Popolazione, Sviluppo e Migrazione Project 2013 2014
-
Upload
ariana-alva-ferrari -
Category
Documents
-
view
175 -
download
0
Transcript of Popolazione, Sviluppo e Migrazione Project 2013 2014
Popolazione Sviluppo e Migrazione | 2013-2014
UN Millennium Development Goal 7 Ensure Environmental Sustainability
Ariana Alva Ferrari and Jose Carlos Navarro Solis
UNIVERSITA’ DEGLI STUDI DI PAVIA
Facoltà di Scienze Politiche
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………………………1
INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………..2
OVERVIEW…………………………………………………………………….4
MDG 7: ENSURE ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY
TARGET 7A- Integrate the principles of sustainable
development into country policies and programs
and reverse the loss of environmental resources. ………………………6
TARGET 7B- Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving,
by 2010, a significant reduction rate loss. ………………………………14
TAGET 7C- Halve by 2015, the proportion
of the population without sustainable access
to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. ………………………………20
TARGET 7D- By 2020, to have achieved a
significant improvement in the lives of at
least 100 million slum dwellers…………………………………………………..24
CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………..26
WORKS
CITED……………………………………………………………………………………..27
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the progress of the Millennium Development Goal 7 of
Ensuring Environmental Sustainability since its initiation in 2000 up to this point in time. It is
important to note that environmental sustainability has many dimensions, and developed and
developing countries alike face distinct environmental challenges at every level of income to
ensure it. For this reason, we aim to expose five countries with contrasting demographic and
social indicators such as population, health, education and income. Those countries are Brazil,
China, Nigeria, Sweden and the United States of America.
1
INTRODUCTION
This report presents an overview of the 8 Millennium
Development Goals and emphasizes on the 7th
Goal of
Ensuring Environmental Sustainability and its progress
since it was introduced until now, how close it is if rom
achieving its total target and why the integration of this goal
into country policies and programs differ vastly among
particular nations.
On September 8th
of 2000 the heads of State and
Government adopted the United Nations Millennium
Declaration signed by 189 countries, including 147 heads of
State and Government. The gathering took place at the
United Nations Headquarters in New York to create a set of
time-bound targets, with a deadline of 2015 for
“Addressing extreme poverty in its many dimensions such as income poverty, hunger, disease,
lack of adequate shelter, and exclusion while promoting gender equality, education, and
environmental sustainability (United Nations Secretary-General BAN Ki-moon)” Thus
reinforcing that globalization should become a positive force not only for all people but for the
planet as well.
UN MDG to be reached in 2015
Source: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/
2
In 2002, the Millennium Project was commissioned by the United Nations Secretary General to
provide a concrete action plan to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals worldwide.
The Task Forces comprised around 250 international experts including researchers, scientists,
policymakers, and representatives of Non-Governmental Organizations, many United Nations
agencies, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the private sector. According to
the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the Task Force on Environment assembled by the
United Nations Millennium Project specifically emphasized that environmental sustainability is
key to achieving not only the Millennium Development Goal 7, but achieving all the Millennium
Development Goals. The internationally agreed framework and concrete action plan for the
world to reach Environmental Sustainability is the following:
Millennium Development Goal #7 7.A Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs and
reverse the loss of environmental resources.
1. Proportion of land covered by forest
2. CO2 emissions, total, per capita
3. Consumption of ozone depleting substances
4. Proportion of total water resources used
7.B Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving, by 2010, a significant reduction rate loss.
5. Proportion of terrestrial and marine areas protected
6. Proportion of species threatened with extinction
7. Proportion of fish stocks within safe biological limits
7.C Halve by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking
water and basic sanitation.
8. Proportion of population using an improved drinking water source
9. Proportion of population using an improved sanitation facility
7.D By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million
slum dwellers.
10. Proportion of urban population living in slums
3
OVERVIEW
Developing countries and countries with economies in transition face special difficulties
in responding to central environmental and socioeconomic challenges such as respect for
biodiversity and conservation of natural resources. By focusing on countries like Sweden, China,
Nigeria, Brazil and the United States of America, this report attempts to contrast the diverse
results obtained to achieve the Millennium Development Goal 7.
