More than 1 billion people live in ecological hotspots, many of which are remote areas of critically important biodiversity under intense pressure from human activity.
PHE projects also promote family planning services to help slow population growth that can put pressure on natural resources.
By focusing on the synergy between communities and their environment, the PHE approach conserves biodiversity while at the same time improving environmental health conditions for the local people.
In the late 1980s conservation organizations and practitioners began to realize the benefits of improving the quality of life for people by managing biodiversity and natural resources.
One of the lessons learned from ICDP attempts was that the success of the projects depended on the ability to focus on key interventions and avoid excessive complexity.
It must be recognized that local participants are not a homogenous group of community members but differ widely in terms of access and dependency of resources, economic positions and their sensitivity to environmental changes.
Healthy families were able to develop long-term plans for sustainable land use and local women created associations that mobilized the community to increase income earning opportunities and strengthen participation in conservation activities.
The IPOPCORM Project focuses on communities in the Philippines' most endangered coastal reef areas and works to improve food security and livelihoods by promoting family planning and sustainable fisheries management.
The program had worked with local communities in order to support family planning services, sustainable agriculture, good governance, improved food production, alternative livelihoods, and environmental education.
Community-Centered Conservation Efforts in Tanzania The Jane Goodall Institute, with funding from USAID/Tanzania, constructed the TACARE project to eliminate poverty and support sustainable livelihoods, while alleviating the depletion of natural resources in the country.
Andean Highlands of Ecuador A collaborative operations research effort by CEMOPLAF, World Neighbors, and the University of Michigan's Population-Environment Fellows Program was supported by USAID.
CTPH has received recognition for having a model PHE program promoting gorilla conservation and community health and development in and around Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, SW Uganda.
[1] Several reports show that conservation organizations do not provide holistic reproductive care to families, instead focusing narrowly on birth control.
Fears of overpopulation and resource scarcity have allowed wealthy nations to wrongly blame the Global South for environmental degradation through unrestricted population growth.