Where to Begin?

Biodiversity hotspots occur throughout Africa, Asia and Latin America, as well as in many parts of the United States and other industrialized countries. Successful RH/NRM projects tend to be found in and near the tropical forests and tropical coastal ecosystems of the three major developing-world continents, in such countries as Mexico, Guatemala, Tanzania, Madagascar, Indonesia, and the Philippines. In these areas, biodiversity is exceptionally rich and opportunities remain for conserving it for future generations despite rising pressures from human activities related to growing populations and intensifying natural resource consumption.

RH/NRM projects often evolve from conservation or community development projects dealing with natural resource management when women step forward and ask for help with planning pregnancies. Conservation, community development and reproductive health NGOs can nonetheless take the initiative themselves to attempt the linkage. Most groups have found that successful projects rely on the active participation of communities and their own expressed need either for better management of their resource base, improved access to family planning and other aspects of primary health care, or some combination of all of these.

The need is not so much to educate communities about the interaction of their growing populations with their environment, though some projects stress such education. Rather, it is to identify and satisfy demand for reproductive health care coming from the community itself. Frequently, this demand emerges from efforts by NGOs committed to hearing the voices of women about their own needs and priorities. In some communities, too, the promise of improved access to reproductive health care acts as an entry point for seemingly more abstract interventions designed to improve the environment and to foster sustainable livelihoods.