Brazil as the largest country in South America and the sixth most populated in the world,
rich in natural resources, faces many challenges to protect its diverse environment.
For centuries, China stood as a leading civilization in the arts and sciences, as the world’s
fourth largest country it faces an environmental crisis as it has become the world's largest single
emitter of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels from the country’s rapid
industrialization. Recent market-oriented China has become the country with most internet users.
Poverty-stricken Nigeria faces serious damage from oil spills and soil degradation.
Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country and is marked by significant political instability, civil
unrest and irregularities.
As the world’s most powerful nation state, the United States of America, is still a large
emitter (second in the world after China) of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels, it
also has water pollution from runoff of pesticides and fertilizers. It is the third most populated
country in the world and the third largest country in the world. .
Sweden is also a selected country, chosen as a contrasting example to follow for the
world. Sweden is the country with the biggest investment of GDP in the environmental sector.
According to the official site of Sweden, 100 million dollars have been invested and allocated
each year from 2011 to 2014 in Sweden’s environmental sector
(http://sweden.se/nature/sustainable-living/).
Each one of this five selected countries has different natural resources, economies,
traditions, and many other factors that contribute to the success of meeting the United Nation’s
Millennium Development Goal Target 7: Ensuring Environmental Sustainability.
4
Table 1: Selected macroeconomic indicators of each of the five countries:
Indicators Brazil United States
of America
Nigeria China Sweden
Income Level Upper middle
income
High income:
OECD*
Lower middle
income
Upper middle
income
High income:
OECD*
GDP (current
US$)
$2.253 trillion 2012 $15.68 trillion 2012 $262.6 billion 2012 $8.358 trillion 2012
$525.7 billion
2012
Population
(Total)
198.7 million 2012 313.9 million 2012 168.8 million 2012 1.351 billion 2012 9.517 million 2012
GNI per capita $11,630 2012 $50,120 2012 $1,430 2012 $5,680 2012 $56,210 2012
Life expectancy
at birth, total
(years)
73 years 2011 79 years 2011 52 years 2011 75 years 2011 82 years 2011
School
enrollment,
primary (%
gross)
137% 2005 102% 2010 83% 2010 113% 2011 100% 2011
Literacy rates
age 15 and over
can read and
write, both
sexes (%)
90.4% 2010 99% 2003 61.3% 2010 95.1% 2010 99% 2003
Source: World Development Indicators & https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-
*OECD: The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
5
With the realization that ecological wealth can translate into economic health,
policymakers and business leaders worldwide have begun to understand the value of protecting
ecosystems and biodiversity. The CBD reports that 45 percent of business leaders in Africa, 53
percent in Latin America, 34 percent in Asia-Pacific, and 18 percent in Western Europe consider
biodiversity loss to be a threat to economic growth. The same report estimates that the cost of
inaction on biodiversity will amount to US$2.0 to US$4.5 trillion per year over the next 50 years.
These numbers are significant, and leaders are more frequently taking ecosystem services into
account when calculating their nations’ assets.
Indicator 7.1- Proportion of Land Covered by Forest
Forests are the largest and most important terrestrial ecosystem on Earth, and they
provide fundamental goods and services on which the welfare of human society depends on.
The UN has identified
several principal areas of concern
to measure forest sustainability,
but because only a few countries
have forest monitoring systems
sophisticated enough to produce
meaningful reports on these
criteria, there is a lack of
uniformity in reporting on the
global scale. For example, some
countries count land as “forest
land” based on land use
categories regardless of whether
or not the land has any tree cover.
About a third of the world’s forests have been lost due to human activities. Large areas of
forests are cut for timber or fuel wood every year. In addition, due to the rapid growth of human
population, large areas of forests are either converted to cropland for food production or to
developed area.
Deforestation is most pronounced in tropical countries. As an example, Brazil has
reduced deforestation in the Amazon enough over the past five years to lower heat-trapping
emissions more than any other country on Earth. This success demonstrates the enormous
potential of reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation as well as conserving
and re-growing tropical forests. This international effort is also known as REDD+(UCSUSA).
