Carrying Capacity

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Carrying Capacity
Concept
Human life depends on healthy ecosystems which supply life-sustaining resources and absorb wastes. However, current growth and consumption patterns are placing increasing stress on ecosystems. Environmental degradation, biodiversity loss, deforestation, and the breakdown of social and economic systems are a few of the signs which indicate that ecosystems are stressed.
Ecosystems threatened by overharvesting and/or overwhelmed by more wastes than can be absorbed lose resilience (ie. the ability to absorb shocks and disturbances) and may suddenly break down and/or settle into a different system with less reilience. This implies there are thresholds at which the levels of stress will lead to the disruption of the system. One concept used to understand these critical limits and thresholds is carrying capacity which assumes that there are a finite number of people who can be supported without degrading the natural environment and social, economic and cultural systems and, as such, "is an indirect measure of the maximum level of stress that the ecosystem can maintain". ( Barbier, Burgess and Folke 1994).
Given the interaction of ecological, economic, and social factors the disruption of ecosystems will have economic and social consequences. Also, fundamental changes in the economic and social subsystems will lead to changes in the ecosystem. However, there is a general lack of knowledge regarding ecosystem functioning and ecological limits to economic and social activity (ie. carrying capacity) and this has led to a greater acceptance of the precautionary principle* and its use to guide policy and action.
*Definition of the Precautionary Principle
Asserts there is a 'premium' on a cautious and conservative approach to human interventions in the natural environment where our understanding of the likely consequences is limited and there are threats of serious or irreversible damage to natural systems and processes. (As noted by Myers 1993 in Barbier, Burgess and Folke 1994, 172).

Related "Hot Topic" Lists:

SECURITY and ENVIRONMENT

Books and Articles
Asian Development Bank Office of the Environment. Population pressure and natural resource management : key issues and possible actions. ADB environment paper no. 6. Manila: ADB, 1991. 40 p.
Barbier, Edward B. (ed) Economics and ecology: new frontiers and sustainable development. London: Chapman & Hall, 1993. 205 p.
Contents: (Selected): Ecological economic systems analysis (Costanza); Sustainable agriculture: the trade-offs with productivity, stability and equitability (Conway); Economic and ecological carrying capacity: applications to pastoral systems in Zimbabwe (Scoones); Tropical forests and biodiversity conservation: a new ecological imperative (Swingland); Optimal economic growth and the conservation of biological diversity (Barrett); The viewing value of elephants; Ecology and economics in small islands: constructing a framework for sustainable development.
Abstract: Illustrates the extent to which economic thinking applied to natural resource management can be influenced by ecological perspectives and vice versa, using an applied technical approach and case studies.
Barbier, Edward B., Joanne C. Burgess and Carl Folke. Paradise lost: the ecological economics of biodiversity. London: Earthscan, 1994. 267 p.
Contents (selected): Ecological and economic implications of biodiversity loss; Ecological and economic perspectives: convergence or divergence; Driving forces for biodiversity loss - population pressure, economic incentives, institutions, culture and ethics; Instruments and tools for biodiversity conservation; policies and institutions for biodiversity conservation.
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Boserup, Ester. The conditions of agricultural growth: the economics of agrarian change under population pressure. Toronto: Earthscan Canada, 1965. 124 p.
Brown, Lester R. and others. Saving the planet : how to shape an environmentally sustainable global economy. Worldwatch environmental alert series. New York: W.W. Norton, 1991. 224 p.
Contents: The shape of a sustainable economy (The efficiency revolution, Building a solar economy, Reusing and recycling materials, Protecting the biological base, Grain for eight billion, A stable world population); Instruments of change (From growth to sustainable progress, Better indicators of human welfare, Reshaping government incentives, Green taxes; Banking on the environment).
Abstract: Main thrust is how to create a vibrant world economy which does not destroy the ecosystem on which it is based. Spells out the major restructuring of energy systems, tax systems, industrial and developing economies, and international aid that would promote the shift to a sustainable society.
Brown, Lester R. and Hal Kane. Full house : reassessing the Earth's population carrying capacity. Worldwatch Environmental Alert series. New York: Norton & Company, 1994. 261 p.
Brown, Lester R. (comp.) State of the world : a Worldwatch Institute report on progress toward a sustainable society. Washington, DC: Worldwatch Institute.
Contents (selected): (1994 edition) Carrying capacity : earth's bottom line (Postel); Facing food insecurity ( Brown).
Contents (selected): (1995 ed.): Nature's limits; Protecting oceanic fisheries and jobs; Sustaining mountain peoples and environments; Creating a sustainable materials economy; Facing China's limits; Leaving home (refugees, migration and population).
Caincross, Frances (ed.).Costing the earth: the challenge to governments, the opportunity for business. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1992. 341 p.
Contents: Growth and sustainable development; Costs and benefits; Where governments fail; Making polluters pay; Energy efficience; conservation; Internatonal environmental management; The Challenge to companies; The green consumer; Waste Disposal; Recycling; Cleaner processes; Environmental management; Industry and the global environment.

