How should poverty reduction strategies be evaluated for their treatment of environmenta income opportunities for the poor? The following questions can shed light on whether PRSPs adequately reflect the importance of environmental income and provide for sustainable and equitable ecosystem management.
Environmental mainstreaming
1. Ecosystem orientation and environmental income. Does the strategy recognize the importance of ecosystems as a source of income for the poor? Does it advocate an ecosystem approach to maintain and enhance this income source?
2. Sustainability of income over time. Does the strategy take a longterm approach to natural resource income, stressing sustainable ecosystem management? Does it integrate with existing national sustainability plans?
Environmental governance
3. Tenure and access to resources. Does the strategy address issues of resource access of the poor and recognize their centrality to increasing income security? In particular, does it squarely confront the issue of tenure insecurity and advocate for pro-poor tenure reform?
4. Decentralization and CBNRM. Does the strategy address the devolution of
power over resource management to competent local authorities, and does it make provision for building the governance capacity and transparency of these local institutions? Does the strategy support community-based natural resource management as an effective form of local empowerment and advocate for its clear recognition in law?
5. Participation, procedural rights, and gender equality. Is the strategy grounded in broad-based participation by civil society? Are the priorities identified in the consultation process incorporated into the final strategy? Does the strategy emphasize free and informed consent of communities to economic development activities that entail local environmental impacts? Does the strategy acknowledge and address gender issues?
Environmental monitoring and assessment
6. Environmental monitoring. Does the strategy include plans for monitoring
environmental conditions to track the impacts of economic growth on
environmental income and provide the basis for sound ecosystem
management?
7. Targets, indicators, and assessments. Does the strategy contain
quantifiable targets for improving outcomes with respect to the environmental
income opportunities of the poor? Does it specify poverty and
environmental indicators and how these will be used to shape pro-poor
growth strategies? Does it describe plans for assessments to evaluate
performance in implementing environment- and governance-related
measures to improve the environmental income opportunities of the poor.