TARGET 7.A
Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs and
reverse the loss of environmental resources
6
However, Brazil’s Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira
argued that “the rate of deforestation in the Amazon
increased by 28% between mid-year 2012 and mid-year
2013. The 28% rise interrupts a period of declining
deforestation which began in 2009.”
Similarly, Nigeria has one of the highest rates of
deforestation in the world, having lost around 410,100
hectares per year over the period 2005 to 2010. In response
to forest loss Nigeria’s government established protected
forest reserves in 2008, and declared a moratorium on
timber in its most forested state, the Cross River state.
Despite this effort Nigeria continues to lose its forest cover
at an annual rate of 3.5 percent (UNREDD).
Figure 1 shows the increase and decrease of forest land in each of our chosen countries.
China is adopting a series of measures to regain its lost forests such as “The Law of
Environmental Protection,” “The Forests Law,” “Regulations for Nature Reserves,” and
“Regulations for the Protection of Wild Plants.” In addition, China’s 2010 MDG report shows
that China’s total artificial forest area takes up about one third of the world total; its average
annual growth in area is 53.2 percent of the global total, the fastest growth of forest resources in
the world. We hope for China to eventually regain at least 50 percent of its lands covered with
forests since it would be crucial for the rehabilitation of its polluted air and decaying species.
0 20 40 60 80
Brazil
China
Nigeria
Sweden
USA
Figure 1- Proportion of land
covered by forest (%)
2010
2000
1990
Source: The official United Nations site for the MDG indicators
Deforestation in Mato Grasso, Brazil. Image
credit: Jeff Schamltz/NASA
7
With its forestry model1, Sweden has gone from being a country under deforestation to be
the most densely forested country within the European Union. Its efforts for forest management
started in 1923; since then the Swedish Forest Agency2 has been active. Half of all Swedish
forest land is privately owned and all forestry laws are applied to them.
The United States faced a major boom in cutting trees for lumber during the 1850s and
used a lot of wood also for energy and fences. That depletion of forests continued until 1900 at
which time the United States had fewer forests than ever. As Figure 1 shows, U.S. reforestation
efforts have been slow. The total forestland acreage has remained stable since 1900.
1 The Swedish forestry model is built on regenerating forests, so when the old forest is taken away
a new forest is established. 2 Gov. org. with the task of ensuring that the Swedish forests are managed in a way that goals for
the forest policy decided upon the parliament and the gov. can be achieved.
8
0
5
10
15
20
25
Figure 2- Metric Tons of CO2
Emmisions per capita
Brazil
China
Nigeria
Sweden
USA
Indicator 7.2- CO2 Emissions, Total and Per Capita
Source: The official United Nations site for the MDG indicators
Brazil
China
Nigeria
Sweden
USA
0 2000000 4000000 6000000 8000000 10000000
Figure 3- Total CO2 Emissions
(Thousand Metric Tons)
2010
2000
1990
Source: The official United Nations site for the MDG indicators
9
China's environmental crisis is one of the most pressing challenges to emerge from the country's
rapid industrialization. As the world's largest source of carbon dioxide emissions, China is responsible for
a third of the planet's greenhouse gas output and has sixteen of the world's twenty most polluted cities.
How bad is it? China's energy
consumption has expanded, spiking 130
percent from 2000 to 2010. In January
2013, Beijing experienced an extended
period of time of smog; the concentration of
hazardous particles was forty times the level
considered safe by the World Health
Organization. Later that year, pollution in
the northern city of Harbin shrank visibility
to less than 50 meters. Based on a 2012
Asian Development Bank report, less than 1 percent of China's 500 largest cities meet the WHO's air
quality standards.
By the same token, the United States of America is the second biggest producer of
electricity in the world (after China). Carbon dioxide emissions are mainly produced for energy
and transportation, largely due to an increase in km traveled by motor vehicles. Currently, the
U.S. has the longest road network: 6,586,610km. Population growth, economic growth, new
technologies, seasonal temperatures and Consumerism are also influential factors for the
production of CO2 in the U.S.