Clay, Daniel C and others. Population and land degradation. EPAT/MUCIA working paper no.14. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin-Madison EPAT/MUCIA Research & Training, 1994. 24 p.
Cleaver, Kevin M. and others. The population, agriculture and environment nexus in Sub-Saharan Africa. Agriculture and rural development series no.1. Washington, D.C.: World Bank Africa Region, 1992. 206 p.
Connelly, Matthew and Paul Kennedy. " Must it be the rest against the west? " Atlantic Monthly (December 1994): 61-91.
Costanza, Robert (ed.). Ecological economics: the science and management of sustainability. New York: Columbia University Press, 1991. 525p.
Contents: Book is divided into three major parts following an introductory chapter: Goals, agenda, and policy recommendations for ecological economics; Developing an ecological economic world view; Accounting, modelling and analysis; Institutional change and case studies.
Cruz, Maria Concepcion. Population growth, poverty, and environmental stress: frontier migration in the Philippines and Costa Rica. Washington, DC: World Resources Institute, 1992. 92 p. : maps

Daily, G.C. and P.R. Ehrlich. "Population, sustainability, and Earth's carrying capacity: a framework for estimating population sizes and lifestyles that could be sustained without undermining future generations." BioScience 42: 761-71.
Daly, Herman E. and John Cobb.For the common good: redirecting the economy toward community, the environment and a sustainable future. 2nd.ed. Boston: Beacon Press, 1994. 534 p.

Daly, Herman E. and Kenneth N. Townsend (eds.). Valuing the earth: economics, ecology, ethics. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1993. 387 p.
Contents (selected): Ecology: ultimate means and biophysical constraints (Daly and Townsend); Why isn't everyone as scared as we are? (Ehrlich and Ehrlich); The entropy law and the economic problem Georgescu-Roegen); Exponential growth as a transient phenonmenon in human history (Hubbert); The tragedy of the commons (Hardin); Second thoughts on the tragedy of the commons (Hardin); Ethics: the ultimate end and value constraints (Daly and Townsend): Sustainable growth: an impossibility theorem (Daly); Using economic incentives to maintain our environment (Tietenberg); The steady-state economy: toward a political economy of biophysical equilibrium and moral growth (Daly).

