About

Of the world's 1.2 billion extreme poor who live on less than US$1 a day, the majority inhabit fragile lands: desertified grasslands, degraded forests and/or grasslands, and mountainous slopes. High rates of deforestation continue in many developing countries (1 percent per decade). In congested urban areas, every year an estimated 0.5 to 1.0 million people die prematurely from respiratory and other illnesses associated with air pollution and millions more suffer from these illnesses. These and numerous other examples of natural resource depletion and worsening environmental quality disproportionally affect the poor, harm human and ecosystem health, and compromise sustained gains in well being for this and future generations. The complexity of these problems requires managing the broad range of assets - human, social, physical, financial, and natural capital - that underpin development.

WBI's Environment and Natural Resources Management (ENRM) program is guided by Millennium Goal 7 to "ensure environmental sustainability" and it's first target, which is to integrate sustainable development into country policies and to reverse the loss of environmental resources. The ENRM program supports the Bank's Environment Strategy and operations through its capacity development work and improving skills to address issues of environmental public goods, sustainability, vulnerability, and equity.