Population pressures contributing to environmental damage; slower population growth in developing countries needed.

Population pressures are contributing to global environmental damage. That is the main message of the 1988 State of World Population report issued in May by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

Although it admits that not enough is known of the complex relationships between population, resources and the environment, the report asserts that it is nevertheless clear that high fertility and rapidpopulation growth are contributing to the damage.

Slower growth and more even distribution of population in the developing countries would help to take pressure off agricultural lands, energy sources, vital watersheds and forest areas.

Rapid population growth, giant cities and the tide of international migration are the result of millions of decisions by individuals, the report says. Much of the damage to the resource base is also the consequence of individual decisions-to cultivate marginal land for example, to strip hillsides of trees for firewood, to graze land already showing signs of exhaustion. "But frequently the agents of destruction have little real choice, They are driven by poverty or the decisions of others", the report stresses.

Women's...