Strengthening research on population, environment and development interactions

This strategy features in the framework of Agenda 21 as formulated at UNCED (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), now coordinated by the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development and implemented through national and local authorities.

Agenda 21 recommends that:

1. Governments, in collaboration with the national and international scientific community and in cooperation with international organizations as appropriate, should intensify efforts to clarify interactions between and within social, economic and environmental considerations. Research should be undertaken with the explicit objective of assisting policy decisions and providing recommendations on improving management practices.

2. Better modelling capabilities should be developed which would identify the range of possible outcomes of current human activities, especially the interrelated impact of demographic trends and factors, per capita resource use and wealth distribution, as well as major migration flows which may be expected with increasing climatic events and cumulative environmental change that may destroy people's local livelihoods.