Abstract
A ‘forest–hydrology–poverty nexus’ hypothesis asserts that deforestation in poor upland areas simultaneously threatens biodiversity and increases the incidence of flooding, sedimentation and other damaging hydrological processes. This paper uses rough heuristics to assess the applicability of this hypothesis to two montane forested countries in Central America: Guatemala and Honduras. We do so by using simple rules of thumb to identify watersheds at greater risk of hydrologically significant land use change, using information about land cover, slope, and watershed size. The location of these watersheds is compared to spatial maps of poverty and forests. We find plausible evidence for a forest–biodiversity–poverty connection in Guatemala, and to a lesser extent in Honduras.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported in part by the Bank–Netherlands Partnership Program, Functional Value of Biodiversity Project. We are grateful to our colleagues on the FVB project for helpful discussions and to Sampurno Bruijnzeel for useful comments. Spatial datasets, census information and surveys were generously provided by the following agencies: Ministerio de Agricultura, Secretaría de Planificación y Programación de la Presidencia Guatemala; Instituto Geográfico Nacional, Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Secretaría de Recursos Naturales y Ambiente; International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). The findings, interpretations and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the view of the World Bank, its Executive Directors, or the countries they represent.
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Nelson, A., Chomitz, K.M. THE FOREST–HYDROLOGY–POVERTY NEXUS IN CENTRAL AMERICA: AN HEURISTIC ANALYSIS. Environ Dev Sustain 9, 369–385 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-006-9027-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-006-9027-6