PreviousThis is the old United Nations University website. Visit the new site at http://unu.edu
Dr. Harold Brookfield
Department of Anthropology
Division of Society and Environment
Research School of Pacific and Asian
Studies (RSPAS)
The Australian National University
Canberra, Australia
Dr. Richard A. Meganck
Director United Nations Environment
Programme
International Environmental Technology
Centre (UNEP/IETC)
Osaka, Japan
Dr. Janet Henshall Momsen
Department of Applied Behavioral Sciences
University of California
Davis, USA
Dr. Shunji Murai
Institute of Industrial Science
University of Tokyo
Tokyo, Japan
Dr. Ryutaro Ohtsuka
Department of Human Ecology
School of International Health
Faculty of Medicine
University of Tokyo
Tokyo, Japan
Ms. Akiko Ono
Japan Wildlife Research Center
Tokyo, Japan
Dr. Christine Padoch
Curator
Institute of Economic Botany
The New York Botanical Garden
New York, USA
Dr. Kanok Rerkasem
Research Scientist
Multiple Cropping Center
Faculty of Agriculture
Chiang Mai University
Chiang Mai, Thailand
Dr. Graham Sem
Lecturer
Department of Geography
The University of Papua New Guinea
Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
Dr. Michael Stocking
School of Development Studies
University of East Anglia
Norwich, United Kingdom
Dr. Juha I. Uitto
Academic Officer
The United Nations University
Tokyo, Japan
Agricultural development that is environmentally, socially, economically, and culturally sustainable is essential for food production for the increasing world population, and the very future of mankind. The issues pertaining to the so-called population-environmental nexus are at the heart of the current debate on sustainable development. It is argued that while on a global scale population growth is one of the main driving forces of environmental change, there are significant local variations in the interrelationship between people, food production, and environmental change.
This publication is based on the UNU Global Environmental Forum, which brought together leading scholars from both the South and the North to address the issues of population, land management, and environmental change. The authors draw extensively upon field research carried out in the tropical and subtropical regions of South-East Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Amazon. The topics covered include the need to conserve biological diversity in managed agricultural ecosystems; indigenous knowledge in sustainable management of biological and land resources; the role of women; and participatory approaches to rural development. It is realized that a large part of the problem of conservation of biological diversity lies outside of the protected areas, in agricultural areas where rapid population growth, commercialization of the economy, and other production pressures have led to often detrimental changes in the production processes and the environment. It is argued that indigenous production systems are often highly adaptive to the local ecological and socio-economic conditions, and can be sustainable if given the chance.
UNUP-956
ISBN 92-808-0956-3
01500 P