AgriScience Journal of Sustainable Agriculture and Agroecology
Aid to the Bottom Billion: A Cautionary Tale
Abstract
Lloyd C. Irland
The world’s tropical forests nations present severe problems to the industrial world. Despite wanting to help in any way to preserve reserves of carbon and biodiversity for the future, they have a number of governance issues that have received little attention in the academic literature. The Bottom Billion are the one billion countries whose populations earn the least in per capita income These nations are prominent in many ways, as the forest data show [1]. In this paper, I propose an exploratory use of four groups of low-income nations that allow these countries to be compared, one with another, and with industrial nations. These results may be of interest to students of forest policy and of efforts to improve conservation of biodiversity and carbon. It is important to stress that treating a region as large as Brazil or DRC as a single country is problematic. Its proportions surely vary widely in many of these indexes. As this is an exploratory study we only offer highlights. Statistical analysis is kept to a minimum. Those interested in particular countries may consult any recent issue of the International Forestry Review.
