Environmental Development Programme China

Scott Wilson, together with local and international consultants, is working with the Yunnan Environmental Protection Bureau, Yunnan Poverty Alleviation Office and Yunnan Development Planning Commission on this four year programme.

Yunnan Province in south-western China is ethnically diverse. Of the 40 million population, 26 million are officially classified as ethnic minorities. Around 4.2 million people are classified as ‘poor’. Most poor people live in remote mountainous regions.

The Provincial Government has identified environmental damage as a key factor in the incidence of poverty in the province, as well as being important to the broader issues of sustainable development. The Programme aims to build upon present environmental and poverty reduction initiatives and to help the Provincial Government take a more integrated approach to addressing the links between environmental management and poverty.
The Programme involves extensive field work in a wide range of counties and villages across the province. Programme outputs will be: a strengthened Sustainable Development Action Plan (Agenda 21) process; a participative and integrated strategic approach to reduce poverty and enhance the environment; practical initiatives which address high priority environment and poverty issues.

Development of the draft Integrated Strategy involves four main workstreams:

Policy Review: identification and evaluation of relevant and significant Government environmental policies and initiatives which have implications for the poor at local level - forestry, resettlement, tourism, nature reserves, water resources, rural energy and agricultural extension/ technologies, Mapping of Poverty and Environmental, Indicators, Institutional Capacity, Analysis and Building

Environment-Poverty Linkages: identification of key links between the environment and poverty in Yunnan through field studies