Dasgupta, Partha S. "Population, poverty and the local environment." Scientific American, February 1995 : 40-45. New York: Scientific American, Inc., 1995. 6 p.
De Sherbinin, Alex. Population and consumption issues for environmentalists : a literature search and bibliography prepared by the Population Reference Bureau for the Pew Charitable Trusts' Global Stewardship Initiative. Washington, D.C.: Population Reference Bureau, 1993. 25 p.
Dompka, Victoria. "Environment and the United Nations World Population Conference." Journal of Environment and Development 4 (Winter 1995): 155-169.
Abstract: While some work had been done on the linkages between human populations and the environment, the United Nations International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) represents the most significant impetus yet for galvanizing government and nongovernmental policy, campaign and field activities on this complex and timely issues. The real challenges now lie with government and nongovernmental follow-up and ICPD implementation. Outlines policy and programs that need to undertaken in several areas.
Durning, Alan Thein. How much is enough: the consumer society and the future of the earth. Worldwatch environmental alert series. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1992.
Contents (selected): Conundrum of consumption; The consumer society; The environmental costs of consumption; The myth of consume or decline.
Ehrlich, Paul R. and Anne H. Ehrlich. The population explosion. New York: Touchstone/Simon and Schuster, 1990. 320 p.
Engelman, Robert. "Imagining a stabilized atmosphere : population and consumption interactions in greenhouse gas emissions." Journal of Environment and Development 4 (Winter 1995): 111-140.
Abstract: The roles of both population and personal consumption have been difficult to address in analyzing the causative factors in human-induced climate change. Argues that if population growth is considered in the context of a global effort to stabilize atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases equitably, its importance emerges in a new light. Seen this way, population growth in both developing and developed countries adds to the pre-existing and considerable momentum of greenhouse-driven climate change itself. As population rises per capita atmosphere-stabilizing emissions fall, further restricting the sustainable use of fossil fuels on an individual basis. This relationship is best illustrated in a hypothetical industrial carbon dioxide emissions trading regime, which could be negotiated through the Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Engelman, Robert and Pamela Leroy. Conserving land : population and sustainable food production. Washington, D.C.: Population Action International, 1995. 48 p.
Engelman, Robert. Stabilizing the atmosphere : population, consumption and greenhouse gases. Washington, D.C.: Population Action International, 1994. 48 p.
Friends of the Earth Netherlands. Action plan: sustainable Netherlands. Amsterdam: Friends of the Earth Netherlands, 1992. 186 p.
Contents (selected): Environmental space as a concept for sustainable development; Sustainable consumption in the Netherlands; The role of government in a sustainable Netherlands; The use of environmental resources, government and social democracy.
Geping, Qu Li and Li Jinchang. Creating space in a sea of people: China's struggle to control its population and environment. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1994. 217 p.
Ghimire, Krishna B. Linkages between population, environment and development : case studies from Costa Rico, Pakistan and Uganda. Geneva: United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, 1993. 118 p.
Girvan, Norman P. and David A. Simmons (eds.) Caribbean ecology and economics: [thirteen selected papers from the conference]. St. Michael, BB: Caribbean Conservation Association, 1991. 431p.
Conference: Caribbean Conference on Economics and the Environment (1989 : Barbados)
Contents: Economics and the environment in the Caribbean: an overview (Girvan); Balancing the budget between nature and society: environmental considerations in economic activity and waste management (Singh); Notes towards an environment economics (Daly); The environment and sustainable development: the economic contribution (Barbier and others); A sustainable ecological economic development model (Everitt and others); Environmental resources in national income accounting (Repetto); Project appraisal: evolving applications of environmental economics (Dixon); The role of economic analysis/policy in sustainable development: a market incentive approach (Pantin); Natural disasters: linking economics and the environment with a vengeance (Vermeiren); Tourism styles and policy responses in the open economy-closed environment context (McElroy and Albuquerque); Theoretical and empirical issues in non-priced valuation of environmental resources: water development projects in Guyana (Braithwaite); Conflicting claims on the Antigua coastal resources: the case of the McKinnons and Jolly Hill salt ponds (Albuquerque); An approach to economic evaluation of tropical wetlands: with examples from Guatemala and Nicaragua (Barbier); Economic aspects of the Point Lisas case study (Manwaring and McShine).
Grant, Lindsey. Elephants in the volkswagen : facing the tough questions about our overcrowded country. New York: W.H. Freeman, 1992. 272 p.
Contents (selected): Land, energy, and water: the constraints governing ideal U.S. population size (David and Marcia Pimental): Balancing humans in the biosphere (Costanza); Optimal city size and population density for the twenty-first century (Spear and White); The cornucopian fallacies; How to get there from here: the demographic route to optimal population size ( Bouvier); Escaping the overpopulation trap (Costanza).
Harrison, Paul. The third revolution : environment, population and a sustainable world. London: I.B. Tauris, 1992. xi, 359 p.
Contents: (Selected): Prologue in the forest: Musoh, Malaysia; ; Bounded in a nutshell: the new limits to growth; The fall of a sparrow: the passing of biiological diversity; The paragon of animals: Ranomafana, Madagascar; Grinding of the ax: deforestation; Abatements and delays: forest adjsutments; Sterile promontory: land degradation; A little patch of ground: living on the margin; Quintessence of dust: Kalsaka, Burkino Faso; The interim is mine: Abidjan, C"t� d'Ivoire; The quick of the ulcer: the environmental impact of cities; The drossy age: monuments in solid waste; A sea of troubles: polluted waters; A congregtion of vapors: air pollution and climate change; Sorrows come not single spies: Hatia Island, Bangladesh; We defy augury: options for action; If it be not now, yet it will come: towards the third revolution. Appendix: Measuring population impact, Hamlet sources
Abstract: Shows how, using the analogy of Hamlet only having half an hour to live when he finally killed Claudius, population growth, rising consumption and damaging technologies combined to trigger the biggest environmental crisis in human history
Holling. C.S. New science and new investments for a sustainable biosphere. Gainesville, FL: The Author, 1993. 30 p.
