permaculture

["Emily A. Noble" <guinep@theriver.com>]

Title: Biodiversity

Sorry about my hasty message re over-population......it was ill-thought through but it is an important issue.....here's a better reminder from Reuter News Service:
 Planet Ark Home pageNational Recycling WeekHumanity threatens
"biodiversity hotspots" - study
UK: April 28, 2000
LONDON - Checking humanity's unflagging expansion is the only way to
save the world's "biodiversity hotspots", a U.S. researcher said on
Wednesday.
Looking at the connection between population density and the environment
in 25 key regions and three tropical wildernesses, Robert Engelman of
Population Action International said a new approach was needed."If you
go right for the worst case scenario, it's very hard to imagine
long-term conservation of biodiversity in any of these areas if human
demands don't eventually reach a plateau," he told Reuters in an
interview."It clearly signals to conservationists that they should be
paying attention to population trends and they might even consider
taking actions that might help slow the growth of the human population."
Nearly a fifth of the world's six billion people live within the most
species-rich and environmentally threatened areas, Dr Richard Cinotta,
Engelman and colleagues at the Washington-based research and advocacy
group wrote in the latest issue of Nature.Beyond being just a
proliferation of animals and plants, biodiversity is vital for
everything from sources of medicine and climate regulation to
pollination and pest-control.Areas of rich biodiversity facing the
greatest risk include the Western Ghats/Sri Lanka, the Philippines, the
Caribbean, the Tropical Andes and Madagascar. The majority of the 25
regions and tropical hotspots straddle the poorer parts of the world.
EDUCATION THE KEYEngelman, Population Action International's vice
president of research, said there were indications that the population
growth was slowing.Equal rights to education was a key, he added."One of
the side benefits of educating girls is they tend not to get pregnant so
early in life and they tend not to have such large families," Engelman
said."We're making the further connection there that this will rebound
to the benefit of tigers and panda bears and plants and insects all over
the world over the long term."The impetus, Engelman said, must come from
cooperation between governments, non-governmental organisations and
international bodies such as the World Bank - much of it through better
coordination of existing programmes."In addition to doing the work to
conserve these species, we should all be thinking about the importance
of policies that end up slowing population growth," he said. "That's
where the hope for the permanent sustainability of these ecosystems
lies."
Story by John O'Callaghan
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE