Carbon, Climate, and Livelihoods

Another important component of the course are the actual lectures by our very capable and knowledgeable machete-wielding professor Dr. Skole!

What especially interested me was how conservation of natural resources (especially forests) can help alleviate poverty. More than 1 billion individuals live on less than $1 a day (which is considered extreme poverty). 

In addition, 2/3rds of the rural poor live in ecologically vulnerable areas and marginally productive landscapes. Many of the world's poorest populations are also small-hold farmers.

Dr. Skole explained that by encouraging more sustainable agriculture and forestry via carbon stocks and carbon sequestration livelihoods can be improved through the creation of more jobs and healthier environments. 

Some effective methods to address this issue is increasing the amount of carbon in soil and biomass for smallholder systems via  carbon sequestration in adoption of reforestation and sustainable land use, reforestation, and other co-benefits related to biodiversity conservation and other environmental concerns, livelihoods, and poverty reduction.

Other ways of reducing carbon in the atmosphere are emission reduction, energy substitutions, maintaining carbon stocks, and increasing sinks by sequestration.

In short, by making preparations for a rural low-carbon economy we can increase the value to agriculture by incorporating innovative and adaptive approaches such as those aforementioned.

I found this particular lecture to be of interest because it really helped tie together my goals as a student pursuing a dual degree in political science and natural resource conservation. The plight of humans and that of the environment are absolutely related and I think it’s very easy to focus on one or the other without considering their interdependency. How can the 2/3rds of the rural poor that live in environmentally degraded areas thrive in the future? Especially when their environment is either polluted to the point of risking the inhabitants health or so poorly managed that they can no longer support agriculture for their livelihoods or sustenance face any sort of forseeable or sustainable future . Scientists and policymakers alike need to realize that that economic growth and development are not only related but dependent on how we go about conserving our resources whether it be from a climate change, conservationist, or humanitarian perspective.

I hope during this program I am able to better understand and the state of these issues and share with whoever is out there reading but until then I’ll keep blogging about bananas, pineapples, and trees!

Here are some pictures just because