Population news from September
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POPULATION MATTERS SUPPORTERS' UPDATE
SEPTEMBER 2021
Director's message
This has indeed been a season of 'mellow fruitfulness' for PM, with the
team and our partners raising our profile worldwide. The only organisation
explicitly addressing population at the IUCN Congress in Marseille at the
start of September, PM’s pre-event spadework ensured IUCN’s Europe
Programme acknowledged population as a key driver of biodiversity loss:
_"The current societal production and consumption patterns, especially in
the Global North, including the EU, coupled with a growing human
population, have exceeded our planetary boundaries and accelerated the
biodiversity crisis."_
PM highlighted World Contraception Day (26 September) and Safe Abortion Day
(28 September), and the sobering fact that hundreds of millions of women
are still unable to use safe family planning; a lack of access worsened by
Covid. This is further proof of the value of our partnerships with groups
working in some of the hardest-hit, least-resourced communities, such as
Komb Green Solutions. Active in Nairobi’s Korogocho slum, Komb Green
provide family planning advice and practical support, making the links
between smaller families and their consequent economic and environmental
benefits (see their brilliant 'billboard' below).
In another creative venture, PM materials are part of the education
'toolkit' underpinning the cross-Kenya outreach for the award-winning film
The Elephant Queen [3]. A converted Bedford truck with an on-board
solar-powered cinema is "taking the Elephant Queen back to the children of
Kenya". Supported by the Kenyan Government, the film will reach 100,000
children in a country where 45% of the population is under 16. PM's logo is
on the side of the truck, alongside other leading conservation
organisations.
- Robin Maynard, Director, Population Matters
NEWS FROM POPULATION MATTERS
Safeguarding rights, empowering communities
Grassroots providers of sexual and reproductive health services continue to
face unprecedented challenges in ensuring access to contraceptives and
comprehensive abortion care for the world’s most vulnerable women and
girls. Population Matters’ Empower to Plan Coordinator, Catriona
Spaven-Donn, explains what we are doing to help.
Read more [4]
Talking population at the World Conservation Congress
From 3-10 September, we attended the World Conservation Congress of the
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in Marseille, France.
The Congress brought together thousands of people from diverse sectors to
discuss the state of nature and how it can be protected. Senior Campaigner
Andrew Howard reports how PM made its presence felt, and how we ensured the
recognition of population growth as a key driver of biodiversity loss.
Read more [5]
POPULATION
How far will global population rise? Researchers can't agree
This _Nature_ news feature provides a good overview of the most
authoritative recent population projections, as well as their limitations,
and explains the difficulty of predicting future population size.
Read more [6]
Lower birth rates are good for economies
In this article for _The Overpopulation Project,_ Jane O'Sullivan and
Susann Roth lay out the economic and social benefits of ending population
growth.
Read more [7]
ENVIRONMENT
More than half of all tree species could face extinction
A comprehensive new assessment of the conservation status of all trees
reveals that 30-60% of species are at risk of extinction, mainly due to
habitat destruction for agriculture.
Read more [8]
EU farmland squeezing out wild species
A recent study shows the continued conversion of land to agriculture to
feed growing populations in Europe will have devastating impacts on
important species like wild bees, plants and earthworms.
Read more [9]
WOMEN'S RIGHTS & SEXUAL HEALTH
The long road to equality
This powerful infographic from UN Women shows how far away we still are
from achieving global gender equality. World leaders must accelerate
efforts to empower women and girls.
Read more [10]
Partha Dasgupta: aid cuts "very disappointing"
PM Patron and renowned economist Sir Partha Dasgupta criticised the UK
Government’s cut to overseas family planning aid. His independent review
on biodiversity specifically called for the advancement of women's rights
and family planning. We've been lobbying the Government on this issue also
- you can join our call to reverse the devastating aid cuts here [11].
Read more [12]
TAKE ACTION
Countdown from 30
There are only 30 days until COP26, the critical climate change conference
in Glasgow, and just 30 years for us to implement the positive changes we
need to save our planet. If you haven’t already, please give to our 30th
anniversary appeal and make a better future possible.
Donate now [13]
Quote of the month
_"The global slowdown in population growth rates is not a transitory
demographic problem: it signals important durable successes. It has
encouraging implications for climate change and the environment. Couples
are having fewer children in an increasingly urbanized world while men and
women pursue education, employment and careers and live longer than ever
before."_
- Joel Cohen & Joseph Chamie in N-IUSSP [14]
135-137 Station Road, London E4 6AG, UK
Registered company no 3019081, Charity 1114109
© 2021 Population Matters
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