(c) "Identifying priority areas for action and developing
strategies and programmes to
mitigate the adverse impact of environmental change on human
populations, and vice versa".
As we have seen, the countries of central and south Asia are
widely affected by environmental problems, many of which are
ascribable at least in part to population factors. There
is, therefore, ample scope for activities along these lines, for
which UNFPA support could be considered.
A first type of activities, aiming at improving the
understanding of processes at work, consists in retrospective
studies, such as:
1 - Assessing the role of population dynamics and other
factors with respect
to prevailing
trends in water supply issues, land degradation, deforestation.
2 - Assessing the impact of urban expansion on the
state of natural resources
(cropland,
forests, water).
3 - Assessing changes in the quality of urban
environment (access to water
and sanitation,
infrastructure, equipment) and assess their reciprocal
relationships with the dynamics of human
settlements.
Next come policy-relevant studies. In this connection an
important prerequisite is worth mentioning, namely:
4 - Advocacy, i.e. the use of information
techniques to raise the
awareness of government
and relevant public agencies staff regarding concrete, priority
reciprocal linkages of population dynamics and environmental change
at the national and sub-national levels (in light of the knowledge
gained through the above activities), and achieve a clear
recognition of the need to develop policies that take those
linkages into account.
As for activities more practically oriented towards policy
formulation, some are geared to
establish necessary information bases and current diagnoses, such
as:
5 - Based on country characteristics, identify specific
environmental indicators integrating
population dimensions. Look specifically into the feasibility
of spatially disaggregated indicators.
Set up data collection and processing systems. Where
feasible, build retrospective time series for
these indicators as a starting point for analysis.
6 - Assess current dimensions of population pressure on
water resources: count population
by watershed area, assess broad patterns of use by
sector.
7 - Identify the vulnerable populations with
regard to specific
environmental issues, e.g.
pollution, water supply problems, deforestation. (Even in the case
of a localized problem, those populations may be quite different
from those living in the area where the problem arises.)
Other studies are more of the "policy study" type in the
strict sense, i.e. geared to assess the
implications of alternative courses of action or alternative
scenarios regarding exogenous variables;
for instance:
8 - Project population impact on various
environmental goods
(e.g. cropland, building
areas, water resources, forests) based on scenarios of population
growth, urbanization, consumption
patterns. Illustrate potential differences arising from
alternative demographic scenarios.
All these activities are meant to produce utilizable
results in the policy making context
(i.e.
the second programme area of the Agenda 21, namely
the formulation of integrated environment and
development policies taking into account demographic trends and
factors). Specific assistance for
the latter purpose will often be valuable, mainly in the form
of:
9 - Capacity building--e.g., interdisciplinary
workshops making use of practical exercises
in formulating environment and development strategies.
10 - Support to monitoring activities, including
the methodological level
(design of
indicators, problems related to the collection of data on
population and environment in censuses
and other statistical operations).
Finally, it is worth mentioning again that the linkages
between population and environmental
change can be a valuable addition to traditional population
education themes:
11 - IEC activities addressing the general public
could derive arguments inter
alia from
those linkages, especially where the impact of environmental
degradation on people's health and living conditions is more
acutely felt. Field experiences in communication campaigns focused
on
such themes, built upon assessments of the people's perceptions
regarding environmental change, its causes and consequences, can be
utilized with profit in new contexts.
Programming at the country level should always include a
systematic assessment of needs for these various kinds of inputs to
country policies. In addition, there would be great value in
undertaking country activities, such as those suggested above, in
a coordinated manner in groups of
countries that share the same issues and therefore can benefit both
from one another's experience,
both in data collection/analysis and in applying thematic knowledge
to policy making.