Pursuing the compatibility of poverty reduction with environmental conservation in the context of medicinal plants

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K07636
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Agricultural science in rural society and development
• Research Institution: Gakushuin University (2016-2018); Rikkyo University (2015)
• Principal Investigator: MAKITA RIE 学習院大学, 国際社会科学部, 教授 (20585450)
• Research Collaborator: Sarnaik Jayant Applied Environmental Research Foundation ; Godbole Archana Applied Environmental Research Foundation, Dr. ; Asenov Asen Sofia University, Associate Prof.
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 自然資源管理 / 持続可能な生計 / 野生植物 / フェアトレード / フェアワイルド認証 / 西ガーツ山脈 / 持続可能な採集

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In the global South, how to achieve both the improvement of poor people’s livelihoods depending on natural resources and the conservation of the natural resources remains a crucial issue of rural development. On the basis of a working hypothesis that natural resource management can work as the "means" for poverty reduction as the "end" through an intermediary, this research explored the role of trade certification as an intermediary, focusing on commercialized wild plants typically collected by the rural poor. Case studies in Bulgaria and India revealed that the means-end relationship observed in crop cultivation did not explain wild plant collectors’ perceptions of trade certification. Collectors had developed their own concepts of ecological and economic sustainability derived from the unique income source, uncertain but requiring no investment, endowed by nature and had incorporated the new trade opportunity into their own livelihood and natural resource management strategies.

Free Research Field

人文地理学（開発研究）

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

国連主導の下に掲げられた国際社会が取り組むべき「持続可能な開発目標（Sustainable Development Goals: SDGs）」の第１が貧困削減であり、第７、１３、１４、１５の目標が環境保全に関係している。これらの目標を実行に移す段階になると、とりわけ発展途上国において貧困削減（貧困層の生計向上）と環境保全（自然資源管理）の「両立」という困難な課題に直面する。本研究は、SDGsの実現に向けて必要となる具体的な教訓を新たに引き出し、英文学術誌等を通じて国際社会へ議論の契機を提供した。