The Poverty - Environment Nexus in Developing Countries: Evidence from Ethiopia: A Systematic Review

The relationships between poverty and the environment are highly contested, debated and researched. Environmental degradation and poverty, however, may have mutual causality. This paper, therefore, tried to examine whether there is an association between poverty and environmental degradation in developing countries. An extensive literature review was made to evaluate the effect of environmental degradation on the poor. The paper posited that poverty worsens environmental degradation by leaving poor with no alternatives rather than degrading their environment to meet their present needs at the expense of future benefits. Conversely, environmental degradation exacerbated poverty through deteriorating poor’s livelihood, income and health. Therefore, an effort has to be made to curb the effect of poverty on the environment.