Abstract:

In order to clarify the disaster risk-poverty nexus and evaluate the two-way correlation effects related to poverty caused by disasters and risk caused by poverty, this paper takes the “fetter” of disaster risk and poverty as the study object. This work aims to integrate disaster risk reduction (DRR) and poverty alleviation. Using the econometrics hypothesis test, this work uses regression analyses on the data from 31 provinces in China from 2010 to 2019 to identify the positive effects of investment in poverty alleviation on DRR. The research shows that: (1) High disaster risk produces huge casualties and asset destruction, resulting in economic poverty. High disaster risk leads to long term poverty and relative poverty by eroding agricultural livelihoods and destroying development capacity. The high exposure to disaster risk, vulnerability, low resilience, and low adaptive capacity of the poor lead to the continuous amplification and accumulation of disaster risks. (2) The disaster risk-poverty nexus exists on many scales, including the scale of province, city, and family. Such an effect on the scale of the country and continent is not clear. In the process of building a economically well-off society and eradicating poverty, China has undertaken considerable risk control and mitigation. (3) The causal relationship between disaster risk and poverty (closed loop or cyclic relationship between disaster and poverty) is not a “natural phenomenon” but a historical function of the mainstream economic social paradigm. It is a result of the capital economic cycle. If the economic and social operation mode does not change, the connection between disaster risk and poverty will not disappear. At the same time, economic globalization, inequality, disordered urbanization, poor governance, damage to the ecological environment, and climate change have exacerbated the effect of disaster risk-poverty fetters. Faced with this dilemma, a multidisciplinary approach and bold creative thinking are necessary. Ignoring or not sufficiently addressing this topic will weaken the global DRR effort and impose a paradigm trap to disaster risk science. This study intends to provide a theoretical basis and evidence for the coordinated development of DRR and poverty alleviation in China. This work also provides intellectual support for the implementation of the “five in one” strategy for the construction of economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological civilization and the realization of the “double carbon” goal and the response to global climate change.

Key words: disaster risk, poverty, fetters, resilience, extensive disaster risk