This report stresses the urgent need to look beyond aid projects, debt relief and trade reform, and focus on local natural resources to address the crisis of poverty in all parts of the globe. ‘Traditional assumptions about addressing poverty treat the environment almost as an afterthought,’ said Jonathan Lash, president of the World Resources Institute (WRI). ‘This report addresses the stark reality of the poor: three-fourths of them live in rural areas; their environment is all they can depend on.’