Hynes, Patricia H. Taking population out of the equation : reforming I=PAT. North Amherst, MA: Institute on Women and Technology, 1993. 59 p.
Contents: (Selected): Humanism and environmentalism; Military and environment; Agency in IPAT: Women and men and power; Feminists and population: a cautionary tale; Implications for public policy
Abstract: Analyses the I=PAT equation that has framed population and environmental policy and proposes a new model which deletes population from the equation and replaces it with structural causes of environmental degradation, which then removes women as subjects or objects of population policy
International Fund for Agricultural Development Technical Advisory Division. Technical issues in rural poverty alleviation: staff working paper series. Rome: IFAD, 1992.
Contents: no.1 Rural poverty and environmental degradation in Latin America. no.2 Natural resource management and agricultural productivity in sub-Saharan Africa (Carrying capacity). no.3 Policies for sustainable agriculture. no.4 Sustainability, marginal areas and agricultural research. no.5 Sustaianble development systems for small farmers: issues and options. no.6 Strategies for developing a viable and sustainaable agricultural sector in sub-Saharan Africa: some issues and options. no.7 Issues of sustainabiltiy in agricultural development in Asia. no.8 Sustainability of small farms in West Asia and North Africa. no.9 Sustainable development in famine prone areas: approaches and issues. no.10 Sustainability in irrigated agriculture. no.11 Towards strengthening the range/livestock research and extension capabilities of the national institutions in the Near East and North Afirca. no.12 Environment and rural poverty alleviation: an exmination of the case for grant financing. no.13 Plant genetic diversity and small farmers: issues and options for IFAD. no.14 Rural poverty alleviation and nutrition: IFAD's evolving experiences. no.15 Poverty reduction, sustainable agriculture and the project cycle.
International Organization of Consumers Unions. Consumers and the environment: proceedings of the IOCU Forum on Sustainable Consumption, Rio de Janeiro 4 June 1992. Penang, Malaysia: International Organization of Consumers Unions, 1992. 83 p.
Contents (selected): The reality of Southern Lifestyles and consumption patterns; A perspective of Northern lifestyles and consumption patterns; Overview of sustainable consumption and environmental space; The limits of green consumerism; The prospects of green consumerism.
International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. [Papers, agenda, and documentation]. Gland, CH: IUCN, 1990.
Conference: IUCN General Assembly (18th : 1990 : Perth, Australia)
Contents: (Selected) Workshop on human population dynamics and resource demand; Workshop papers : The environmental implications of global change; An historical perspective of sustainable wildlife utilisation .
Jansson, AnnMari (ed.).Investing in natural capital: the ecological economics approach to sustainability. Covelo, CA: Island Press, 1994. 504p.
Contents: Perspectives on maintaining and investing in natural capital; Ecological economic methods and case studies on the significance of natural capital; Environmental management and policy implications; Adjusting economic, technical, socio-political, and cultural systems.
Jorgensen, S.E. Fundamentals of ecological modelling. 2nd. ed. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1994. 628 p.
Contents (selected): Concepts of modeling; Ecological modeling, submodels; Conceptual models; Modeling in practice; Static models; Modeling population synamics; Dynamic biogeochemical models of terrestrial ecosystems; Application of ecological models in environmental management; Recent developments in ecological and environmental modeling.
Kessler, J.J. "Usefulness of the human carrying capacity concept in assessing ecological sustainability of land-use in semi-arid regions". Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 48(1994) : 273-284.
Liaison Committee of Development NGOs to the European Committee and Network Women in Development Europe. The European NGDO debate on population and development : report on WIDE-LC Seminar..., February 21-22, 1994. Brussels: WIDE, 1994. 68 p.
Abstract: Seminar discussion and report in preparation for the ICPD
McConnell, Robert L. "The human population carrying capacity of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed : a preliminary analysis." Population and Environment : a journal of interndisciplinary studies 16 (March 1995): 335-351.
Meadows, Donella H. The limits to growth : a report for the Club of Rome's Project on the Predicament of Mankind. New York: New American Library, 1972. 207 p.
Meadows, Donella H, Dennis L. Meadows, and Jorgen Rander. Beyond the limits: confronting global collapse envisioning a sustainable future. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1992. 300pp.
Contents: The driving force: exponential growth; The limits: sources and sinks; The dynamics of growth in a finite world; Back from beyond the limits: the ozone story; Technology, markets, and overshoot; Transitions to a sustainable system; Overshoot but not collapse.
Mink, Stephen D. Poverty, population, and the environment. World Bank discussion papers no.189. Washington, DC: World Bank, 1993. 40 p.
Notes: Background paper for the 1992 World Development Report: Development and the environment. Includes bibliographical references
Moffatt, I. and others. "Measuring and assessing indicators of sustainable development for Scotland: a pilot survey." International Journal of Sustainable Development and World Ecology 1 (1994): 170-177.
Abstract: Reviews three broad classes of indicators of sustainable development. These are economic, ecological and sociopolitical indicators. Reports on the results of a pilot study which measured five difference indicators for Scotland: an approximate environmentally-adjusted Net National Product; the Pearce-Atkinson Measure; Net Primary Production; Appropriated Carrying Capacity; and the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare. We find that not all indicators point in the same direction, but a majority suggest that Scotland is at best only marginally sustainable. Data limitations, however, suggest a degree of caution in the interpretation of these results.
Mwalyosi, R.B.B. "Population growth, carrying capacity and sustainable development in Southwest Masailand." Journal of Environmental Management 33, no. 2: 175-187.
Myers, Norman. Population, resources and the environment : the critical challenges. New York: 154 p. : maps
Ness, Gayl D.and others (eds). Population-environment dynamics: ideas and observations. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 350 p.
Contents: Includes bibiliographical references & index. Section I: Global perspectives: history, ideas, sectoral changes, and theories; Section II: The state as actor: population-environment dynamics in large collectivities; Section III: The state as environment: population-environment dynamics in small communities; Section IV: Emergent ideas: theory and method.

