Environmental issues in project planning and design management

Environmental issues in project planning and design management

Name

MSPM 6102 - Practices in Project Management

Walden University

Discuss population dynamics and the environment (in Kenya, Africa and the world)

1.0 Introduction

According to the definition given by Karan, (1989), Population dynamics is the branch of life

sciences that studies short-term and long-term changes in the size and age composition of

1.1 Population dynamics and the environment in Kenya, Africa and around the globe

Fisher, (1991) asserts that for the natural science perspective humankind is one of the many

species competing for the resources of the biosphere. As the resources of any ecosystem are

finite, so is the latter's carrying capacity; hence, beyond a point, each additional inhabitant has a

negative impact on the productivity of resources; this in turn depresses labour productivity and

incomes. Policy-wise, this perspective leads to advocate population stabilization. At first sight, it

thus seems redundant with policy prescriptions that emphasize the need to slow down population

growth for the sake of enabling more productive investment and a higher rate of economic

growth.

Kenya has for a long time faced a major environmental challenge, for instance the population has

linkages have relevance for policy formulation in one of the three domains thus interconnected.

To save further environmental degradation, non governmental organization in Kenya like the

green belt movement that was founded and chaired by the late Nobel Laureate professor

Wangare Mathaai, formulated policies that were geared towards saving the environment. One of

the most important environmental saving policy proposed that population growth must be

stopped as soon as possible: this drastic goal is a logical consequence of explicitly raising the

issue of the scale of human interaction with the environment (and therefore of limits to economic

growth). Such a goal is not much on national agendas yet. The largely accepted policy merely

seeks a slowdown; in fact, many of its proponents concede that slow population growth helps

stimulate the economy, and they avoid addressing the long-term view and the difficult question

of an eventual upper limit to population size. The fate of natural resources and the environment

repeatedly "sustained economic growth in the context of sustainable development", but the two

concepts are mutually contradictory. In conclusion, this perspective does add a dimension to the

"population slowdown" doctrine, but it is a thorny dimension that does not necessarily facilitate

advocacy work.

This view also recommends a balanced population distribution, i.e. a more even pressure on

natural resources. It is difficult to make much of that policy-wise. First of all, the population of a

given territory can exert very different degrees of pressure on land, water, biomass, and other

resources, because those may be present in different quantities and qualities. Some concepts may

be of help here, for instance the potential population-supporting capacity .But human pressure

also depends on resource-specific patterns of use, which also vary across space, cultures etc.

pressure on rural resources). In sum, this policy recommendation is potentially very relevant, but

it requires conceptual deepening and the development of appropriate methods of analysis.

resources degradation is not necessarily a problem, since resources can be depleted at an

acceptable rate, i.e. one that allows the market to replace those resources by alternative ones for

the future efficient depletion. Excessive degradation also may happen, either as a temporary

consequence of population growth while adaptations take place or as a structural problem where

markets do not work efficiently (because some resources are not privately held and because

prices do not reflect the scarcities and sustainable values.

The policy prescription deriving from the neo-classical perspective is to give full efficiency to

the market, meaning: define and price the use of common property resources; do not subsidize

the exploitation of natural resources; and let the market, not the government, allocate resources.

In this view population policy may "buy time", but it is not a "proper solution". This perspective

and biases in technology against small peasants, are designated as culprits.

3.1 Environmental issues: Relevance of Population Dynamics

Opponents of the natural science perspective stress the static character of the model. According

to Chadha, (1991) in reality, this perspective does not ignore the role of technological change in

enabling adaptations, and therefore in accommodating more population. But in this view

technology merely "buys time": it is a temporary remedy, with increasing costs, and an

ultimately limited capacity to solve problems. Critics reply that this underrates the adaptive

capacities of humankind, and point for instance to the record of technological successes of the

last century. But, in turn, the natural science perspective asks: must we mobilize ever more

technological ingenuity and resources simply to crowd up the ecosystem with human beings?

The neo-classical perspective underrates the importance of population growth, whose place in

the theory is flawed in two manners: (a) population growth is not a one-time event, but a

continuous process: therefore, the necessary adaptations must be continuous also and their

(e.g. aquifer recharge, flood control, health protection). Indeed, private property does not

guarantee that resources will be managed with a concern for long-term sustainability.

contradicts expectations based on the mere population-resources ratio, but it also has limitations.

One of those is the rejection of a territory's carrying capacity as a significant factor in ecological

outcomes - a view contradicted by empirical data, since population/PPSC ratios are rather well

correlated with the incidence of land degradation. Another is the simplification of the poverty-

fertility linkage (there is high fertility in a number of high-income populations, while in certain

institutional and cultural contexts poverty may trigger a fertility transition).Yet another is the

neglect of the influence of population dynamics on poverty. Access to natural resources is

affected, among others, by population density: population pressure is an important and

reinforcing link in reducing that access to sectors of an agrarian population so that, while not

causing inevitably land degradation, it "may almost inevitably lead to extreme poverty when it

occurs in underdeveloped, mainly rural, countries". And inequality reduction is insufficient as a

remedy when that pressure is strong.

countries: poor households are often virtually forced to overuse natural resources for daily

subsistence. Thus, landless farmers colonize tropical forests, or cultivate highly erodible

hillsides. Rural households in fuel wood-deficit countries strip foliage and burn crop and animal

residues for fuel rather than using them for fertilizer and this contributes to desertification.

Underemployed men in coastal villages overexploit already depleted inshore fisheries". But this

view seems to be an illusion caused by the fact that the damage caused by the poor - unlike that

caused by the affluent - is immediately visible at their doorsteps. The poor possess neither fields

nor livestock. Since they have no access to land, they cannot degrade it overall, "consumption

and waste per person is also lowest among the poorest ... all in all, the poor probably tread

lightest of all upon the earth, and do less damage to the environment than any other group. They

economic or social analysis and offers no guidance on key possible policy variables and linkages

between those.

growing population; outside market demands; the nature of agricultural activities; or

institutional, social and economic conditions which lead to the extraction of surpluses from the

land managers, forcing them in turn to extract from the resources more than is sustainable. Such

conditions may be: heavy tax or tribute; very low wages; denial of access to CPRs; low

commodity prices due to state intervention or market distortions; indebtedness; and so on.

In this context, population factors appear both as part of the basic conditions within which the

socio-economic system operates (population density with regard to resources) and of the forces

that affect its patterns of change (population growth, urbanization, migration). Density is relevant

to the level of direct pressure on resources; population growth and urbanization affect the volume

of market demands; urbanization absorbs land, and is conducive to biased pricing policies; a

Population dynamics must be taken into account, and it must be regarded as more than an

exogenous variable: two-way linkages between population change and other elements of the

system must be recognized. A systemic view of the "linkages" is therefore needed. This being

said, what specific, self-standing policy recommendations can we reasonably sustain?

References

Delhi.

Denniston, Derek. High Priorities: Conserving Mountain Ecosystems and Cultures. World

Watch Paper 123. World Watch Institute: Washington DC.

Desai, Mamata. Eco-System and Ethnic Constellation of Sikkim Netaji Institute for Asian

Studies -- Monograph Series Best Books: Calcutta, India.

Gilmour, D.A. and E.J. Fisher, 1991, Villagers, Forests and Foresters. Sahayogi Press:

Kathmandu, Nepal.

Gurung, Harka, 1982. The Himalaya: Perspective on Change. New Era:Kathmandu, Nepal.

Karan, Pradyumna (1989), Environment and Development in Sikkim Himalaya: A Review.

Human Ecology.