10
0 50000 100000 150000 200000
Brazil
China
Nigeria
European Community
USA
Figure 4- Consumption of all ozone depleting
substances (in thousand metric tons)
2011
2000
1990
Indicator 7.3- Consumption of Ozone Depleting Substances
In the 1980s scientists observed that the ozone layer was thinning over Antarctica. In
response leaders from many countries came together in 1987 to sign the Montreal Protocol on
substances that deplete the ozone layer.
As shown in Figure 4, the United States is the country that made the most progress in
reducing the consumption of ozone depleting substances (ODS). In the United States, ozone-
depleting substances are regulated as Class I or Class II controlled substances. Class I substances
have a higher ozone-depleting potential and have been completely phased out in the U.S. as
shown in the table below. Class II substances are hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), which
are transitional substitutes for many Class I substances and are being phased out now.
Section 604 of the Clean Air Act sets the phaseout targets for Class I substances. The ban
on production and import of halons took effect on January 1, 1994. The ban on production and
import of other ODS – excluding methyl bromide – took effect on January 1, 1996 as seen in
Source: The official United Nations site for the MDG indicators
11
Table 2. As a result, the United States has an impressive decrease of consumption of ODS from
1990 to 2000 as shown in figure 3.
Table 2: Elimination of Ozone Depleting Substances in the
USA (in percent reduction from baseline)
Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency www.epa.gov
12
Indicator 7.4- Proportion of Total Water Resources Used
What it measures: Proportion of total renewable water resources withdrawn is the total volume
of groundwater and surface water withdrawn from their sources for human use (in the
agricultural, municipal and industrial sectors), expressed as a percentage of the total actual
renewable water resources. The terms water resources and water withdrawal are understood as
freshwater resources and freshwater withdrawal.
0 5 10 15 20 25
Brazil
China
Nigeria
Sweden
USA
Figure 4- Proportion of total water
resources used (%)
2005
2000
1995
Source: The official United Nations site for the MDG indicators *Data for Nigeria in 1995 not available
13
According to the United Nations MDG Report 2013, there has being significant progress
since 1990 in reducing biodiversity loss and increasing the coverage of protected areas. These
are areas dedicated to safeguarding and maintaining biological diversity and natural resources,
with their associated cultural value. The importance of this target lies in the fact that these areas
produce important ecosystem goods and services that benefit local, national and global
economies.
Indicator 7.5- Proportion of Terrestrial and Marine Protected Areas
Brazil, China, Nigeria, Sweden, and the United States are all doing a great job
implementing official protection to key natural areas of their national territory, as shown in
figure 5. One of the ways in which countries can protect their lands is by declaring them national
Sweden, for example, has 29 national parks. patrimony and turn them into national parks.
Similarly, the United States has 59, Nigeria has only 8 and China has 255; and Brazil which,
with 67 national parks that constitute 12 million hectares, is the country that has declared more
land space as protected area. This was implemented by the Amazon Regional Protected Area.
Target 7.B
Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving, by 2010, a significant reduction in the rate of loss
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Brazil
China
Nigeria
Sweden
USA
Figure 5- Terrestrial protected
areas (% of total land area)
2012
2000
1990
Source: The official United Nations site for the MDG indicators
14
While understanding biome
protection at a national scale is useful,
it is also helpful to know the global
context of these protection efforts.
That is why the Terrestrial Protected
Areas are broken into two indicators
that weight the percentage of biomes
under protected status: The Terrestrial
Protected Areas (National Biome
Weight) indicator which assesses the
protection of biomes weighted by the
proportion of a country’s territory the
biome occupies, and The Terrestrial Protected Areas (Global Biome Weight) which reflects the
protection of biomes weighted by their globally proportional abundance.
The measurement of Marine Protected Areas includes areas that lie within territorial waters (0
to12 nautical miles from land) and the percentage of country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ)
(12 to 200 nautical miles) because several types of valuable marine habitats exist only in EEZs,
including deep-sea trenches, submarine canyons and seamounts.
