Agriculture is one of the hardest-hit sectors when natural disasters strike. Crops are leveled by winds, drowned by floods or scorched by heat and drought. Livestock perish from thirst and starvation. Lands are stripped of fertile topsoil by floods and wind storms, and salinized by seawater incursion. Seed and food stores rot under water from floods or are consumed during droughts. Loans taken to plant crops cannot be repaid. Processing and export industries cannot meet delivery obligations and lose out to competitors. Yet again, the poor are the biggest losers since they are the most dependent on agriculture for a living and have few buffer systems to cushion against these losses.

The environment is also damaged by natural disasters. Trees killed by flooding or drought represent ecological degradation and loss of landscape protection, as well as lost income from timber and lost sources of fuel for poor households. Communities cut down even more trees to rebuild their housing, putting the land at further risk from the next storm. Biodiversity is lost as habitats are laid to waste by floods or left barren by drought. Rapid climate change may outstrip evolution's capacity to adapt to the new climate, or to migrate species to new areas. Hostile/harmful species adapted to the new climate may migrate in and displace the indigenous species.

While there may be little that humans can do to prevent natural disasters, there is much they can do to reduce their vulnerability to these forces of nature. This is one reason why the United Nations has placed development and poverty eradication at the heart of its Millennium Declaration. The Declaration further resolves to "intensify cooperation to reduce the number and effects of natural and man-made disasters" (UN 2000). The Millennium Declaration Road Map recognizes the vulnerability issue and the major conceptual shift from disaster response to disaster reduction including the increased application of science and technology to prevent, mitigate and prepare for disasters (UN 2001).

Poverty reduction would mitigate many vulnerabilities and increase resilience. But what approaches can effectively reduce poverty on a scale large enough to make a difference for hundreds of millions of poor?