Building Socio-Ecological Coviability: An Efficient Way to Combat Poverty, Reduce Inequality and Address Insecurity Risks

Abstract

The proliferation of conflicts throughout the world, increasing poverty, rising inequality, and the necessity of a social cohesion require adherence to the concept of socio-ecological systems (SES). This nexus constrains policies to be conceptualized in order to face, jointly, social and ecological dimensions and coerce identified decisions to spur mutual progress towards interlinked goals. To address such challenges with the required level of comprehensiveness and urgency, researchers and decision makers must first acknowledge the linkages between social and ecological problems within a coviability perspective. In addition, they are required to offer both empirical and analytical insights to these linkages in order to implement efficient policies, which are able to tackle major problems such as poverty, inequality, and insecurity risks. Traditional approaches to poverty eradication, for instance, often disregard environmental degradation and biodiversity loss as externalities, whereas the proposed SES approach considers not only the social but also the environmental cause, thereby providing a new redefinition of wealth and its components. Thus, efforts should be complemented by implementing initiatives aimed at enhancing social well-being for all people, and by addressing the root causes of poverty through coherent, coordinated and coviable strategies. To address the aforementioned issues in this chapter, some tools adapted from economic analyses and development economics, in addition to some success stories and empirical cases, are presented.