Commission on Population and Development

Thirty-fourth Session

4^th Meeting (PM)

COMMISSION ON POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT EXAMINES LINKS

BETWEEN ENVIRONMENT, DEVELOPMENT AND POPULATION ISSUES

The links between population, environment and development were examined this afternoon during a panel discussion held by the Commission on Population and Development, as it continued its thirty-fourth session. 

Among the participants was Bertil Egero, head of the Programme on Population and Development, University of Lund, Sweden, who pointed out that people were increasingly affected by the impacts of climate change and human activities.  Also, environmental change was related to increases in per capita well-being.  One could easily get the sense that the economically advanced nations had a fair degree of control over their environmental pollution.  Their cities were clean, many of their waters could be used for swimming, and erosion problems seemed not to be that grave. 

Better technology, he added, was only one explanation for that.  Another was their ability to place the environmental effects away from their own habitats, by dumping their waste and locating their dirty industries elsewhere. 

The question then, stated Prijono Tjiptoherijanto, head of the National Agency for Civil Service of Indonesia, was how to minimize the negative impact of development on environmental conditions.  On one side of the debate, it was felt that population growth was harmful to the environment.  At the same time, poverty and ineffective policies had an equal or even more deleterious effect on the environment.  The divergence of views showed that better understanding of the relationship between population, environment and development was needed.

Elena Zuñiga, Director of Population Studies in the National Population Council of Mexico, noted that demographic tendencies in Latin America and the Caribbean posed major challenges for achieving sustainable development.  Latin America was a highly urbanized region, with three fourths of the population living in urban areas.  As a result, large cities had insufficient locations for waste disposal. Also, the supply of drinking water had become a difficult problem in cities and areas with high growth rates, and traffic congestion was contributing to environmental pollution.

Jacques van Zydam, head of the National Population Unit of South Africa, highlighted a pilot project his Government had undertaken to restore original water flows to rivers and streams, which had created many jobs, particularly for women.  Soon after the project started, some of the women had become pregnant.  Those unplanned pregnancies and the risk of HIV/AIDS had led workers and project managers to request project-based reproductive health services.

In response to that request, he continued, the Planned Parenthood Association of South Africa started rendering comprehensive, community-based health services, and appointed and trained local “agents” to provide those services.  He said that while such community-based health programmes were not unique, what made that particular project special was its overt link of population interventions to an environmental and development programme.

In the discussion that followed, questions were raised on a variety of issues, such as how to enhance the understanding of the links between population, environment and development; how important political stability was to environmental preservation; and how to link environmental policies and health-related issues. 

Also this afternoon, the Commission heard from the representatives of the following countries as it continued its general debate –- Ukraine, Spain, India, Jamaica, Guinea and Nigeria.

A subsidiary body of the Economic and Social Council, the Commission is charged with advising the Council on population changes and their effect on economic and social conditions.  Following the International Conference on Population and Development (Cairo, 1994), it was decided that the Commission would meet annually, beginning in 1996, to assess implementation of the Cairo Conference’s Programme of Action. 

The Commission will meet again at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, 4 April, to continue its general debate, after which it will begin consideration of the programme implementation and future programme of work of the Secretariat in the field of population.

Background

The Commission on Population and Development met this afternoon to continue the general debate of its thirty-fourth session.  The session’s theme is population, environment and development.  (For background, see Press Release POP/792 issued on 30 March.)

Statements

MARKIAN KULYK (Ukraine) said that 26 April would mark the fifteenth anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster.  Its long-standing negative consequences continued to influence a wide range of issues, particularly environmental trends and population dynamics.  The number of people affected by the accident in Ukraine amounted to 3.3 million.  The unprecedented ecological and health consequences from the accident were of great concern for Ukraine.

He said that Ukraine had elaborated the National Programme of Minimizing the Consequences of the Chernobyl Catastrophe for the period 2001-2005 and had enacted and actively implemented the Programme of Medical Assistance for affected people.  However, despite considerable social adjustments, their health conditions were still worsening.  Recent estimates indicated that, in 1999, the mortality rate of those people was almost 17 per cent higher than the nationwide average. 

