Step 2. Getting the Governance Right: Empowering the Poor to Profit from Nature

As described in Chapter 3, lack of access – physical, political, and financial – is a critical roadblock to the ability of the poor to use ecosystems for poverty reduction. Bringing pro-poor governance to the management of ecosystems begins by removing this roadblock through improvements in tenure security, devolution of authority over nature to more local levels where the poor reside, and empowerment of the poor through information, participation, and the power of redress. The net effect of these actions is to secure the resource rights of the poor and give them the tools to exercise these rights responsibly and equitably.