Posted on January, 07 2003

WWF's Macroeconomics for Sustainable Development Programme Office (MPO) and its Economic Change, Poverty, and the Environment project have released a new publication, Poverty Reduction and Biodiversity Conservation: The Complex Role for Intensifying Agriculture by John W. Mellor. In this paper, noted scholar and agricultural economist John W. Mellor confronts the dilemma of using agricultural intensification as a means of raising incomes of the poor while managing its costs to ecology and enabling biodiversity conservation. Well before the technology-led 'green revolution' in agriculture during the 1970s, Mellor had predicted that such a revolution would provide the means for sustainably lifting the vast majority of the world's rural households out of poverty. He also showed how, if correctly managed, this revolution could provide the means for moving large numbers of people permanently out of dependence on agriculture. Since then, great strides in reducing poverty and ensuring food security have been made. However, the huge toll of this process on the environment has largely gone undocumented. Today, large pockets of rural poverty still remain and continued growth in agricultural intensification is still seen as a key solution by many. At the same time, we are confronted by evidence that expanding agricultural frontiers around the globe are responsible for the destruction of nearly 17 million hectares of forests each year. This land conversion process has become a leading driver in loss of topsoil and sedimentation of freshwater and marine systems. In addition, excessive use of chemicals in input-intensive production systems has caused pollution of freshwater reserves with consequences for the world's ecology and human health. In his paper, John W. Mellor analyses the key policies and institutions that shape the course of agricultural growth, and their implications for poverty reduction and biodiversity conservation. He also proposes an action plan in which both the environmental and development communities need to take concerted action together. The new publication is the latest in the WWF MPO "Viewpoints on Poverty and the Environment Series", which provides a forum to discuss the difficult, often controversial, challenges of integrating poverty and the environment into effective development strategies. Through this series, WWF MPO welcomes the diverse views of a wide range of authors and institutions. For further information: Brent C. Nordstrom Communications Officer, WWF MPO Tel: +1 202 778 9698 E-mail: Brent.Nordstrom@wwfus.org