The phrase “population crisis” once roused fears of uncontrollable growth in human numbers. However, now that many societies have improved women's status and increased access to family planning, some analysts argue that if there is a population crisis it is because women are having too few children-a so-called “birth dearth.” A quick look at the demographic reality shows that the era of population growth is far from over-and high fertility rates are still prevalent in many developing countries.

Special report on Community-Based Population and Environment Programs including a list of publications and other materials.

Since 2001, the U.S. Congress has encouraged the U.S. Agency for International Development – USAID, the agency that dispenses foreign development assistance – to implement family planning and related reproductive health programs in areas where biological diversity is threatened and where species are endangered. Congress has never specified a funding level for these activities, which are supported by funds appropriated for international family planning programs, amounting to more than US$400 million annually in recent years. Over the past few years the agency has allocated between $1 million and $2 million annually to fund such projects and to explore the implications of the population-environment linkage as it applies to the conservation of critical ecosystems and the biodiversity they shelter.

How many people will live on the planet 20 years from now? Where will they live? Where will population grow, and where will it decline? Researchers at PAI and Columbia University used new methods of mapping population density and projected populations changes to create an innovative map.

The West African nation of Niger was propelled to the headlines several months ago over reports of starving and dying children amid denials by its government that the country was enduring a sustained food emergency (seasonal fluctuations in the availability of food are not unusual in the arid Sahel region, they argued). Niger is perhaps better known as the country falsely accused by the Bush Administration of selling uranium to Iraq – an issue that later became the object of the Valerie Plame scandal. But Niger is confronting a genuine scandal: one-quarter of its people are facing yearly food shortages. Meanwhile, its population is set to double in less than 20 years and contraceptive use among Niger's men and women remains at one of the lowest levels of any country in the world.

More than 850 million people worldwide are classified as undernourished, many of whom suffer from chronic hunger (also known as food insecurity). Rapid population growth is intensifying food insecurity in parts of the developing world, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa where some countries' populations are doubling and tripling every 30-50 years. Greater investments in voluntary family planning programs and supplies, including contraceptives, are urgently required to meet the needs of more than 200 million women worldwide who wish to delay or end their childbearing but do not have access to modern and effective contraceptive methods.

Filmed in Madagascar, this 9-minute documentary explores the linkages between population growth and environmental destruction in one of the world's most biologically unique places. Finding Balance profiles Voahary Salama, a local organization working to preserve the island's rainforest by integrating health and family planning into conservation efforts. This innovative approach to conservation and development addresses the needs of women in remote rural areas while offering hope for the sustainability of critical ecosystems and the biodiversity they shelter.

The term-CBPE for short-refers to the linkages between services that combine aspects of natural resources conservation or similar environmental work and the provision of reproductive health services, including family planning.

The world's forests provide goods and services essential to human and planetary well-being. But forests are disappearing faster today than ever before. Due both to deforestation and human population growth, the current ratio of forests to human beings is less thn half what it was in 1960. Yet we not only need more forests, we need forests more than ever before–to protect the world's remaining plant and animal life, to prevent flooding, to slow human-induced climate change, and to provide the paper on which education and communication still depend. More efficient consumption of forest products and eventual stabilization of human population–a prospect that appears more promising today as birthrates decline–will be needed to conserve the world's forests in the coming millennium.

Nature's Place discusses how humans can preserve Earth and all its living species through the implementation on conservation programs. Questions raised in the report include, Does human population growth really matter to species loss? And Can policies and programs significantly influence human population trends, and can they do this while upholding the basic human right of couples and individuals to make their own decisions about reproduction, free from interference?