Improving access to natural resources for the rural poor - A critical analysis of central concepts and emerging trends from a sustainable livelihoods perspective

Section 1 will examine current debates around poverty, vulnerability and livelihood issues related to access to natural resources. Section 2 will describe the main features of the sustainable livelihoods approaches and relate them to current thinking about access to natural resources. Section 3 will describe and categorise the different types of problems and opportunities that the rural poor face with respect to access to natural resources. Section 4 will assess the extent to which an ‘SLA perspective’ can assist in better understanding the problems and opportunities described in 3 and in developing strategies for addressing them. Concrete examples of strategies that have been tried or proposed in which the goal of enhancing access to natural resources has explicitly been linked to supporting sustainable livelihoods are given in sections 3 and 4.