Ecologically fragile zones are the most typical and serious areas of environmental degradation, and the most poverty-stricken regions. Poverty and environmental degradation are two important challenges in ecologically fragile zones. However, there are few successful attempts that aimed to escape the poverty trap in practice. Many policies dealing with the problems of poverty and environmental degradation were failed or only got limited achievements. One of the reasons is the shortage of the integrated study of poverty alleviation and environmental protection, in particular the ignorance of the intrinsic mechanism of multiple stakeholders. Taking the perspective of game theory, this paper discusses two key game processes, i.e., the game process between the government and the public, and the game process between the government and the business enterprise. It is suggested that the interaction between poverty alleviation and environmental protection is actually the game process to integrate various objectives and benefits of multiple stakeholders. According to the game theory, when there were strong dependences among different stakeholders, the consequences of the decision-making and behaviors are not only determined by the stakeholders themselves, but also the responses of other stakeholders. Therefore, the consequences of game drive and determine largely and directly the results of poverty alleviation and the effects of environmental protection.
The effective policies must aim at protecting the livelihoods and the environment at the same time, and take into account the socio-economic benefit and ecological benefit simultaneously in poverty alleviation. When dealing with the relationship between poverty and environment, two extreme conditions must be avoided, i.e., developing at the expense of the environment or harming the poor in the name of environmental protection. In particular, the poor must be regarded as the stakeholders rather than destroyers or victims during the integration of poverty alleviation and environmental protection in ecologically fragile zones. Most importantly, the livelihoods of the vulnerable groups who heavily depend on the resource and environment must be carefully protected. In addition, green vocations are significant for ecologically fragile zones to escape the poverty trap. In order to realize the objective of sustainable development, the government must promote the business enterprise to develop ecological industries by certain kinds of supervisions and punishments.
This study will provide an analytical framework to deepen the understanding of the relationship between poverty and environment, and provide valuable references to sustainable development of ecologically fragile zones in China. However, there are still some important issues needed to be explored, such as the game process between the business enterprise and the public and the game process within the stakeholders (for example, the governments at different hierarchies, and the rich and the poor). Additionally, the overall value of the payoff matrix needs more logical analysis and empirical case.