Ness, Gayl D. Population and the environment: frameworks for analysis. EPAT/MUCIA working paper no.10. Madison, WI: University of Michigan EPAT/MUCIA Project, 1994. 36 p.
Abstract: Examines major ways of thinking about the population-environment relationship over the past two centuries. The paper begins with Malthus and reviews developments to the present. Then it examines in detail six current frameworks or models for analyzing population-environment relationships. A basic finding of these models is that population growth can have a major impact on the environment. However, the impact is never simple and direct, and human organization always moderates its effect. Further, we cannot expect that slowing population growth will alleviate environmental pressures in the near term. Finally, achieving sustainable development will require a combined attack on population growth, consumption, and a variety of other human patterns of production.
Ophuls, William and A. Stephen Boyan, Jr. Ecology and the politics of scarcity revisited: the unraveling of the American dream. New York: W.H. Freeman and Company, 1992. 379 p.
Contents (selected); Ecological scarcity and the limits to growth; The science of ecology; Population, food, mineral resources, and energy; Deforestation, the loss of biodiversity, pollution, the management of technology, and and overview of ecological scarcity; The politics of scarcity; Ecological scarcity and international politics.
Parikh, Jydi. Consumption patterns: the driving force of enviromental stress. Bombay: Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, 1991. 12 p.
Pearce, David and Jeremy J. Warford.World without end: economics, environment and sustainable development.New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Pimentel, David and Carl W. Hall (eds). Food and natural resources. Toronto: Academic Press, 1989. 512 p.
Contents: (Selected):Loss of biological diversity and its potential impact on agriculture and food production; Water use in agriculture; Water scarcity and food production in Africa; Agricultural chemicals: food and environment; Natural gas as a resource and catalyst for agroindustrial development; Population, food and the economy of nations; Environment and population: crises and policies; Population growth and the poverty cycle in Africa: colliding ecological and economic processes; Food and fuel resources in a poor rural area in China.
Population Action International. Sustaining water : population and the future of renewable water supplies. Washington, D.C.: Population Action International, 1993. 56 p.
Abstract: The report analyzes the per capita annual availability of renewable fresh water in 149 countries, covering almost all the earth's land surface. The report examines population-to-water ratios in 1955, 1990 and 2025. Based on this analysis, the report concludes that per capita availability of renewable fresh water is falling dramatically around the world, driving many countries beneath key benchmarks of water stress and scarcity.