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Brazil
China
Nigeria
Sweden
USA
Figure 6- Proportion of marine areas
protected to territorial waters (%)
2012
2000
1990
Source: The official United Nations site for the MDG indicators
15
Indicator 7.6- Proportion of Species Threatened by Extinction
Despite these signs of progress, much remains to be done to reduce global rates of
biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation. The MDGs 2012 Report shows that even with
increased protected areas, biodiversity is still being lost and key sites remain
unprotected. UNEP-WCMC’s Protected Planet 2012 Report reveals that only 33 percent of
terrestrial ecoregions, 13 percent of marine ecoregions, and 22 percent of AZE sites reach target
levels of protection.
IUCN Red List. Last Updated: 21 November 2013
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400
Brazil
China
Nigeria
Sweden
USA
Figure 7- Threatened species in each
country (totals by taxonomic group)
16
Importantly, these targets only measure the area under legal protection, but this does not
necessarily translate into effective conservation of biodiversity or prevention of species loss.
Critical Habitat Protection measures the percentage of the key
sites recognized by the Alliance for Zero Extinction (AZE) that
are located in protected areas.
Environmental Performance Index (epi.yale.edu)
17
Indicator 7.7- Proportion of Fish Stocks within Safe Biological Limits
What it Measures: The proportion of fish stocks or species that are exploited within the level of
maximum sustainable biological productivity.
This indicator is measured not by country but by statistical areas. The Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has divided the world oceans into 21
statistical areas, and stock assessment is carried out based on these statistical areas. The stock
assessment classifies fish stocks into 3 categories: non-fully exploited, fully exploited, and
overexploited. The stocks within safe biological limits are those classified as non-fully exploited
and fully exploited.
Method of computation:
This indicator is calculated as the number of fish species with a stock assessment of non-fully
exploited or fully exploited divided by the total number of fish species with a stock assessment
and multiplied by 100. This indicator is expressed as a percentage.
The maximum sustainable biological productivity is the largest yield (or catch) that can
be taken from a fish stock over an indefinite period, commonly called the Maximum Sustainable
Yield (MSY). The aim of this threshold yield is to achieve the maximum productivity of fish
resources while maintaining biodiversity and proper functioning of the relevant ecosystems for
present and future generations.
Anchovy, the most fished fish.
18
Main Fishing Countries:
China is the top-ranking fishing country in terms of quantity followed by Peru, Indonesia, the
United States of America and India. In 2011, the total catch in the United States was its highest
for 17 years.
Main Aquaculture producers:
In 2011, the top ten producers of farmed aquatic animals were China (38.6 million tons), India
(4.6 million tons), Viet Nam (2.8 million tons), Indonesia (2.7 million tons), Bangladesh (1.5
million tons), Norway (1.1 million tons), Thailand (1.0 million tons), Egypt (986 800 tones),
Chile (954 800 tones), and Myanmar (816 800 tons).
They contributed 88 percent of world production by quantity.
Developing Countries and fish trade: The share of developing countries in total fishery exports
was about 53 percent by value and 60 percent by quantity (live weight equivalent) in 2011. The
fishery net exports of developing countries (i.e. the total value of their exports less the total value
of their imports) have shown a continuing rising trend in recent decades, growing from USD11.4
billion in 1991 to USD18.1 billion in 2001 and USD34.5 billion in 2011. These figures were
significantly higher than those for other agricultural commodities such as rice, coffee and tea.
19
Indicator 7.8- Proportion of population using an improved drinking water source
Access to safe drinking water is a critical
component to human health, socioeconomic
development, and individual wellbeing. Between
1990 and 2010, more than two billion people gained
access to improved drinking water sources. As a
result, the MDG of halving the proportion of people
without access to improved sources of water was met
in 2010—a full five years ahead of schedule.
