People throughout the world benefit from the use of (renewable) natural resources in almost every area of human endeavour. But nowhere do people depend more immediately and more visibly on the exploitation of natural resources for subsistence and income than in developing countries. The reason is poverty, in all its facets.

Since 1992, the ECO Consulting Group has explored and brought about synergies between ecological conservation and (socio-)economic development. Forests are our main concern –for the multiple benefits they provide simultaneously in one place, and because they are “key-resources” for rural development in many respects. Unlike mineral deposits such as oil, gas, precious metals etc., renewable natural resources of some kind or other – such as trees, medicinal herbs, wildlife and fish, and fertile soils – are available across the rural hinterland of most countries. Since time immemorial, their accessibility and abundance provided the basis for the socio-economic as well as socio-cultural well-being of a vast number of human beings. Increased levels of poverty, vulnerability, social decay and political strife invariably mark their decline.

While reasons may vary with the context, the underlying mechanism is fairly simple: Wherever human demand outpaces the natural resources’ rate of reproduction, supplies dwindle and poverty worsens. The poorer people get, and the less options remain before them, the faster does the downward spiral of over-exploitation turn, leading to the eventual collapse of entire systems: eco-systems, traditional livelihoods, rural production and commerce.

The answers readily suggest themselves – in fact, they have been around for several centuries. Renewable natural resources need to be managed in such a way, that human demand and use-levels are permanently kept within the bounds of the resources’ natural reproduction rate.

In 1992, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development for the first time ever canonized sustainable development as the single most important cross-cutting development paradigm of the 21st century. The Rio-Process underlined the inseparable correlation of sustainability and poverty alleviation, and systematically introduced ecology, economics, and social aspects as the three dimensions of sustainability.

Since 1992, sustainability has in fact become a household word. However, nowhere is the concept more obviously perceivable, and nowhere is it more directly relevant to (rural) poverty alleviation, than when it comes to the management of renewable natural resources in developing countries. ECO Consulting Group was actually founded upon this basic proposition.

As one of Germany’s leading consulting companies in development cooperation, we provide highly specialised expertise and a broad variety of services related to the preservation, maintenance, sustainable management, and utilization of renewable natural resources – forests, water, soils, (agro-)biodiversity, wildlife, to name but a few. As shown already by the composition of our team, forests are our main concern – for the multiple benefits they provide simultaneously in one place, and because they are “key-resources” for rural development in many respects.

In many countries, forest sector development actually assumes a pacemaker role for cross-cutting change and structural adaptation: decentralisation, devolution of executive powers, civil society participation and private sector initiative, as well as socio-political, legal and regulatory reforms in favour of sustainable development.

As our name suggests, our guiding philosophy is to reconcile (actually, to bring about synergies between) ecological conservation and (socio-)economic development. ECO Consulting Group seeks maximum vertical (international/multilateral, national, decentralized/local) as well as horizontal (cross-sectoral – e.g. biodiversity conservation, combating desertification, carbon sequestration, watershed management, household energy supplies etc.) integration of forest sector development.