Population, land management and environmental change: the genesis of PLEC within the United Nations University programme

PLEC addresses a central issue for sustainable development In the tropical and sub-tropical parts of the world, namely the Interlinkages between population processes, land management and environmental change. The programme forms part of the United Nations University programme area entitled ‘Sustaining Global Life-Support Systems.’ The programme area responds to the United Nations Agenda 21 focusing on selected issues of sustainable development where the University has specific competence. PLEC has strong complementarity with other UNU programmes in this area, including the long standing programme on ‘Mountain Ecology and Sustainable Development’. Close collaboration has also been established between PLEC and the UNU Institute for Natural Resources in Africa (UNU/INRA) based In Ghana, which gives specific backstopping support to the PLEC Clusters in West and East Africa.