Subject: Population action
SSI members may be interested in a report recently published
by Population Action International examining the relationship
between population growth and biodiversity. "Nature's Place:
Human Population and the Future of Biological Diversity" is
now available in PDF format on PAI's website
< http://www.populationaction.org/pubs/biodiv00/biodiv_index.
htm >. SSI members can request a hardcopy of the report by
returning the order form below.

The report documents, for the first time, the historic
impact of population growth on biological diversity on a
global scale, with special attention to the current
situation in 25 "biodiversity hotspots" -- the most species-
rich and environmentally threatened areas of the world. The
report's authors, Richard P. Cincotta and Robert Engelman,
also published an analysis of population trends in the
hotspots in this week's issue of "Nature" (Human Population
in the Biodiversity Hotspots, 27 April 2000 issue, Volume
404, Page 990 ).

The report finds that the human population of 6 billion -
our geographic range, demand for natural resources, and ways
of disposing of waste - underlies and fuels the more direct
causes of recent and current plant and animal extinctions.
The report also highlights the value of sound population
policies that simultaneously improve human well-being and
brighten the prospects for conserving the majority of the
species and ecosystems with which we share the planet.

SSI is in the process of drafting the next information
update in our Population-Environment Linkages Series, which
will focus on the population-biodiversity connection and
draws in large part from the analysis in this PAI report.
Keep your eyes open for this update this summer.

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ORDER FORM FOR PAI'S REPORT, "NATURE'S PLACE"

Name:

__ Please send a hardcopy of the report to the following
address:

__ Please send a reprint of the article in Nature to the
following address:

__ I will download a copy of the report from the PAI website
< http://www.populationaction.org/pubs/biodiv00/biodiv_index.
htm >.

__ I will download a copy of the article in Nature from the
Nature web site (free registration is required by Nature;
< http://www.nature.com >).

Please return this form to ssi@ucsusa.org by Monday, May 1,
2000.

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