Introduction

The poor have always been the scapegoat of the society for the environmental degradation. In fact, most of the people state that poverty is a major cause of environmental degradation.
Anyway, in literature, we can find a complex set of variables that comes into play when we face this subject.

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Normally, the generalisation of a complex and multidimensional problem isn't faithful picture of the situation: this is one of those cases.

The problem

The analysis of the literature can disprove that poverty is the major cause of the environment degradation: the poverty doesn't cause directly or indirectly the degradation.
In fact, as Anantha Duraiappah said:

Ninety percent of the studies show marginal groups adopting environmental-degrading activities. Of this 90%, 10% freely chose these activities. The remaining 90% had no choice but to adopt unsustainable activities. The collapse or increased vulnerability of the income stream, caused in the first instance by the activities of the powerful and wealthy, left the marginal group with few options other than to adopt resource mining activities.

The main cause are the absence of the market and the institutional failures.
Paradoxically, the wealthy degrades the environment if and only if there's market and institutional failures.

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The solutions

There're 2 possibilities that can be taken by the policy:

1. It should correct market and institutional failures. If this is not possible, these imperfections should be taken into account.
2. People who live doing illegal activities should be discouraged to continue.

Conclusion

When you cross a bad neighborhood, please, don't generalize: the world is complex and it deserves more than a simplistic explanation.

Bibliography

DURAIAPPAH, ANANTHA K. “Poverty and Environmental Degradation: A Review and Analysis of the Nexus.” World Development, Pergamon, 3 Mar. 1999, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0305750X98001004

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