccary (Bolivia 2001:133). Bolivia also proposes to formally establish non-timber forest activities (e.g., gathering of brazil nuts and cultivation of palms) within the national forest system and municipal forest reserve areas, with the aim of creating new income generation activities for impoverished local communities (Bolivia 2001:134).
However, even among PRSPs that devote significant attention to opportunities for enhancing the poor’s environmental income, few refer to the importance of ecosystems as fundamental units for managing natural resources and ensuring long-term environmental sustainability. Of the PRSPs reviewed, only Ghana mentioned the “ecosystem approach” by name and then only in the limited sense of using this approach to restore threatened habitats and ecosystems (Ghana 2003:75).
One exception is Cambodia, which has made some limited efforts to incorporate an ecosystems-based perspective or approach within specific sectors and activities. For instance, the Cambodian PRSP describes a national vision for water resources that explicitly encompasses healthy aquatic ecosystems as well as productive fisheries and provision of safe and affordable drinking water (Cambodia 2002:64). Cambodia also applies the concept of agroecosystems in agricultural development plans, including proposals to set up agricultural research centers in each of the country’s principal agroecosystems that would be oriented to small-scale farmers. These centers would conduct research and extension, emphasizing intensification of agricultural production through improved water, soil, and nutrient management, with relatively few external inputs in the form of agrichemicals or improved seeds (Cambodia 2002:56).
