About the authors

Thomas Barton is a medical doctor and anthropologist who has been involved in community participation and community organization for almost 30 years. He is an eclectic, problem-solver pragmatist, firmly committed to a belief that people working together can make their lives more satisfying and their surroundings a better place to be. Currently he is a partner in the Creative Research and Evaluation Centre (CRC), a consulting firm based in kampala, Uganda, and working widely in Africa.

Grazia Borrini-Feyerabend holds a doctorate in physics and a masters in public health. Her interests lie mostly with processes of local organizing and partnership development in the areas of health, population dynamics and natural resource management. She is currently the Head of the IUCN Social Policy Group. her experience includes research, training, policy development and writing in public health and sustainable development (primary environmental care). She has had the opportunity to work with people of many cultures.

Alex de Sherbinin holds a masters degree with a specialization in population-environment interactions. He is currently a University of Michigan Population-Environment Fellow with the IUCN Social Policy Group. Previously he worked as a population geographer with the Population Reference Bureau in Washington, D.C., and as an agricultural extension agent with the Peace Corps in Mauritania, West Africa.

Patrizio Warren is a development anthropologist. He carried out extensive field-research on the medical system and the human ecology of the Shuar-Achuar people of the peruvian and Ecuadorian Amazon. He has also collaborated in participatory action research and training projects in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Currently he works as a consultant on participatory methods for the Forestry Department of the United nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

About the organisations

This publication has been made possible by special funding from UNFPA and funding of general social policy activities in IUCN by DANIDA (Danish International Development Agency). See also Disclaimer.

IUCN - The World Conservation Union

Founded in 1948, The World Conservation Union brings together States, government agencies and a diverse range of non-governmental organizations in a unique world partnership: 895 members in all spread across some 137 countries. As a Union, IUCN seeks to influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve the integrity and diversity of nature and to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable. A central secretariat coordinates the IUCN programme and serves the Union membership, representing their views on the world stage and providing them with the strategies, services, scientific knowledge and technical support they need to achieve their goals. Through its six Commissions, IUCN draws together over 6000 expert volunteers, project teams and action groups, focusing on species and biodiversity conservation and the management of habitats and natural resources. The Union has helped many countries to prepare National Conservation Strategies, and demonstrates the application of its knowledge through the field projects it supervises. Operations are increasingly decentralized and carried forward by an expanding network of regional and country offices, located principally in developing countries.

IUCN Social Policy Group

Caring for the Earth, the IUCN basic policy statement, recognizes that people are most likely to care for natural resources when they are enabled to assess their own initiatives, maintain a sound degree of control over the natural resources and 'development' process and when, by protecting the environment, they also manage to satisfy their needs. Promoting the social conditions for this to happen, in full cooperation with the IUCN membership and constituency at large, is the central task of the Social Policy Group.

IUCN Tel. ++41 22-999 02 74
Social Policy Group Fax. ++ 41 22-999 00 25
Rue Mauverney 28 e-mail: sub@hq.iucn.org
CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland website: http://www.iucn.org/themes/spg/

United Nations Population Fund

UNFPA extends assistance to developing countries, countries with economies in transition and other countries, at their request, to help them address reproductive health and population issues, and raises awareness of these issues in all countries, as it has since its inception in 1969. UNFPA's three main areas of work are: to help ensure universal access to reproductive health, including family planning and sexual health, to all couples and individuals by the year 2015; to support population and development strategies that enable capacity-building in population programming; to promote awareness of population and development issues and to advocate for the mobilization of the resources and political will necessary to accomplish its areas of work.

UNFPA is guided by, and promotes, the principles of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (Cairo, 1994). In particular, UNFPA affirms its commitment to reproductive rights, gender equality and male responsibility, and to the autonomy and empowerment of women everywhere. UNFPA believes that safeguarding and promoting these rights, and promoting the well-being of children, especially girl children, are development goals in themselves. All couples and individuals have the right to decide freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of their children, as well as the right to the information and means to do so.

UNFPA is the lead United Nations organization for the follow-up and implementation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development, and recognizes that all human rights, including the right to development, are universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated.