PRO-POOR ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION AS A TOOL FOR INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT Case Study of Lake Qaroun, Fayoum, Egypt

Abstract

Rural Communities living within Protected Areas (PAs) depend mainly on the natural environment for their livelihoods and tend to be among the poorest in the country; since the degradation of the environment jeopardizes their economic-resource base. Moreover, economic development pressures cause changes in PAs’ contexts leading to negative and positive impacts on the environment and people, which then affect the long-term benefits of development. In this regard, an integration between the different themes of community poverty, natural environment and economic development is crucial – especially when challenges and practices intertwine on ground. With notions of integration starting in the Egyptian context; the case study of lake Qaroun –and specifically Shakshouk village- within Qaroun Protected Area in Fayoum is investigated- where the majority of the community is rural poor who live in degraded environments and face continuous development pressures. This research explores the relationship between community poverty, natural environment, and economic development co-existing in Shakshouk; and describes it as a circular relationship, where an action in one theme leads to impacts on others. This is deduced during on-site semi structured interviews, focus groups, observation and building on previous secondary data. With a continuous chain of negative mutual influences, the pro-poor environmental conservation concept is introduced seeking a synergy between the three themes (community poverty -natural environment -economic development). This is discussed in the light of (what if) scenarios building on previous best practices and lessons learned. This research ends by highlighting how pro-poor environmental conservation could be used as tool in the integrated development of Shakshouk village following two tracks. These tracks should be considered by decision makers in future interventions.