To assess the treatment of environmental income opportunities for the poor, WRR 2005 examined 20 PRSPs that have been touted by the World Bank, the United Nations, and other development experts as the best examples to date of environmental mainstreaming. We found several examples of proposed policies and programs that, if effectively implemented, would genuinely improve the prospects for the poor to derive sustainable income from their environmental assets. Many of these examples are described in the text of this chapter.
Of course, whether these “paper promises” can or will be translated into progress on the ground is the crux of the matter. Our desk study suggests that PRSPs with the most extensive and successful mainstreaming of environment and environmental income opportunities were also the most impeccably presented documents, in some cases perhaps indicating that international consultants, provided through assistance from the donor community, had a large hand in their preparation. The strength of the political will behind these environmental proposals remains to be seen.
