[UK] Poverty linked to sustainability - Knight

From Green Consumer Guide

Reducing poverty and starvation in the developing world could have a direct effect on improving sustainability and saving rare species, Biodiversity Minister Jim Knight has claimed.

In his keynote speech at the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit in Delhi, Knight described the global resource usage of the last fifty years as having a ‘significant and largely irreversible’ impact on biodiversity, and linked the success of the Millennium Development Goals to a widespread change in human activity.

"Some of the world's poorest regions, with the least financial resources to put towards conserving their natural environments, are also home to some of the world's richest natural habitats,” said Mr. Knight, to the audience of international politicians, NGOs and businesses.

"You cannot blame people who are struggling to survive for trying to make a day-to-day living from whatever comes to hand. Local people need to see - and actually benefit from - the long-term economic value of their natural resources. Conservation strategies need to support the lives of local people as well as landscapes, animals and their habitats," he added.