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CPD-UNFPA
Programme on Population and Sustainable
Development
Paper 2 (Summary)
Population, Development
and Environment: The Emerging Issues
Professor M. Ataharul Islam
OBJECTIVES
The population in Bangladesh has
grown to a magnitude where its sheer
size poses a formidable difficulty
for the policymakers in terms of
planning a sustainable development
for the country. Policy initiatives
focusing on education, health, industrialization,
energy and social welfare will need
to take into account not only the
prevailing population size but also
the size of the projected population
over the next forty to fifty years.
If the population concerns are not
integrated into the plan for economic
growth, problems facing the country
will multiply manifold in the near
future. Another concern that has
gained importance during the past
two decades are environmental issues.
Environmental concerns needed to
be linked with the population and
economic growth factors. It was
now of utmost priority for the policymakers
to delineate policies for sustainable
development in the light of growth
of population and environmental
degradation. This is more important
for Bangladesh where the level of
achievement in economic growth and
human resource development had continued
to remain unacceptably low and where
the rate of population growth remained
relatively high. Education and labour
force participation had close linkage
with fertility, mortality and migration,
and this nexus requires in-depth
study. Although a large number of
research works have been conducted
in the broad fields population and
economic growth, very little has
been discerned concerning the linkages
between population and economic
growth and population growth and
environmental issues. Therefore,
the main objective of this paper
is to highlight the issues concerning
the interrelationship between population
and economic growth (P-D) as well
as the relationship between the
population growth and environmental
degradation (P-E) factors.
METHODOLOGY
The interrelationships between population
and economic growth and the environmental
degradation factors have been examined
within the broad framework of PDE
approach. The theoretical developments
based on the empirical findings
of cross-national data are critically
reviewed in view of the prevailing
constraints in Bangladesh.
ALARMIST AND REVISIONIST VIEWS ON
POPULATION
The paper gives an overview of the
two schools of thought about population
and development interlinkage i.e.
the alarmist and revisionist views.
According to the alarmist view the
finite natural resources strictly
limits the growth of human population
and consumption, and when such limits
are exceeded poverty and social
breakdown will be the obvious outcomes.
On the other hand, according to
the revisionists the real problem
of scarcity can be attributed to
the maldistribution of resources
and wealth. A third view, supported
by Boserup, claims that the pressure
of population growth against natural
resource endowments is an important
source of technological transfer
in agriculture in preindustrial
societies.
SOME IMPORTANT ISSUES FOR BANGLADESH
An independent inquiry report by
the Australian government shows
that there is no strong evidence
of a relation between population
growth and global resource use for
the current generation. But there
may be a carry over effect on the
future generation because of improper
use of exhaustible resources. This
paper emphasises that this issue
needs to be researched in Bangladesh.
Issues like linkages between enrolment
in schools, population pressure
and impact of population growth
on renewable resources are worth
addressing in the Bangladesh context.
For Bangladesh where the population
size is quite high, the positive
impact of population growth is not
sufficient to offset the negative
associations in the long run. The
expenditures on health, nutrition
and education of children generally
show signs of decrease in the context
of rapid growth of population and
this can be a crucial factor in
the relationship between population
growth and economic growth in Bangladesh.
Population and Environment
According to the alarmists there
is a close link between population
growth and environment. However,
the revisionists do not believe
such an idea. The major criticism
by them regarding the P-E approach
is that although there might be
some sort of linkage between population
growth and economic growth, particularly
in the developing countries, there
is no such relationship between
population growth and environmental
problems. A 1986 report of the National
Academy of Sciences termed population
growth as the cause of resource
exhaustion, but further argued that
markets would eventually solve the
problem of population growth and
environmental degradation. Bangladesh
has been increasingly confronting
issues such as greenhouse effect,
impact of climate change, loss of
biodiversity, deforestation, air
and water pollution, energy crisis
and its impact on the population.
In addition, the country is facing
growing problems arising out of
urbanization due to rural over-population
which has contributed to the emergence
of urban slums and on floating population
which have led to a particular variety
of environmental problems such as
deteriorating living standards in
over crowded places, extensive use
of polythene, lack of safe drinking
water, drainage etc.
Population and Economic Growth
The paper demonstrates that the
relationship between population
growth and economic growth can be
explained to a great extent by the
human capital accumulation factors
of education, health and nutrition.
In other words, the improvement
in human capital accumulation factors
can reduce the rate of population
growth and can provide the necessary
impetus to improve the economic
growth of Bangladesh.
Population of Bangladesh
Bangladesh has achieved remarkable
success in family planning programmes
and thereby controlling population
growth without much change in socio-economic
conditions. FFYP, NIPHP and HPSP
initiated a new strategy to integrate
health and population programme,
which need massive restructuring
of the traditional organisational
set up. The impact of these policy
changes without any pilot test may
significantly influence the existing
level of achievement. In Bangladesh
appropriate government policies
and strategies are yet to be put
in place in order to integrate the
population concerns in the economic
growth perspective. Four important
factors associated with economic
growth - age and sex composition,
education and labour force participation
- need to be examined on a priority
basis in the context of Bangladesh.
There are 2 major issues yet to
be resolved for a smooth sustainable
development process in the country
which are (i) the heavy dependency
on the donors which makes the whole
population programme vulnerable,
and (ii) the integration of population
growth factors with the socio-economic
factors that make the whole process
more efficient and sustainable.
The paper emphasises the need for
a targeted approach to improve reproductive
health conditions by putting in
place a maternal health component
in the integrated health and family
planning service providing system,
and thought that this required implementation
on a priority basis.
Population Growth and Poverty
There is a relationship between
population growth and the extent
of income inequality. A decline
in population growth results in
a reduction in income inequality,
and leads to an increase in the
share of income for the poorest
group of the population. In Bangladesh
education has close association
with income and that large families
are likely to be poorer because
of the higher dependency burden.
Moreover, poverty is transmitted
from one generation to another as
poor families invest less in the
development of their children. The
paper suggests that the growth of
non-farm sector can be one of the
ways for reducing income inequality
in rural areas.
Population Growth and Agriculture
The experience from the agricultural
sector of Bangladesh reveals that
the country has reached a point
of maximum utilisation in terms
of potential arable land and intensity
of cropping and the only option
left is to improve the agricultural
production through modernization
of agriculture. It is also argued
that without improving the human
capital accumulation such a technological
transformation may not be feasible.
To obtain the full text of this report
please contact:
Centre for Policy Dialogue
Dialogue
and Communication Division
House No 40/C, Road No 11,
Dhanmondi R/A, Dhaka-1209
GPO Box 2129, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh
Tel: (+880 2) 8124770,9141734,9141703; Fax: (+880 2) 8130951
E-mail: cpd@bdonline.com
Price:
Tk. 50.00 (The price quoted does not
include postal charges)
Pages: 23
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