Resource Management and the Effects of Trade on Vulnerable Places and People : Lessons from Six Case Studies

Lessons from six case studies illustrate
the complex relationships between international trade,
vulnerable ecologies and the poor. The studies, taken from
Africa, Asia and Latin America and conducted by local
researchers, are set in places where the poor live in close
proximity to ecologies that are important to global
conservation efforts, and focus on the cascading
consequences of trade policy for local livelihoods and
environmental services. Collectively, the studies show how
under-valued common resources are often poorly protected and
consequently subject to shifting economic incentives,
including those that arise from trade. The studies provide
examples where trade works to accelerate the use of natural
resources and to exacerbate unsustainable dependencies by
the poor, and other examples where trade has the opposite
effect. An important conclusion is that local livelihood and
technology choices have important consequences for how
environmental resources are used and should be taken into
account when designing policies to safeguard fragile ecologies.