Poverty and Environmental Degradation in the Nicaraguan Hillsides

Abstract

This article questions the assumption of poverty as a major cause of environmental degradation. Examining five environmentally harmful natural resource management practices in the Nicaraguan hillsides, it shows that the immediate agents of environmental degradation are the nonpoor farmers, not the poorest. It argues that to analyze the causal links between poverty and environment, a distinction between poverty as a state of deprivation and poverty as a relational phenomenon is necessary. Finally, the article warns that the often strategic reference to poverty as the major cause of environmental degradation made by nonpoor and poor farmers may lead to negative environmental impacts.