Rapport, David J. Ecosystem health: exploring the territory. Draft. (s.l.): The Author, 1994. 22 p.

Rees, William E. " Ecological footprints and appropriated carrying capacity : what urban economics leaves out. " Environment and urbanization 4(1992): 121-129.
Rodda, Annabel. Women and the environment. Women and world development series. London: Zed Books, 1994. 180 p.
Contents: (Selected): Looking at the environment (Natural environment, Socio-cultural environment, Main environmental issues); Role of women (Women as users; Collectors of fuel, food and fodder, Women as water collectors and carriers, Women as consumers, Women as producers, Women as workers in the formal and informal sectors, Women as managers, Women and population); Effect of the environment and its degradation (Basic needs in rural and urban environments, Environmental disasters, Women's health, Socio-economic implications); Women as agents of change (Work of the Green Belt movement); Case studies and project implementation (Women's use of forest resources in Sierra Leone, People, pumps and agencies: the South Coast Handpump Project); Guarari Community Development Project, Samitis of Bankura; Participatory development planning for sustainable development with women's groups in Kenya; Gender, class and use of forest resources, Strategies for planning and some research issues.
Abstract: Explains the world's major environmental issues as it impacts on women, focusing on their roles as users, producers and managers of the earth's resources.
Ryan, John C. Life support: conserving biological diversity. Worldwatch paper no. 108. Washington, D.C. Worldwatch Institute, 1992. 62 p.
Scientific American. Managing planet earth : readings from Scientific American magazine. New York: W.H. Freeman, 1990. 146 p. : ill.
Contents: Managing Planet Earth; The changing atmosphere; The changing climate; Threats to the world's water; Threats to biodiversity; The growing human population; Strategies for agriculture; Strategies for energy use; Strategies for manufacturing; Strategies for sustainable economic development (MacNeill); Towards a sustainable world; How to secure our common future (Brundtland)
Stycos, J. Mayone. Population and the environment : polls, policies, and public opinion. EPAT/MUCIA working paper. No.15. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin EPAT/MUCIA Project, 1994. 28 p.

Taylor, Ronnie. Poverty, population and the planet. Luton, GB: Friends of the Earth 1992. 28 p.
Contents (selected0: Global population growth predictions; Regional enviromental impact of population growth; Causes of population growth; Integrated solutions to population growth; Global environmental impact of rapid population growth; Consumption, waste and technology - whose responsiblity really?

