Biodiversity Management and Poverty Reduction in Nigeria: Towards a Pro-Poor Approach

Livelihood in the rural areas is intrinsically tied to the natural environment. The rural environment is also incidentally the most natural and most suitable for the protection of both fauna and flora diversities. In Africa, the interrelationship between the environment and rural dwellers represent a major challenge to the successful conservation of the natural environment and its diversity. Hence, the keeping of parks, game and forest reserves, are desirable in accordance with international conventions and initiatives, but these efforts are perceived by the rural dwellers as attempts to entrap their means of livelihood. This perception is aggravated by the chronic rural poverty in most parts of Africa. This paper examines the challenges of effective biodiversity conservation and management in the face of chronic rural poverty drawing examples from the Nigerian experience. The paper argues that although the goals of biodiversity conservation and/or management and poverty reduction seem unattainable side by side, it is possible to identify within the rural environment some activities that are both poverty reducing and biodiversity friendly. The paper identifies broad based participation among all stakeholders in both endeavours of poverty reduction and biodiversity conservation as a way out of these policy and practical stalemates. This option, the paper submits, is the best for humanity's search for sustainable development. Keywords: Biodiversity, poverty, sustainable development, population growth, Rural, Nigeria. Ethiopian Journal of Environmental Studies and Management Vol. 1 (3) 2008: pp. 24-3