JOSE LUIS ROSELLO (Spain)said the process of environmental and cultural globalization, as well as economic, political and social changes, had highlighted the need to adopt new strategies that addressed sustainable development at an international level.  Such broad societal changes and rapid transitions in demographic dynamics made the phenomenon of ageing a dominant characteristic of societies in the new century.  The worldwide population of persons over 60 would increase dramatically over the next 25 years; Asia would more than double its present population by 2025.  The number of persons over the age of 80 would also increase rapidly.  This “silent revolution” provided the context for the upcoming Second World Assembly on Ageing, to be held in Madrid early next year.  He hoped that the conference would establish, among other things, guidelines which addressed the links between ageing and development, and the specific needs of developing countries with swift rising populations of older persons.

He said he was convinced that the Commission’s work represented the ideal framework to ensure that the Second World Assembly took advantage of numerous global, national and local efforts already under way concerning ageing and its implications on population and development.  He highlighted some of the initiatives undertaken by his Government to support preparatory activities for the Second World Assembly.  Those efforts included, among others, contributions to the United Nations Trust Fund on Ageing as well as financing a meeting of Latin countries in preparation for the conference.  As a representative of the host country for the conference, he said there were plans to organize a programme of special events parallel to the conference.  Span was also preparing a web page, “Madrid 2002” as a tool to keep the international community abreast of the preparatory process.

A.R. NANDA, Secretary, Department of Family Welfare of India, said his country’s population crossed the 1 billion mark on 11 May 2000 and was projected to increase to 1.26 billion by the year 2016.  The National Population Policy 2000 had three objectives.  The immediate objective was to address the unmet needs of contraception, health infrastructure and trained health care personnel and to provide integrated service delivery for basic reproductive and child health.  The medium-term objective was to bring the total fertility rate to replacement levels by 2010.  The long-term objective was to achieve population stabilization by 2045, at a level consistent with the requirements of sustainable economic growth, social development and environmental protection. 

The Policy, he continued, was gender sensitive and incorporated a comprehensive and holistic approach to the health and education needs of women, female adolescents and the girl child.  It also specifically sought to address the constraints to accessibility to services, which arose due to a heavily populated geographical area and diverse socio-cultural patterns in the population.  Its population stabilization efforts were a matter of priority for the Government, reflected in the fact that the Prime Minister headed the National Population Commission.  Most of the States had also set up high powered commissions to address State specific issues in a more focused manner and with intensive monitoring mechanisms. 

CRAIG LAWRENCE (Jamaica) said the ICPD process had been a milestone in global population and development initiatives, particularly as it set a global framework for cooperation in that area.  Such cooperation had proved particularly relevant to small island developing States like Jamaica.  In that context, mutually reinforcing links between population growth, economic growth, environmental conditions, poverty and sustainable consumption patterns also became more crystallized.  Decisive action at national and international levels would clearly be the difference between the downward spiral of increased poverty and environmental degradation and the achievement of sustainable development and improved quality of life for all people. 

He said that perhaps Jamaica’s most important achievement since Cairo had been in the area of capacity building.  The country had revised its national policies on population and development consistent with the Cairo Plan of Action. That change had subsequently influenced the development of national policies and programmes in the areas of family life, education, senior citizens and poverty eradication.  Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) had been actively involved in the development of all policies and had been invaluable in monitoring their implementation.

He went on to say that his Government recognized that sexual and reproductive health policies should derive from basic rights of all couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the timing, number and spacing of their children.  However, adolescent fertility remained a serious problem in Jamaica.  Contraceptive use in that group was low, thus putting adolescents at a high risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS. 

Poverty was also a youth issue, mostly due to early childbearing.  He said that susceptibility to the effects of natural disasters as well as outside macroeconomic factors had continued to severely affect national policy programmes and development initiatives.  National budgets had been severely limited.  He urged the international community to fulfil its financial and resource obligations under ICPD agreements.