Therivel, Riki and others. Strategic environmental assessment. London: Earthscan, 1992. 181 p.
Note: Discussion of sustainability and carrying capacity in Chapter 7 - Strategic environmental assessment and global futures.
Tiffen, Mary and others. More people, less erosion : environmental recovery in Kenya. Toronto: John Wiley and Sons, 1994. 311 p.
Contents: (Selected): Machakos then and now; Akamba social institutions; Household farming and income systems; Technological change; Population growth and environmental degradation: revising the theoretical framework.
Turner, B.L. (ed.) The earth as transformed by human action : global and regional changes in the biosphere over the past 300 years. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990. 713 p.: maps
Contents: (Selected): Changes in population and society; Transformations of the global environment (Land, Water, Oceans and atmosphere, Biota, Chemicals and radiation); Regional studies of transformation (Tropical frontiers, Highlands, Plains, Populous south, Populous north); Understanding transformation
United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. Sustainable development : changing production patterns, social equity and the environment. Santiago: ECLAC, 1991. 146 p.
Contents: The world environment: current challenges and their background; Sustainability of development: beyond natural capital; Economic and environmental policies; Population and natural resources; Poverty and sustainble development; Technical progress, competitiveness and sustainable development; Institutions and sustainable development; Financing and sustainability; Environmental sustainability, international co-operation and the global list of environmental priorities
United Nations. Population, environment and development : proceedings of the United Nations Expert Group Meeting on Population, Environment and Development, United Nations Headquarters, 20-24 January 1992. New York: United Nations Publications, 1994. 285 p.
Notes: Convened as part of the substantive preparations for the International Conference on Population and Development, 1994
Conference: International Conference on Population and Development (1994 : Cairo)
Contents: (Selected): Another look at population and global warming (Birdsall); Significant impacts of population growth on economic development and the environment in China (Li); Population, environment and development: a water perspective (Falkenmark); Population pressure and land degradation in developing countries (Cruz); Environmental consequences of different patterns of urbanization (Benneh); Environmental impact on migration and on the spatial redistribution of the population (Thiam); Population, natural resources and development interactions: issues for the 1990s (Van den Oever); Population, environment and sustainable development (ESCAP); Environmental implications of rapid urban population growth, unemployment and poverty: the large metropolis in the Third World (International Labour Organisation); The role of non governmental organizations in creating awareness of population and environment interrelation (International Planned Parenthood Federation)
United Nations. Report of the International Conference on Population and Development. New York: UN, 1994.
Conference: International Conference on Population and Development (1994 : Cairo)

United Nations Population Fund. Population, resources and the environment: the critical challenges. New York: United Nations Population Fund, 1991. 154 p.
Contents (selected): Population impacts on environment, natural resources and quality of life; Population carrying capacities: seven case studies; Policy responses.

van den Bergh and C.J.M. Jeroen. " A framework for modelling economy-environment-development relationships based on dynamic carrying capacity and sustainable development feedback." Environmental and Resource Economics 3 : 395-412.

Wackernagel, Mathis and William E. Rees. How big is our ecological footprint : a handbook for estimating a community's appropriated carrying capacity : discussion draft. Vancouver: UBC Department of Family Practice, 1993. 106 p.
Contents: Ecological sustainability; Calculating the appropriated carrying capacity of households and municipalities; Data sources for assessing the appropriated caarrying capacity of an average Canadian citizen; Tables and figures rlating to ACC analyses
Abstract: Provides the background and technical data for executing rough Appropriated Carrying Capacity (ACC) estimates, with a particular focus on municipalities

Wackernagel, Mathis. How big is our ecological footprint? Using the concept of appropriated carrying capacity for measuring sustainability. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Task Force on Planning Healthy and Sustainable Communities, 1993. 8 p.

Western, S. "Carrying capacity, population growth, and sustainable development: a case study from the Philippines." Journal of Environmental Management 27, no. 4: 364-367.

