Escobal, J. y Aladana, U. (2003). Vinculaciones entre pobreza y deterioro ambiental: el caso de los extractores de castaña en Madre de Dios, Perú. En G. Escobar (Ed.), Pobreza y deterioro ambiental en América Latina (pp. 153-173). Santiago: RIMISP y Fondo Regional de Tecnología Agropecuaria.

The paper explores the links between poverty and management of Amazonian forest resources by chestnut extractors in the Peruvian rainforest. Although there is evidence that the poor are more dependent on natural resources than the rich, demands on the natural resource base continue to grow with income so that richer households use forest resources, especially timber and soil, more intensively than poorer ones. According to many authors, the eventuality of overcoming poverty for such individuals is related to the possibility of developing other relatively profitable sustainable activities, chestnut harvesting being one of them. However, the study shows that the chestnut activity is complemented over time by other unsustainable activities, so that those who engage in this activity exert a negative indirect pressure on the Amazon forest. In this sense, the document shows that only those who manage to access jobs in activities not linked to the forest manage to break the link between poverty and environmental deterioration.