A DEVELOPING-COUNTRIES PERSPECTIVE ON POPULATION, ENVIRONMENT, AND DEVELOPMENT

The subject of this paper is the political behavior of developing stat es (the South) on issues of population, environment and development. I t attempts to understand why the South is so weary of international po pulation policy in the name of the environment. It argues that the Sou th's response is shaped by five inter-related concerns about responsib ility, efficiency, efficacy, additionality, and sovereignty. That is, the developing countries, (a) do not want their population growth to b e held responsible for global environmental degradation, (b) argue tha t a more efficient solution to the environmental crisis is consumption control in the North, (c) believe that development remains a necessar y condition for efficacious population control, (d) are weary of the p opulation priorities of the North distracting international funds from other developmental goals of the South, and (e) are unprepared to acc ept any global population norms which challenge their fundamental poli tical, cultural or religious sovereignty. It is maintained that these concerns have historically guided the positions of the South and remai n valid and relevant today. Although, over the last two decades of Nor th-South debate on the subject the nuances within these concerns have evolved, the concerns themselves remain valid and were apparent again at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development. Fi nally, it is proposed that although a grand North-South bargain around population-environment-development issues remains unlikely, both side s can gain much from trying to understand even where they do not agree with - the other's concerns. The purpose of this study is not as much to defend the South's position, as to present it and the rationale be hind it.