Unfortunately there is still 11% of the world’s
population or approximately 783 million people who
do not have access to improved drinking water. While China and India have made great progress
in improving access to drinking water, only 63 percent of the population in Sub-Saharan Africa
has access to an improved water source. Additionally, within countries there are often stark
disparities between urban and rural communities. At the end of 2011, 83 percent of the
population without access to an improved drinking water source lived in rural areas as seen in the
below figure 8 showing regional disparities of access to water. Globally, 768 million
people continue to rely on unimproved drinking water sources. In Brazil, it is worth noting that
usually population concentration does not coincide with water concentration. As a result many
problems arise from expanding the pipe system. There is a persistent unequal distribution
between the Southern developed region that enjoys 88% of access to water and the Urban
Northern region that only enjoys 37% of access.
TARGET 7.C
Halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water
and basic sanitation
Source: http://epi.yale.edu/our-methods/water-and-sanitation
Distinction between improved and unimproved water sources
20
FAST FACTS: ONE THIRD OF THE WORLD’S POPULATION HAS INTESTINAL
WARM INFECTIONS, 1800 CHILDREN UNDER FIVE DIE EACH DAY FROM
DIARRHOEAL DISEASES, CAUSED BY THE LACK OF HYGIENE, SANITATION AND
SAFE WATER.
Indicator 7.9- Proportion of population using improved sanitation facilities
Unfortunately, the UN MDG 2013 update, warns that, at the current rate of progress, the
2015 Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of halving the proportion of population
without sanitation will be missed by 8% – or half a billion people. While much progress has been
made to improve access to sanitation and drinking water worldwide, there are still millions of
individuals that lack these basic human rights.
Access to Sanitation measures the
percentage of a country’s population that has
access to an improved source of sanitation
and the system is considered improved if it
hygienically separates human excrement
from human contact and is not public,
meaning that it can either be private or
shared.
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Brazil
China
Nigeria
Sweden
United
States
Figure 8 -Improved Drinking Water Coverage
(%) 2010
Rural
Urban
Total
Source: The official United Nations site for the MDG indicators
21
Access to basic sanitation should not be a charitable need but a legal entitlement.
However in many countries such as India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Ethiopia and more currently live
in degraded environments. As an example, water supply and sanitation in Nigeria, the largest
African country and the continent’s biggest oil exporter, is characterized by limited access
to improved sanitation as seen in figure #. According to a WHO report on 2010, there were
approximately 34 million Nigerians who still account for open defecation, the most dangerous
sanitation practice for public health as it is related to the spread of major killer diseases such as
diarrhea. This issue led to a doubling of efforts to tackle the MDG target through the UN launch
of the Sanitation Drive to 2015. Advocates for increased political focus on sanitation, better
targeting of funding, coordinated efforts based on proven successes, involvement of communities
and individuals in decision making, and efforts to ensure that all people have access to
information and services. Again, figure 9 shows a disparity between data from rural and urban
communities in the developing countries of Nigeria, China and Brazil. On the Brazilian MDGR
(2005) concluded that in Brazil, 36 million of 180 million people do not have access to sanitation
services.
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Brazil
China
Nigeria
Sweden
United States
Figure 9 -Improved Sanitation Coverage
(%) 2010
Rural
Urban
Total
Source: The official United Nations site for the MDG indicators
22
Figure 10 shows that despite the unprecedented progress achieved since 1990, the poorest
and most marginalized people in society continue to be underdeveloped in comparison to
developed countries Sweden and the United States. Above all, Nigeria is the country with the
biggest challenge as it has not improved its access to sanitation services and thus its population is
filled with health problems. According to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable
Development held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on June 2012, in order to achieve this target and
beyond, the solution is to tackle wastewater management including reduction of pollution from
household, industrial and agricultural sources.
Source:www.gapminder.org
Source: www.gapminder.org
Figure 10- Relationship between Improved Sanitation and Human Development
23
Indicator 7.10- Proportion of urban population living in slums
As discussed in class, the problem of population growth covers a variety of population
issues including, immigration, infant mortality, family planning, the education of women,
protection for safe abortions and many more that are directly relevant to most of the Millennium
Development Goals. To illustrate issues such as the One Child Policy and the Cairo Conference
of 1994 were brought up in class. Nonetheless, for the purpose of this report, the focus will be on
the impacts of population growth in the environment.
