The Role of Culture in Addressing Social Issues of Poverty and Environmental Degradation

Environmental degradation is the decline in environmental quality due to development activities characterized by the malfunctioning of environmental components, or it can also be said that environmental degradation is a natural environmental condition that leads to damage to biodiversity and threatens environmental health. Environmental degradation is caused by two main factors, namely nature and humans. Land degradation can manifest as damage to marine ecosystems, critical land, and forest destruction. Land degradation is closely related to land, population density, and poverty. Poverty is a condition of life lacking in meeting basic human needs. Community poverty is considered one of the factors causing environmental damage. This paper aims to see if there is a relationship between environmental degradation and poverty. The method used in preparing this paper is a literature study by reviewing several articles published by previous researchers and extracting the essence of the research. From the literature study, it is concluded that there is a relationship between environmental degradation and poverty, but the cause of environmental degradation is not solely due to poverty, but is mostly caused by human activities in exploiting the environment.