ELHADJ OUMAR KOUYATE (Guinea) said that his country’s population was characterized by strong growth.  The presence of refugees had aggravated that situation.  The extreme youth of the population and the needs raised by the population increase called for substantial investments in education, health and the environment.  The population in 2008 was estimated to be between 9 and

11 million.  The rapid population growth and the influx of refugees from Liberia and Sierra Leone had also contributed to environmental degradation.  In the recent past, Guinea had enjoyed an abundant forest ecosystem.  Unfortunately, that had suffered as a result of crop cultivation, industrial pollution and mining activity, among other things.

In implementing the goals of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and the Cairo+5 review, Guinea had conducted several activities, he said.  Among them were a general population and housing census in 1996 and the creation of a national structure responsible for follow-up to the implementation of population policies, as well as a national AIDS prevention programme.  In addition, the Government had activities related to female genital mutilation, which was on the decline in some parts of the country.  The rational utilization of national resources and their preservation constituted an integral part of sustainable development.  Recent evaluations by the Government and international agencies showed the persistence of poverty, aggravated by

subregional instability, and the lack of financial resources necessary to implement population and development programmes.

AKINTOBI A. KADEJO, Director-General, National Population Commission of  Nigeria, said urbanization and urban living had proved to be the cornerstone of the modern human ecology.  As cities had grown, becoming centres of major technological advancements, they had also become sources of inequality, poverty and environmental hazards such as air pollution and traffic congestion.  Indeed, environmental degradation had also exacerbated contemporary health problems such as infant mortality. 

The Nigerian Government had attempted to put into place policies that would mitigate the impact of population growth on the environment, he said.  Those policies included a national policy on Population for Development Unity, Progress and Self-Reliance.  The goals of the country’s national policy on the environment included efforts to conserve and use natural resources for the benefit of present and future generations, and to cooperate in good faith with other countries to achieve optimal use of transboundary natural resources.

He said the Nigerian Government had established a special ecological fund for managing ecological problems such as desertification, soil erosion and industrial waste.  The execution of environmental policies was expected to provide a strong platform for the sustainable management of environmental resources. However, due to constraints such as unsustainable external debt and inadequate manpower, the Government had been forced to monitor the initiatives closely to ensure they were adopted and properly implemented.

He said that Nigeria’s population policies included efforts to improve the quality and standard of living for all people as well as achieve balance between population growth, available resources and economic development.  To achieve sustainable development in Nigeria, there was a need to fully integrate population and environmental concerns, including cultural dimensions into socio-economic development.

Panel Discussion

BERTIL EGERÖ, Associate Professor of Sociology and head of the Programme on Population and Development, University of Lund, Sweden, said that last week,

The New York Times had carried an article on the slow death of Lake Chad in central Africa.  In ways very similar to those of the Aral Sea in Russia, Lake Chad was being deprived of its sources of water through large-scale irrigation projects.  The case served as a useful illustration of the following points.  First, that people increasingly were affected by the impacts of climate change and of human activities, an issue that should be more firmly addressed by both science and policy.  Secondly, that environmental change was related to increases in per capita well-being. 

One could easily believe that the economically advanced nations had fair control over their environmental pollution, he said.  Their cities were clean, many of their waters could be used for swimming, and erosion problems seemed not to be that grave.  There were different explanations for that; better technology was only one of them.  Another was their ability to place the environmental effects away from their own habitats, by dumping their waste and locating their dirty industries elsewhere. 

He said the “populations at risk” issue represented a very concrete challenge for both planners and scientists -– how to handle the sudden or gradual needs of such populations while striving to achieve a more sustainable balance between people and spatial resources.  Populations at risk were people or communities running the risk of exposure to natural hazards and environmental changes which could require them to leave their homes, perhaps forever.  “This is not a challenge for tomorrow -- it is with us here and now.”

For humankind today and tomorrow, the all-important issue was how to use the space the Earth offered, he said.  Increasing global population inevitably led to increasing competition between stakeholders in the use of that space.  The challenge today was to add economic development to the population/environment equation.  One potentially promising way to do that would be to relate those links to space, which would make their interfaces with concrete development efforts easier to see and analyse, an important condition for drawing new and relevant conclusions for policy.

