Population, health, and the environment

Population, health, and the environment (PHE) is an approach to human development that integrates health or family planning with conservation efforts to seek synergistic successes for greater conservation and human welfare outcomes than single-sector approaches.

More than 1 billion people live in ecological hotspots, many of which are remote areas of critically important biodiversity under intense pressure from human activity. Conservation work is usually located in these remote areas to protect the remaining biodiversity. In the developing world, the communities in these remote areas often suffer from ill health because of limited access to health services or family planning. These communities also tend to suffer from poor nutrition, water supplies or sanitation. Inadequate health care in these communities is usually because of economic struggles. Livelihoods in the rural communities depend on natural resources and small-scale agriculture, which can force people to use natural resources unsustainably because of pressures such as rapid population growth or health issues. This can be damaging to ecosystems and the biodiversity in these rural areas.

Conversely, people’s health relies on the health of their environment. Their surrounding ecosystem provides them with goods and services such as water, food, medicine, fuel wood, building materials, and other resources. Damage or disruption of these natural goods and services can have severe consequences for human health.

Projects that take the PHE approach work to create healthier communities and ecosystems. These projects aim to bring better health services to remote communities to improve participation in conservation efforts. PHE projects also promote family planning services to help slow population growth that can put pressure on natural resources. That means PHE approaches strive to simultaneously improve access to health services while helping communities manage their natural resources in ways that improve their health and livelihood even as they protect the environment. Beyond this, the PHE approach also targets synergies between human health and ecosystem health by including a wide spectrum of development and conservation targets such as the sustainable management of natural resources, improving livelihoods, food security and nutrition, and by maintaining or restoring habitats and ecosystem functions. By focusing on the synergy between communities and their environment, the PHE approach conserves biodiversity while at the same time improving environmental health conditions for the local people. PHE is effective at achieving a wide range of positive results over multiple sectors.

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