Wetzel, Kurt R. and John F. Wetzel. "Sizing the earth: recognition of economic carrying capacity." Ecological Economics 12 (January 1995): 13-21.
Abstract: Argues that the biophysical properties of a finite earth and the realities of economic transformation determine the economic carrying capacity of our planet. Economic carrying capacity takes the form of maximum global economic welfare derivable from the sustainable throughput flows of the ecosphere. This is fleshed out by development of a welfare return curve plotted as a function of economic scale; the latter is measured by entropic throughtput. The economic-ecological connection is made by employing the Ehrlichs' equation, PAT=Impact, as the dual entity being measured on the abscissa. This curve shows an initial acceleration which eventually flattens, reaches a maximum (carrying capacity) and is followed by declining welfare. The shape of this curve is determined by the rising costs associated with the ecosystemic impact of increasing throughput rates as required by a growing economy. The primary thrust of the argument is that not only are economic scales that exceed throughtput sustainability definitionally impossible to maintain in the long run, but because of declining welfare, they are not even desirable in the short run. Historical movement along this curve is discussed, relfecting growth in the global economy. An analysis of rising impact costs and the serious mistake of advocating growth to meet these costs is given, employing the notion of a social trap. Also investigated are several additional causes and likely results of pending economic overshoot. Among these are inter-generational penalties of reduced welfare potential from a planet degraded by economic overgrowth. Several overshoot avoidance prescriptions are offered as well as a discussion of stasis and contraction.

The World Commission on Environment and Development. Our common future: the report of the World Commission on Environment and Development. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987. 400 p.
Contents: Known as the "Brundtland Report". The mandate of the World Commission on Environment and Development was to formulate "a global agenda for change" and Norway's Gro Harlem Brundtland was asked to chair the Commission in November 1983. The final report was presented to the UN General Assembly in 1987.
World Resources Institute, United Nations Environmental Programme and United Nations Development Programme. World resources: a guide to the global environment 1994-95: people and the environment - resource consumption, population growth, women. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Internet Sources
icpd.general
General discussion and the exchange of documentation in preparation for the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development.
Network Host: APC Network

International Institute for Sustainable Development. International Conference on Population and Development (Cairo). Winnipeg: International Institute for Sustainable Development. Online. Internet. Available: .
International Conference on Population and Development (Cairo)
International Institute for Sustainable Development. Sustainable consumption and production. Winnipeg: International Institute for Sustainable Development. Online. Internet. Available:
Sustainable Consumption and Production

Journals and Newsletters
Carrying Capacity Network. Clearinghouse bulletin. Washington, D.C.: Carrying Capacity Network.

Independent Commission for Population and Quality of Life. Population and Quality of Life Independent Commission [newsletter]. Paris: The Commission.
International Society for Ecological Economics. Ecological economics. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science B.V.
Population & environment: a journal of interdisciplinary studies. New York: Human Sciences Press.
Population Reference Bureau, Inc. Global stewardship. Washington, DC: Population Reference Bureau.
Organizations
Carrying Capacity Network
Works to provide a unifying perspective which recognizes the iterrelated nature of environmental degradation, population stabilization, resource conservation, growth control, and quality of life issues.
Phone: 202-296-4548 (Washington, D.C.)
Independent Commission for Population and Quality of Life
Strives for the elaboration and adoption of policies and programmes which flow from the principles and preoccupations of enhancing the autonomy and responsbility of women and men in their reproduction decisions, incorporating the notion of "quality of life" in its widest meaning, emphasising a multi-dimensional approach that takes account of the numerous and complex interactions between demographic changes, socio-economic developments and environmental transformations, and investigating the ethical dimensions of population questions.
Phone: 33-1-45.68.45.72 (Paris, France)

International Organization of Consumers Unions
Federation of consumer organizations dedicated to the protection and promotion of consumers' interests worldwide through research, information and education. Links the activites of 174 consumer organizations in 67 countries and represents the consumer interest at international fora. Major focus is on the particular contribution the consumer movement can make to sustainable consumption.
Phone: Director-General's Office - 44-71-8659006 (London, England)

Date posted: June 1, 1995
Compiled by Marlene Roy, Project Officer, International Institute for Sustainable Development. email: mroy@iisdpost.iisd.ca.
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