PRIJONO TJIPTOHERIJANTO, current head of the National Agency for Civil Service of Indonesia, as well as a Professor in economics at the University of Indonesia, addressed the Commission on population, environment and development issues in his country.  Development was often associated with growth and the possibility of change for the better.  It followed then that economic development meant an increase in welfare as measured by per capita income and other socio-economic changes which promised better or higher value.  From an environmental standpoint, development was seen as a change to the environment or ecosystem.  The question then was how to minimize the negative impact of development on environmental conditions.

He said the relationship between population, environment and development was an emerging issue in Indonesia.  Public debate on the matter had continued to intensify, and in some aspects, views on that issue had become polarized.  On one side of the debate was the idea that a population increase would reduce environmental integrity.  On the other side, scholars believed that poverty, inappropriate technologies and ineffective policies had a much more deleterious effect on the environment.  This divergence of views showed that new paradigms of understanding on this issue were needed.  Also critical to reconciling views on the relationship between population, environment and development was a global approach, focusing on regional inputs which highlighted worldwide implications of environmental change.

He said that Indonesia had been fully involved in every international conference on sustainable development and had been committed to implementing each declaration and resolution in its national development programmes and policies. Development planners in Indonesia were well aware that the pursuit of sustainable development required that the environment and natural resources be safeguarded for future generations.  The environment was indeed a most significant factor in sustaining life.  Measures should be taken to protect and rehabilitate the environment and preserve the ecological balance.  Natural resources should be managed and utilized for the greatest possible benefit while preserving their natural functions.  Environmental development should be pursued in coordination and harmony with population development.  That would be the best way to sustain national development.

In 1997, Indonesia had passed an Environmental Law concerning spatial planning and other factors such as bio-diversity, he continued.  The Government had also passed the Population Law, which addressed concerns about population development and the family.  The main aim of that law was to influence population dynamics, characteristics and conditions to ensure their correlation and compatibility with the state of natural resources and the environment.  He added that Indonesia’s population could be characterized by an increasing level of urbanization.  The industrial sector would increase dramatically in the near future.  The resultant environmental degradation that was sure to occur made it crucial that Indonesia’s Government manage natural resources more appropriately.  International collaboration, innovative initiatives in industrial management and “clean” government initiatives were needed to preserve environmental conditions and ensure sustainable development.

ELENA ZUÑIGA, Director of Population Studies in the National Population Council of Mexico, said the implementation of population policies was instrumental in reducing regional imbalances in Latin America and the Caribbean.  It was necessary for those policies to be based on social and economic development.  With a population of almost 520 million in 2000, Latin America was developing in the context of full demographic transition.  The decline in fertility had begun in most countries in the past four decades.  Only two countries were in full demographic transition –- Bolivia and Haiti. 

Within countries, she continued, economic development was characterized by extreme inequalities in income distribution.  About 200 million people were living in poverty in the region.  The combination of poverty and demographic delay had grave consequences for the environment.  Apart from tending to gaps in education and other basic social services, as a result of high population growth, governments also had to concentrate on addressing environmental degradation.  The population in the region was expected to reach 816 million in 50 years, with almost half of that number concentrated in Brazil and Mexico. 

Urban development in the region, she said, had started early and continued to be intense.  Latin America was the most urbanized region with three fourths of the population living in urban areas.  Inter-urban migration was now the predominant form, as opposed to the traditional trend of rural to urban migration.  A consequence of that was that large cities had insufficient locations for waste disposal.  As they continued to grow, cities had spread over land in surrounding areas, contributing to environmental degradation.  Also, the supply of drinking water had become a difficult problem in cities and areas with high growth rates.  Traffic congestion was another problem, which contributed to environmental pollution.

She said that demographic tendencies in the region posed major challenges to the achievement of sustainable development.  Cities had absorbed most of the population growth in recent years.  It was estimated that the urban population would increase to 490 million by 2015.  For the future, it would be necessary to strengthen the sources of financing for local governments.  In most countries, environment had not yet been included in a coherent manner in social and economic development policies and programmes. 

