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This paper was prepared under contract with the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The positions and opinions presented
are those of the authors alone, and are not intended to represent the
views of FAO.
The Livelihood Support Programme
The Livelihood Support Programme (LSP) evolved from the belief that FAO
could have a greater impact on reducing poverty and food insecurity, if
its wealth of talent and experience were integrated into a more flexible
and demand-responsive team approach.
The LSP, which is executed by FAO with funding provided by DfID, works
through teams of FAO staff members who are attracted to specific themes
being worked on in a sustainable livelihoods context. These cross-departmental
and cross-disciplinary teams act to integrate sustainable livelihoods
principles in FAO’s work, at headquarters and in the field. These
approaches build on experiences within FAO and other development agencies.
The programme is functioning as a testing ground for both team approaches
and sustainable livelihoods principles.
Email: [email protected]
Access to natural resources sub-programme
Access by the poor to natural resources (land, forests, water, fisheries,
pastures, etc.), is essential for sustainable poverty reduction. The livelihoods
of rural people without access, or with very limited access to natural
resources are vulnerable because they have difficulty in obtaining food,
accumulating other assets, and recuperating after natural or market shocks
or misfortunes.
The main goal of this sub-programme is to build stakeholder capacity
to improve poor people’s access to natural resources through the
application of sustainable livelihood approaches. The sub-programme is
working in the following thematic areas:
- Sustainable livelihood approaches in the context of access to
different natural resources
- Access to natural resources and making rights real
- Livelihoods and access to natural resources in a rapidly changing
world
This paper contributes to the first thematic area by using a case study
of Kyrgyzstan to show how access to forests in West and Central Asia can
contribute to poverty reduction through sustainable livelihood approaches.
The study supports FAO’s Forestry Outlook Study which aims to better
understand the dynamics and relationships between societies and nature
and particularly the role of the forestry sector in socio-economic development.
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