Author Promotes Biodiversity to Fight Poverty

Jefferson Shriver, Chief of Party for Catholic Relief Services in Nicaragua, talks about his just-published book, Reaping Profits While Restoring the Environment: Lessons From Central America. As environmental degradation continues at a relentless pace and its consequences grow more dire, there is an urgent need for solutions that decrease poverty while conserving biodiversity. Based on research in Central America, Shriver's book examines approaches that do both, focusing specifically on Payment for Environmental Services (PES), a development approach that pays land users for the environmental services they provide.

Jefferson Shriver, left, talks to farmers about a newly installed drip irrigation system. Photo by Robyn Fieser/CRS

Shriver oversees ACORDAR (Alliance to Create Opportunities for Rural Development through Agroenterprise Relationships), Nicaragua's flagship agriculture program. The U.S. government-funded project aims to create 23,000 new jobs while raising the incomes of thousands of farmers by fostering sustainable farming practices, strengthening farmer organizations and linking farmers to formal markets.

Robyn Fieser:

Your book explores the relationship between poverty alleviation and what you often refer to as the protection of "biodiversity." What is biodiversity and why does it matter?

Jefferson Shriver:

Biodiversity is defined as the variety of living organisms in any ecosystem. In many ways this book is for people who prioritize poverty alleviation over the environment, so I talk about biodiversity in terms of its benefits to humans. Specifically, I focus on rural families who depend on biodiversity for their survival. In this context, biodiversity means things like raw materials that fertilize the soil and repel insects, water springs that are best protected by keeping a forest intact, and the conservation of water basins, forests and soil to prevent erosion and floods. The tragedy is that deforestation and the poisoning of the soil, water and air are eliminating biodiversity with an unprecedented speed.

Fieser:

You say in the book that topics such as deforestation and environmental degradation meet with blank stares, that "beyond a passing regret for the loss of pretty scenery and for places where monkeys and tigers once roamed, many, it seems, are quietly wondering to themselves if vanished forests and little-noticed extinctions are really that devastating." Why the disconnect?

Shriver:

Low-technology farmers are perhaps most connected with the notion that their natural environment or biodiversity is directly linked to their survival. They know that without fertile soil, access to a clean and steady water supply, and access to different seed varieties, they will not be able to provide well for their families. But how many of us are low-tech, poor farmers? Most of us live in cities and rely on a job, a salary, an ATM and a supermarket for our survival. Many people have not thought about how environmental health or destruction is linked to food production, or rainfall, water and air quality. The recent debate around global warming is just beginning to bring into scope the idea that intact forests have a positive impact on overall carbon in the atmosphere. And thanks to movements such as Fair Trade, people are beginning to think more carefully about where their food comes from and, in many cases, are paying a premium for farmer welfare and environmental protection. But we still have a long way to go.

Fieser:

Can you give us a couple of examples from your research of economic activities that both generate biodiversity conservation and alleviate poverty?

Shriver:

One of the examples in the book is shade-grown cacao. In Nicaragua there is a big market for cacao, which grows best in the country's low-lying rainforest, under a canopy of trees. The German chocolate company Ritter Sport is providing incredible prices for organic-certified, shade-grown cacao. The market opportunity is driving thousands of farmers in Nicaragua's agriculture frontier to rehabilitate abandoned cacao plantations or reforest land that was deforested in the past 20 years to feed cattle. Today, I'm seeing farmers with beautiful plots of land with forests of hardwoods, fruit trees and cacao, which—just five years ago—were barren cow pastures. Why did they change their land use? Market demand.

Fieser:

You have an entire chapter in your book devoted to Payment for Environmental Services (PES). What is it? How does it work?

Shriver:

The concept of PES is simple: Pay the land users for the environmental services they provide, thereby creating an incentive for the inclusion of these services in their land use decisions.

One of the easiest PES to understand is ecotourism. The sector, which is growing at a rate of about 20 percent a year, caters to tourists who care less about creature comforts and more about walking and hiking, having access to the wilderness, and learning about the natural environment and local culture.

Certified organic agriculture is another easily understandable PES. Here, a third-party certifier guarantees that the farmer is using only organic, nonchemical fertilizer and pesticides, is diversifying crops, and is practicing soil and conservation techniques. This set of practices is sold to the consumer at an ever-expanding rate, often at a premium price. In the United States alone, demand for certified organic products increases yearly by 15 to 20 percent.

Watershed services are also easy to understand, but more difficult to set up. In the book, I profile Isidro Talavera, a forest owner with a healthy water spring who provides potable water for a fee to a community.

Fieser:

How might this model be integrated into Catholic Relief Services' programming?

Shriver:

CRS is already working in the area of water, and particularly watershed management. Developing watershed services and certain PES mechanisms are already part of the Mi Cuenca project, for example, in ways that are very similar to Isidro Talavera's experience.

CRS is also looking more closely at what we can do to help the people we support adapt to climate change. By protecting and enhancing forests, soil and water, we are making rural families more resilient to climate change. PES would just give them more of a profit incentive to protect and manage their natural resources, which would have a direct impact on how they use their land.

In terms of agroforestry, coffee and cacao fit into both agroforestry and certified organic production, as both crops are typically grown under a shade canopy and have increasing organic certified markets. We are really at the tip of the iceberg and need to look more seriously as an agency at promoting nontimber forest products such as rubber, spices and nuts.

Fieser:

What can people do?

Shriver:

The great thing is that people can participate at all levels. The decisions we make at the supermarket, the places we decide to visit when we travel, and the corporate social responsibility policies of the companies and organizations we are a part of are all important points of participation. CRS has a potentially powerful role to play as we determine how to use our resources to identify and promote PES around the world.

Robyn Fieser is CRS' regional information officer for Latin America and the Caribbean based in Guatemala.