Environmental Income is the value derived—in cash or direct use— from ecosystem goods and services. As we use the term in this report, environmental income is the sum of two important income streams.
- Wild Income: Income from wild or uncultivated natural systems, such as forests, marine and inland fisheries, reefs, wetlands, and grasslands. This includes commodities such as fish, timber, and nontimber forest products such as fuelwood, game, medicinals, fruits and other foods, and materials for handicrafts or art. It also includes income from nature-based tourism, as well as payments that rural landowners might receive for environmental services such as carbon storage orpreservation of watershed functions.
- Agricultural Income: Income from agroecosystems—all agricultural lands, such as croplands, pastures, or orchards. In the context of the poor, agricultural income is mostly generated through smallscale agriculture, including commodity crops, home gardens, and large and small livestock. Income from aquaculture would also fit in this category.
Environmental income could also reasonably include a third component:
- Mineral and Energy Income: Income from mining or extraction of oil, gas, hydrothermal energy, or hydroelectric energy. Large-scale mineral and energy exploitation is not usually a direct source of income for poor rural households, so in this report we do not consider this income stream as part of rural livelihoods.
We should note that other definitions of environmental income exist that are not as broad-reaching as ours (see Vedeld et al. 2004:5-6). Our aim is to account for all sources of income based on nature that figure into the household budgets of the poor or can be tapped by them for sustainable wealth creation.
