Study title

A series of project fieldwork reports on research carried out between September 2014 and April 2015 in the village of Karhera in Ghaziabad, India. Fieldwork included a household survey of 2,000 households, in-depth interviews, participatory mapping, photo-mapping and livelihood costing exercises. The focus of these activities was on people's interaction with local ecosystem services, particularly through involvement in peri-urban agriculture, and on the impacts of environmental, socio-economic, institutional and policy changes.Urbanisation brings the creation of new opportunities for many, while also resulting in a dramatic increase in the concentration of poverty and environmental degradation in peri-urban zones. Peri-urban areas, at the interface between urban and rural, link rural livelihoods with the urban lifestyles that put multiple pressures on peri-urban ecosystems. This poses huge challenges for the health and livelihoods of an increasing number of disenfranchised, poor and marginalised citizens, and for the sustainable urban development. Urban policies for provision of essential services such as food and water, draw upon ecosystem services (ES) from the peri-urban zone and from further and further afield. At the same time the export of polluting activities and domestic waste to peri-urban localities degrades ES, with adverse implications for urban and peri-urban communities. This research project aims to explore the intersections between ES and poverty in peri-urban areas of India, and implications for urban development. Our overarching research hypothesis is that a better understanding of peri-urban ES and relationships with poverty alleviation will generate knowledge and mobilize people, and in turn generate more effective urban development initiatives. These will build much needed synergies between urban and peri-urban communities to support poverty alleviation goals. To better understand the complex interactions of ES and human well-being in highly...