We know that disasters intensify poverty, while poverty intensifies the vulnerability to disasters. Rural areas concentrate 75% of the population living in poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean. Most people in rural areas depend on agriculture, which is a livelihood extremely sensitive to climate change impacts; agriculture absorbs 23% of the total losses caused by disasters at the global level and 83% when it’s a drought. So, it is clear that more disasters imply more rural poverty and therefore more vulnerability to disasters.
Marion Khamis, FAO Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean
16:31
09.12.2020