Economic Assessment of the Poverty-Environmrental Quality Nexus: A Case Study of Malakand Division

Abstract

Poverty is blame to be one of the major cause and effect of environmental degradation/Deforestation. This bi-directional relationship is seems to be existing in the rural communities all over the world in a little bit stronger form. This study was conducted to find out the empirical relationship of rural poverty and Deforestation in Malakand division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The study was under taken by collecting primary data from 180 respondents randomly selected from all the seven districts of the division concerned. A well structured questionnaire was used for data collection comprising the questions regarding personal details, economic details, natural resource dependence, extent of forests degradation and poverty environment nexus etc. Non recursive two stage linear regression model was used for data analysis. The regression analysis was performed by statistical software SPSS Version 20. The result verified the existence of poverty and environmental degradation in the form of deforestation. The study indicates a key role of poverty in deforestation and vice versa. It was also concluded that rural community have low income level and depends mostly on forest resources for their basic needs and livelihood purposes. The study also indicates the severity of environmental degradation in the form of deforestation in the study area and most of the people were found unaware of the knowledge and importance of environmental conservation.