Reciprocal Relations between Population and Environment

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This is a proposal to continue a unique micro·level study of the reciprocal relationships between population processes (marriage, fertility, and migration) and the environment (land usefcover, vegetation abundance and species diversity, and consumption of natural resources) in the foothills of the Nepalese Himalayas. To date analyses of these data have revealed a series of crucial insights into the overall reciprocal relationships between population and the environment. First, we find key dimensions of environmental variation do shape subsequent marital, childbearing, and migration behavior, but these population parameters also influence change and variation in land use, vegetation abundance, species diversity, and consumption of natural resources. Second, at the micro· level we find that local community context conditions the population· environment relationship, with strong effects on marriage, childbearing and migration on the one hand and land use, vegetation and consumption behavior on the other hand. Third, our investigation of the micro· level processes linked to these associations points toward variations in consumption behavior and perceptions of environmental change as key mechanisms linking population parameters and environmental change. Although these findings shape the theoretical model guiding our research, updated longitudinal data just available now provides a significant opportunity to advance research in this field.