Poverty and sustainable livelihoods in Yemen

Abstract

About two thirds of the population, including 80 percent of the country's poor people, lives in rural areas and most of them depend on natural resources for their livelihoods. High population growth rate (about 3.2 percent annually) remains an underlying cause for many of the problems Yemen faces. The rapid growth of population in Yemen has placed further demands on the already limited natural resource base, and eventually jeopardizes the livelihoods sustainability of the rural poor. The overall goal of this paper is to contribute towards sustainable livelihood understanding and critically examines the underlying socio- economic implications for sustainable use of natural resources from the perspective of the Yemeni rural society. This paper also is specifically structured to figure out the economic implications of the Natural Resources Management Programme (SNRMP) project on poverty, and livelihoods sustainability that might further ascertain understanding the potentially of the sustainable livelihoods in reducing poverty and improving livelihoods sustainability. This originality of this paper is based on exploring facts from the related literature, in addition to the analysis of two case studies; Al-hiswa and Jabal Bura'a protected areas which have been established under the SNRMP project in Yemen.