The dynamics of povertyeenvironment linkages in the coastal zone of Ghana Elaine T. Lawson a, * , Christopher Gordon a , Wolfgang Schluchter b a Institute of Environmental and Sanitation Studies, University of Ghana, P.O. Box LG 209, Legon, Accra, Ghana b Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus, Erich Weinert Str.1, Postfach 10 13 44, 03046 Cottbus, Germany article info Article history: Available online 7 June 2012 abstract With a high dependence on natural resources and increasing environmental degradation as a result of climatic and non-climatic factors, poverty remains a critical socioeconomic issue in the coastal zone of Ghana. Coastal poverty is closely related to the nature and complexity of coastal ecosystems and often varies from poverty in other areas. This paper contends that adequately responding to the environmental and socioeconomic issues in the coastal zone requires assisting the poor cope with changes on the coast. In doing this it is important to appreciate how poverty is defined especially by the resource users themselves as well as the nature of the povertyeenvironment interactions. With women being highly dependent on coastal natural resources this paper draws on the experiences of 304 women from two communities to investigate coastal people’s perception of poverty. It presents empirical evidence of povertyeenvironment linkages and examines implications of these linkages for the effective manage- ment of Ghana’s coastal natural resources. The results show that respondents describe poverty through diversity of measures rather than solely as an absence of money. In addition their livelihood patterns revolve around the availability of some coastal natural resources. Since there is no national policy for the management of the coastal natural resources the paper concludes by recommending the development of a comprehensive Integrated Coastal Zone Management plan that incorporates the priorities and needs of local resource users, alleviates poverty whilst increasing awareness of resource users of more appropriate mechanisms for managing coastal resources. Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The term poverty has been defined in several ways depending on the intended emphasis. It can be understood in absolute or relative terms, with level of income or wealth being the common mode of assessment. Although this paper does not intend to argue extensively regarding the definition of poverty, it is important to understand the various dimensions of this concept. From an income point of view, people are poor when they are in a state where their income (or consumption) is less than that required to meet certain defined needs (Sola, 2001). A common measure of poverty is the number of people living on less than US$2 per day. With this definition about 46% of the population of Sub- Saharan Africa and 31% of South Asians were estimated to live on less than a dollar a day (Chen and Rvallion, 2004). Defined as average daily consumption of $1.25 or less, extreme poverty means living on the edge of subsistence. The number of people living in extreme poverty has been falling since 1990, slowly at first and more rapidly since the turn of the century. Sub-Saharan Africa, which stagnated through most of the 1990s, has begun to reduce the number of people in extreme poverty. Still, an additional 1.1 billion people will live on less than $2 a day (World Bank, 2010). However much debate has gone on about the sustainability of using such measures of poverty. This is because these metrics do not take into consideration what that income can buy. Also there are the ruraleurban divisions of poverty (Cavendish, 2000). UNEP/ IISD (2004) link poverty and well-being to the presence or absence of a range of key determinants: 1. Adequate nourishment; 2. Freedom from avoidable disease; 3. An environmentally clean and safe shelter; 4. Adequate and clean drinking water; 5. Clean air; 6. Energy for cooking and warmth; * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: elaine_t@ug.edu.gh (E.T. Lawson), cgordon@ug.edu.gh (C. Gordon), wolf.schluchter@tu-cottbus.de (W. Schluchter). Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Ocean & Coastal Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ocecoaman 0964-5691/$ e see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2012.05.023 Ocean & Coastal Management 67 (2012) 30e38