Poverty abounds in Biodiversity - rich areas

Abstract

PEOPLE who live in areas prone to droughts, floods and cyclones or amidst hills and forests have developed lifestyles best suited to their natural resources, thereby enriching the biodiversity of their areas. Diversity emerges only through the human ability to combine varied and often opposing patterns of life - to seek adventure and pleasure and to search for a means of survival. It is impossible in high-risk environments to survive merely by relying on crops, livestock, trees and labour power. Ecological circumstances have generated a survival ethic based on collective rather than individual solutions. This is why various social groups have shared information about, among other things, edible and non-edible plant species, migratory patterns of wildlife and antidotes for snake and insect bites.