JACQUES VAN ZUYDAM, head of the national Population Unit of the Republic of South Africa, said the purpose of his presentation today was to highlight experiences and lessons learned in putting population, environment and development policies into practice.  In his opening remarks, he noted that population policies and environmental policies “spoke the same language” and indeed echoed the ICDP process and Rio.  Though his country had no specific population legislation, its environmental management act provided a way to assess the social impact on the environment.  While it had been recognized that the links between population, environment and development needed clear delineation in sustainable development policy frameworks, he thought that few could claim to have successfully operationalized those links in a significant way at a local level.

He went on to highlight practical issues related to operationalizing population, development and environment policies in South Africa.  Some of those considerations included the fact that population and development was a shared competency of South Africa’s national and provincial governments, and that traditional population functions were mostly the responsibility of health ministries.  So, in order for the national government to implement local projects on population, environment and development, national, provincial and local actors had to be mobilized.  Unfortunately, in literal terms, such mobilization translated into 11 government stakeholders, nine provinces and some 300 local governments.

He next highlighted a pilot project that South Africa’s Department of Water Affairs and Forestry had undertaken to eradicate alien plants from river catchment areas to restore original water flows to rivers and streams.  This project was part of a national programme which had created many jobs, particularly for women, from secondary activities, utilizing the cleared trees and shrubs and water

run-off.  Soon after the project started, some of the women had become pregnant.  Those unplanned pregnancies and the ever-present spectre of the HIV/AIDS virus had led workers and project managers alike to express the need for project-based reproductive health services.

He said that in response to that request, the national population unit of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) suggested consulting the Planned Parenthood Association of South Africa.  That non-governmental organization started rendering comprehensive, community-based health services and appointed and trained local “agents” to provide those services.  He said that while such community-based health programmes were not unique, what made that particular project special was its overt linkage of population interventions to an environmental and development programme.  The lesson there was that often practical small initiatives could make a huge difference.  Most of the time there might not be a need to overcomplicate methods to put population, environment and development into practice.  The challenge was to duplicate this type of initiative one hundred fold, in order to create a measurable demographic impact.

Discussion

In response to questions posed, Mr. ZUYDAM said that South Africa had adopted a constitution which made implementation of development policies largely the responsibility of local government.  The country had come from a very centralized government and had to turn around the culture of bureaucracy.  The party which assumed leadership following apartheid, the African National Congress, also had a very centralist tradition.  It was, therefore, difficult to then place confidence in local government.  The country was still struggling to get the mix right between mobilizing resources from the central level and implementing policies at the local level. 

In reference to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), he said that the Agency had been involved in initiatives such as the one he mentioned in South Africa.  With the change in the United States Administration, organizations subscribing to abortions had been denied funding.  While organizations in South Africa might officially subscribe to the termination of pregnancies, the bulk of resources went to good reproductive health services at  the local level. 

Ms. ZUÑIGA stated that there was a tendency for population policies to be centred on decreasing population growth.  She did not believe that that applied to population policies in general.  There was a need to include demography in broader development policies as well as in public planning.

She added that Mexico had been making efforts to plan for those areas that were at risk for natural disasters to avoid their becoming total catastrophes. 

In response to questions, Mr. PRIJONO said that recent studies had shown that expanding slums in urban areas were having a definite effect on the quality of life in his country.  As those slums grew, environmental degradation was also certain to increase.

Responding to questions about how Indonesia was handling population and development issues, he noted that until 1993 there had been one national ministry which dealt with those concerns.  But, due to Government pressure, the ministry was split after that time.  There was, however, a coordinating minister who monitored the work of both bodies.  So while there was no lack of awareness or recognition of environmental and population issues, the challenge was coordinating and implementing the initiatives of each agency.  

Also responding to questions, Mr. EGERÖ said it was a sad fact that populations tended to move towards unsustainability, and only when they reached it did they try to find a way out.  In light of this, it was important for the Commission to consider whether the state of the world today, as it related to populations, environment and development, had become too complex for international actors to find a solution to the problems.  Indeed, serious discussion of ways to correct unsustainable environmental practices was needed.  There must also be broad interaction between stakeholders to determine how natural resources would be used.  It was now time to move away from the simple notion that reducing population growth would solve the world’s problems. 

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