The following are the major objectives:

"(a) To incorporate demographic trends and factors in the global analysis of environment and development issues;

"(b) To develop a better understanding of the relationships among demographic dynamics, technology, cultural behaviour, natural resources and life support systems;

"(c) To assess human vulnerability in ecologically sensitive areas and centres of population to determine the priorities for action at all levels, taking full account of community defined needs."

To reach these objectives the chapter proposes certain activities, as follows:

"5.6. Relevant international, regional and national institutions should consider undertaking the following activities:

"(a) Identifying the interactions between demographic processes, natural resources and life support systems, bearing in mind regional and sub-regional variations deriving from, inter alia, different levels of development;

"(b) Integrating demographic trends and factors into the ongoing study of environmental change, using the expertise of international, regional and national research networks and of local communities, first, to study the human dimensions of environmental change and, second, to identify vulnerable areas;

"(c) Identifying priority areas for action and developing strategies and programmes to mitigate the adverse impact of environmental change on human populations, and vice versa."

The programme area ends by suggesting a number of measures to be undertaken in the field of research, information, awareness-creation, and institutional and collaborative capacity-building.

Since its inception, UNFPA has been dealing with the concerns and priorities of this programme area. As early as 1973, the Economic and Social Council, in resolution 1763 (LIV), included among the aims and purposes of UNFPA the promotion of "awareness, both in developed and in developing countries, of the social, economic and environmental implications of national and international population problems..." Following the 1977 International Conference on Desertification hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), UNFPA funded a number of UNEP-administered posts in environmental matters. Later, in the early 1980s, UNFPA commissioned the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the IIASA to produce a major report on the "carrying capacity" of agricultural land in the developing world.

Support for family planning and maternal and child health care is an important UNFPA activity. Yet, neither family planning nor maternal and child health care can be pursued successfully without due attention to environmental conditions such as sanitation and clean water. UNFPA has placed much emphasis in its programmes on creating awareness about the links between population and environment as an important component of education in reproductive health. In response to the UNCED recommendations, UNFPA, the International Planned Parenthood Federation and the World Conservation Union has been producing a joint publication entitled "People and the Planet" which is published quarterly to reach a greatly expanded audience.

To traditional activities in the field of population and environment, UNFPA has added and gradually expanded a programme of research and policy analysis. The aims of the programme are to investigate further the complex relationships between population and environment and to integrate the findings into appropriate planning methodologies and implementation structures.