Population growth affects every target of the Millennium Development Goal 7 because it
impacts environmental sustainability and produces environmental vulnerability. A quote from
Thomas Malthus illustrates the ongoing concern of population “The power of population is
indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man." In addition,
population growth affects migration as it influences the growth of urban slums which leads us to
the link between population growth and the growth of urban slums.
In 2001, the highest
percentages of urban residents
living in slums where found in
many Latin American countries
including Brazil with a 36.6%
of the population living in slums
(UN Habitat, 2005). The slums
refer to informal settlements
without adequate housing
conditions. Due to legal
problems, governments often
cannot provide proper
infrastructure and services in
irregular settlements. In addition, poor neighborhoods, which lack the political power to affect
such decisions, are often affected by the proximity of waste-disposal facilities, polluting
industries, and other locational health hazards. In the worst situations, there is a cumulative effect
of lack of social services and infrastructure: people may live in areas that simultaneously face
environmental risk, as well as lack of proper housing, sanitation, education, and health services
(Martine, Hakkert & Guzmán, 2002).
TARGET 7.D
By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum
dwellers
Rocinha Favela in Rio de Janeiro, around 150.000 to 300.000 people live here.
24
In Brazil, the government is known for resisting rural-urban migration and urbanization.
As result, migrants are forced to occupy marginal, ecologically fragile or dangerous lands such a
river banks or steep slopes also called Favelas. These are located most often on the periphery of
large cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Often water must be ported great distances, and
rudimentary methods of waste disposal pose health hazards. As a result of the crowding,
unsanitary conditions, poor nutrition, and pollution, disease is rampant in the poorer favelas, and
infant mortality rates are high.
Approximately 17 million houses are needed in Nigeria since the slum population in
2009 was 60 percent. By 2020, 54 percent of Nigeria’s poor will be city dwellers (as defined by
income poverty). Nigeria’s corruption and lack of enforced regulations have enabled building to
go up unchecked, for example, only 30 percent of houses in the city have an approved building
plan. In Central Lagos there are growing floating slums due to rural migration.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Brazil China Nigeria Sweden USA
Slums
2000
2010
*Data not applicable for Sweden and the USA
25
CONCLUSION
MDG 7: Ensure environmental sustainability Brazil China Nigeria Sweden USA
Target 7.A: Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country
policies and programs and reverse the loss of environmental resources.
Target 7.B: Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving, by 2010, a significant reduction in
the rate of loss.
Target 7.C: Halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to
safe drinking water and basic sanitation.
Target 7.D: Achieve, by 2020, a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100
million slum dwellers.
We believe that by 2015 these countries will
have achieved greater success in their
development as they work towards
implementing the MDGs. However, particular attention has to be paid to balance the attention between
urban and rural areas and the competing needs of the environment, society, and economy. In addition,
international aid should be sent to the poverty-stricken regions such as in Nigeria because the growing
population faces scarcity of resources and an inefficient government that becomes an ever-growing cycle
that restrains those countries, their people, and their environment from progress. Practicing
environmental sustainable development requires a combination of wise public investment,
effective natural resource management, cleaner agricultural and industrial technologies, less
pollution, and slower population growth.
Will target be met?
Already met
Good potential
Average potential
Weak Potential
26
WORKS CITED
http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/
http://www.environmentalleader.com/2013/
http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/press/07.htm
http://www.government.se
http://www.undp.org
https://www.cia.gov
www.indexmundi.com
http://data.worldbank.org
http://www.fao.org
http://overlapmaps.com
http://www.unc.edu/~csong/Song2009-ChinaForestCoverBookChapter.pdf
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-24950487
Hsu, A., J. Emerson, M. Levy, A. de Sherbinin, L. Johnson, O. Malik, J. Schwartz, and M.
Jaiteh. (2014). The 2014 Environmental Performance Index. New Haven, CT: Yale Center for
Environmental Law and Policy. Available: http://www.epi.yale.edu.
World Health Organization and UNICEF. (2013) Progress on sanitation and drinking water:
2013 Update. Available: http://www.unicef.org/was/files/jmp2013final_en.pdf
27