Designing Policies to Reduce Rural Poverty and Environmental Degradation in a Hillside Zone of the Colombian Andes

Abstract

A household survey in a hillside zone of the Colombian Andes was used to develop a typology of farm households based on their assets and productive activities. Household poverty was not found to be directly correlated with environmental degradation. Degradation seems to be a function of farmers’ productive activities, depending on the type of assets that they own. Based on linear programming simulation, cost-efficient policy interventions were prioritized to account for both household poverty and the potential for environmental improvement.