WASHINGTON, July 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, World
Population Day 2019, the Washington,
DC-based international non-profit Population Institute joins
leading environmental and reproductive health organizations around
the world in supporting the launch a first-of-its-kind global
campaign: Thriving Together. It highlights the emergence of
a new, widespread consensus that removal of barriers to family
planning are critically important not only for women and girls, but
also for environmental conservation and biodiversity, and seeks
global policy changes recognizing this. Organized by the UK's
Margaret Pyke Trust, the UN-backed campaign has more than 150
participating groups worldwide.
"The existence of barriers to family planning is the most
important ignored environmental challenge of our day. This changes
now," said David Johnson, Chief
Executive at the Margaret Pyke Trust. "The Thriving Together
campaign encourages cross-sectoral support between health and
environmental conservation organizations, showcasing that when
people can choose freely whether and when to have children it is
for the benefit of both people and planet. Barriers to family
planning are not only relevant to those who are passionate about
improving health, gender equality, empowerment and economic
development, but also to those who are passionate about the
conservation of biodiversity, the environment and
sustainability."
"Gender inequality is a major contributor to high fertility
rates in many parts of the world today," said Robert Engelman, a Senior Fellow at the
Population Institute. "In addition to improving access and removing
barriers to family planning services and information, we urgently
need to boost the education of girls, eliminate child marriage, and
empower women. If we can make progress on those fronts, while also
taking action on climate change and boosting support for
conservation programs, there's reason to hope we can create
healthier families and a healthier planet."
The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity
and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) recently issued a landmark report
warning that human pressures are fast degrading nature. "The health
of ecosystems on which we and all other species depend is
deteriorating more rapidly than ever," said IPBES Chair, Sir
Robert Watson. "We are eroding the
very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security,
health and quality of life worldwide."
But according to the Population Institute, in environmentally
sensitive areas, particularly those threatened by resource
depletion, holistic approaches such as Population, Health, and
Environment (PHE) project can improve access to health and family
planning services, while also taking steps to restore the
environment and protect critical bio-habitats. This can make
communities healthier, more sustainable and, in the long run, more
prosperous.
The UN's latest population projections indicate that global
population will likely rise from 7.7 billion today to 9.7 billion
by 2050. However, future population growth is highly sensitive to
small changes in fertility. If the physical, financial,
educational, social and religious barriers to people using family
planning services were removed, fertility rates would fall faster
than currently projected.
Contact: Stephen Kent,
skent@kentcom.com, 914-589-5988
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SOURCE Population Institute